Welcome to Friday 411, issue #121. In 4 minutes, with 1 insight and 1 action, you’ll deal with that 1 challenging team member.
1 Insight:
Your team can’t grow if you let one person choke the life out of it.
Almost every leader has one — that team member who somehow makes the entire team worse. At first glance, it may not be obvious. They’re smart. Or likable. Or a top performer.
They’ve got just enough good qualities to seem like they’re a contributor.
But underneath? They’re choking the life out of your community.
We call them Kudzu Team Members.
If you’re not from the south, kudzu is a vine that looks healthy—green, fast-growing, full of life. But it’s actually deadly. Kudzu smothers everything it touches. Trees. Buildings. Entire hillsides. It spreads fast, takes over, and suffocates everything beneath it.
It looks life-giving. In reality, it destroys.
That’s what Kudzu Team Members do, too.
Your response to them, as a leader, could make or break your team.
Identifying Kudzu Team Members
Think about your team for a moment. There are seven common types of Kudzu Team Members:
- The High Performer Everyone Hates: They bring in results but make teammates miserable.
- The Low Performer Everyone Loves: Nice but ineffective—others carry their weight.
- The Yes Person: Always agreeable, never honest.
- The Passive-Aggressive Person: Smiles in meetings, sabotages afterward.
- The Coaster: Promotes work/life balance but never goes beyond the bare minimum.
- The Drama Magnet: Spreads gossip under the guise of sharing information.
- The Autocrat: Holds a leadership position but acts like a dictator.
For a more extensive overview of these seven types of team members, click here.
When you read this list, it’s easy to question why leaders might keep these team members around. We’ve heard countless leaders vent about their Kudzu Team Members, following up with a long list of reasons why they haven’t addressed the problem.
Most of those reasons (let’s be honest, they’re excuses) are rooted in something tricky: they care about the person.
Are you like that, too? Do you want to believe the best of your people and give them your best?
- You convince yourself that the person’s heart is in the right place.
- You worry about hurting their feelings.
- You tell yourself it’s not that bad.
But if you fail to deal with your problem people, they will eventually choke out the rest of the team.
What Kudzu Team Members Do to Your Team
Here’s what happens when you let kudzu grow unchecked:
1. They create frustration and resentment.
When a team member rolls their eyes in meetings, or disappears when the hard work begins, or gets away with constant negativity, it wears on your people. Eventually, your best workers give up on you dealing with it and start looking for the exit.
When one person leaves, you don’t just lose one team member. You increase everyone else’s exposure to the problem person. Now the Kudzu Team Member takes up even more space, and the ratio of healthy to unhealthy has tipped deeper in the wrong direction.
2. They damage your credibility.
Team members won’t say it to your face, but they notice when you avoid tough conversations. Over time, they stop trusting your leadership. If you let one person violate the values, people wonder why they should bother modeling them.
You might think you’re keeping the peace. But you’re actually eroding trust.
3. They cause sideways energy.
Every Kudzu Team Member creates extra work.
You waste time:
- Explaining their behavior
- Defending their performance
- Justifying their role
- Cleaning up messes
- Running interference
- Performing emotional damage control
All of these tasks expend energy but none move the vision forward.
That’s not leadership; it’s babysitting.
4. They end up in control.
One of our favorite leadership books shared this insight: the most dysfunctional person on a team often holds the most power.
If you’ve ever changed your plans or adjusted your leadership style to avoid upsetting one specific person, you know this is true.
They might not have the title, but they’ve taken over the team. And you let them.
The Only Way to Handle Kudzu: Character
Dealing with a Kudzu Team Member doesn’t start with a performance improvement plan. It starts with you. In order to handle the hard thing, you need Leadership Character. Two character traits will help you show that you really care for the entire team — including the Kudzu Team Member.
1. Courage
Let’s be honest: you’re a little scared. You’re afraid:
- If you confront the drama magnet, the office will blow up.
- If you fire the high-performing jerk, your numbers will dip.
- If you correct the low-performer everyone loves, the rest of the team will revolt.
You might be right.
But your fear might be misdirected.
What if not dealing with them costs you talented team members? What if the real problem isn’t what might happen but what already is happening?
Courage doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. It means you stop letting fear lead your decisions.
2. Kindness
Being nice and being kind are not the same. Imagine you’re getting ready to step on stage to address a group. Your zipper is down, but you don’t know it.
A nice person won’t tell you because they’re afraid it would embarrass you.
A kind person will alert you, sacrificing their own comfort to save you from embarrassment.
Nice says what people want to hear.
Kind says what people need to hear.
Nice does what feels good in the moment to the detriment of the future.
Kind does what feels uncomfortable in the moment to the benefit of the future.
Letting someone’s behavior destroy your team isn’t kindness.
Kindness may mean holding them accountable, coaching them up, or letting them go.
But whatever it is, it’s not avoiding the issue and hoping it works itself out. Kudzu never removes itself. It must be rooted out.
1 Action:
Name your Kudzu Team Member. Then deal with them. Don’t let one person hold your whole team hostage.