Brilliant Jerks

Product Information

Ten years later, Mia drives nights in Manchester, Sean is recruited as the brightest new programmer and Tyler moves onto yet another new future. There cannot be two sets of rules in the workplace — one for superstars or high-potentials, and the other for everyone else. Unfortunately, in my coaching work, I regularly see situations where accountability isn’t spread uniformly across the group. For managers choosing not to deal with the brilliant jerk, recognize everyone is watching you and judging you on your handling of the situation. These jerks appear outrageous because of their awkward behaviour. Most times, we as managers use our autocratic leadership approach to deal with them in the name of bringing about a change in behaviour. My late father once told me that behaviour cannot be changed but can be modified. If we attempt this simple and common suggestion of modifying behaviour rather than attempting to change them, then the untapped potentials in these jerks can be tapped to fullest utilised before we hurriedly exit them. Hazel Low’s minimalist set and the absence of costume changes reinforce the flawed if fast-paced transition between scenes depicting a single mother in Scotland on the breadline and a West Coast tech founder in full, self-destructive flow. Yet the evening does supply a short, satisfying look at modern life and work and while I wasn’t exactly “super pumped” by Brilliant Jerks, reviving Charlton’s work is more often than not worth the ride. However, it also means that when people aren’t being the best version of themselves, they have the ability to drag everyone down with them. Where the culture was a fertile pasture where great ideas flourish, almost overnight it becomes a toxic wasteland where ambition and vision dies.

This serves to encourage, or at least does not discourage, brilliant jerks’ efforts to change. That brilliant jerks are undergoing a leadership developmental process also sends a very strong positive message throughout the company that the brilliant jerks are working on themselves and stakeholders should do so, as well. If there isn’t clear and tangible evidence of performance improvement over a predetermined period, HR leaders must move swiftly to performance management and potentially contract termination. This is always a difficult decision to make, but they must remain strong and not be seduced by destructive brilliance. What is stopping the brilliant jerk from seeing that their toxic behavior is counterproductive? It’s their underlying fear, which triggers them into the fight mode when faced with a threat. It’s a threat to their insatiable need for status and recognition. The coach’s role is to provide insights that widen the brilliant jerk’s array of behavioral responses to any perceived threat. Step 3: Empathizing About Boss Awareness Brilliant jerks understand that to obtain the good graces of their bosses, they need to have a deeper understanding of how they function. The by-product of this process starts to develop the brilliant jerk’s understanding of and empathy for others. However, just because brilliant jerks begin to understand their bosses better does not mean they now can adapt their leadership appropriately to the many different stakeholders. For that, the brilliant jerk needs to evolve to the next level of complexity, which brings us to the next step. Step 4: Expanding Their Stakeholder Awareness After indicating all of Pat’s actions to attempt to change Joe — or at least help him change — the group dissects Pat’s behaviors and finds this manager guilty of perpetuating the situation over several years and allowing toxic behaviors to continue without consequences.Joseph Charlton’s Brilliant Jerks, upgraded from an earlier version in 2018’s VAULT Festival, is not specifically about Uber, although the parallels between it and the play’s unnamed company are clearly there. Three separate strands follow a trio of characters at very different echelons of the corporate structure. Sean Delaney’s Sean is a software developer flung into the chaos of developing app systems that are growing exponentially to cater for the company’s exploding user base. Layers above him, company CEO Tyler (Shubham Saraf) has his own struggles to deal with, as does Kiran Sonia Sawar’s Mia, at the bottom of the ladder as a driver in Glasgow, battling with her own demons just as working for the company seems to offer her a path towards stability. Brilliant Jerks began life a few years ago when I was working as a journalist. The play is about the beginning of the end of the tech boom era… This play is about the people behind the tech. It's about a driver, a coder, and a CEO - and what unites or divides those people all working for one company, but living very disparate lives,” said writer Joseph Charlton. These jerks appear outrageous because of their awkward behaviour. Most times, we as managers use our autocratic leadership approach to deal with them in the name of bringing about a change in behaviour. My late father once told me that behaviour cannot be changed but can be modified. If we attempt this simple and common suggestion of modifying behaviour rather than attempting to change them, then the untapped potentials in these jerks can be tapped to fullest and utilised before we hurriedly exit them. Now that the bright but difficult leader has gained new insight into their behaviors and what triggers them, it is time to educate them to better understand someone that they consider important. Usually it is their boss. When you have a Brilliant Jerk you need to have a difficult conversation. Hopefully, you have a trusting relationship with this employee. In the best case, you earned the benefit of the doubt with this employee. The most important thing you can have as a C-level executive is benefit of the doubt. At some point, you’ll need it.

In many organizations, managers face a nearly impossible situation for dealing with brilliant jerks. In one organization I worked with, managers are required to invest a year or more documenting behaviors before gaining support for termination. In some cases, the manager is practically presumed guilty until proven innocent. Joe is a hit-creator. Isn’t firing him like Apple firing Steve Jobs or the Boston Red Sox trading Babe Ruth? Do you want to be the manager who fires Jobs or makes that trade?All of the cast step into multiple roles, playing parts in each character’s story, and they do this with aplomb. Notably strong work with accents and body language from all three alongside sympathetic lighting ( Rachel Sampley) let the audience easily keep up with each change of character, while the sound from Annie May Fletcher moves us from car to nightclub to office with ease. Hazel Low’s set is a simple circular desk in the shape of the company’s logo (having more than a passing familiarity with Uber’s logo). With three stools, this works as a car, as office space and for the cast to walk and talk directly to the audience. The next assessment pillar is an employee’s contribution to the team, which measures the degree to which they seek opportunities to elevate their teammates’ impact and overall team performance, take a team-view when solving problems, and foster an environment of trust and belonging. This play examines the tech industry and a particular ubiquitous app from all angles. It is an interesting and debatable choice to let the app founder (Shubham Saraf) have the last word on stage and the many ethical qualms thrown up by this keenly observed piece leaves plenty of fodder for a post-show debrief. We share documents internally broadly and systematically, so people can read and often comment on them—including memos on each title’s performance, our strategy decisions and product feature tests. There are some leaks, but the value of highly-informed employees is much greater.

First, it’s important to know what characteristics define a difficult or abrasive leader, whom I prefer to call a brilliant jerk. They have a bevy of behaviors that are quite unappealing. Among them: Because this play – taking stage at the Southwark Playhouse throughout March – takes pains to artfully skirt around any mention of its inspiration by name, instead referring to the idea (“Tap a button. Get a ride.”) and the notion that it’s based on the creation of “a multi-billion-dollar app, which you might even use to get home afterwards…”. Joe’s superpower is his ability to translate his deep knowledge of customer operations into requirements that engineers use to create software solutions. Joe is a hit-creator whose products are largely responsible for his business unit’s rise to market leadership. Unfortunately, in the words of many of his team members, “Joe is a jerk and almost impossible to work with.”My conclusions in the past have reflected those of leaders whom I respect. They include listening closely to what is going on; beginning an intervention with the offender early on; providing an opportunity for attitude improvement, possibly with the engagement of a counselor or coach; and then terminating in a timely fashion the employee who is unable to change. Are brilliant jerks merely driven by personality traits as moulded by upbringing? Are they a product of a corporate culture where excessive internal competition is encouraged? It could likely be a combination of these, along with a clueless or helpless top leadership. Dream team members take informed risks, which require courage and encouragement from leaders and peers. We have many successes and failures, which is how we learn and why everyone is evaluated on their whole record (versus simply mistakes or bets that didn’t pay off).