亲爱的安妮：我发现，您的栏目一直没有提到过这个问题，但我想，被这个问题困扰的人肯定不止我一个。大约六个月前，我得到了目前这份不错的新工作，带领一支由18名软件开发人员和设计人员组成的团队。一切都很顺利，除了一件烦心事。在那些最具才华的下属中，有一位非常难相处，脾气也让人难以捉摸。所有人都束手无策的时候，他总能有绝妙的创意，提出一流的解决方案。此外，我们最受欢迎的两款产品也都来自于他的创意。

    但是，他从来不关心项目期限，对别人的创意也总是不屑一顾。而且，他经常专注于自己的工作，缺席了许多次会议，结果导致他经常对公司的其他事情一无所知。我想留住他（在八年时间里，他已经换过四次工作，而且我知道有其他公司对他觊觎已久），可他那种不受约束的行为对整个团队没有好处。我该如何让他与团队其他成员融洽相处呢？——困惑的老板

    亲爱的DB：听起来，你遇到的就是那种典型的、桀骜不驯的高效能（或ＨＭＨＰ）员工。这是高管教练凯瑟琳•格雷厄姆•里维斯对该类员工的称呼。她说：“这类人通常是有远见、有大局观的思想者。他们是独立生产者，非常要强，但却不关注过程，只关注结果。一旦他们在脑海中勾勒出自己想要的结果，他们就会义无反顾地努力实现，从不管这样会给队友们带来什么样的影响。”

    里维斯经营着一家职场辅导公司XBInsight，主要业务便是为《财富》500强公司（Fortune 500）和美国国家橄榄球联盟（National Football League，NFL）驯服那些桀骜不驯的高效能员工。这家公司开发了一款专有工具，用来评估员工（和管理者）的哪些行为需要改进，如何改进。此外，里维斯还出版过的一本书——《如何驾驭桀骜不驯的员工》（High-Maintenance Employees: Why Your Best People Will Also Be Your Most Difficult…and What to Do About It），或许对你会有所帮助。

    里维斯表示：“借助适当的管理，这类员工的价值绝对不可估量。幸运的是，他们很容易接受指导。有一件事是此类人格类型所不能忍受的，那就是失控的感觉。只要你让这类员工意识到其行为导致了问题的出现，他们就会重新找回状态。”具体应该怎么做呢？

    1.建立一致的流程与准则。里维斯认为：“如果没有既定的流程，恃才傲物员工就会自己创造一套流程，”而这则会造成混乱。另外，不能把流程的决定权交给这类员工，就算他们可能会尝试这么干。相反，要将设计项目结构和最终期限等任务交给“真正擅长，并且更有条理、按部就班的团队成员”。

    2. 向恃才傲物的员工分配他们可以自由支配的任务。这样可以将这类员工超级自负的性格转变成整个团队的优势。里维斯表示，因为这类员工希望在工作中打上自己的烙印，并且“他们通常都是技术达人”，所以，每一个项目中，凡是能够让他们发挥最大潜力的部分，都可以放手交给他们全权负责。

    Dear Annie: I've never seen this problem addressed in your column, but I can't be the only one struggling with it. About six months ago, I got this great new job leading a team of 18 software developers and designers, and everything's going great, with one exception. One of our most talented people is also the most difficult and unpredictable. He has terrific ideas and often comes up with elegant solutions to challenges that have other people tearing their hair out. He's also the brain behind two of our biggest hit products.

    However, he's not at all interested in project deadlines, he's dismissive of other people's ideas, and he's so absorbed in his own work that he misses a lot of meetings, so he's never quite up to speed with the details of what's going on. I want to keep him here (he's already changed jobs four times in eight years, and I know for a fact he gets other offers all the time), but his prima donna act is bad for the whole team. How can I get him to play well with others? — Baffled Boss

    Dear Baffled: Ah. Sounds like a textbook example of what executive coach Katherine Graham Leviss calls a high-maintenance high-performance (or HMHP) employee. "These people tend to be visionary, big-picture thinkers. They're independent producers, and they're very driven, but they're not process-oriented. They're focused on results," she says. "Once they have a mental image of the outcome they want, they go after it without regard to how what they're doing affects teammates."

    Leviss runs XBInsight, a coaching firm that specializes in taming HMHPs for Fortune 500companies and the National Football League. The company has developed a proprietary tool for assessing where and how employees' (and managers') behavior can improve. Leviss also wrote a book you might want to check out called High-Maintenance Employees: Why Your Best People Will Also Be Your Most Difficult…and What to Do About It.

    "HMHPs are tremendously valuable if properly managed," Leviss says. "And luckily, they're highly coachable. One thing this personality type can't stand is feeling out of control. So once you create an awareness of the problems an HMHP's behavior is causing, he or she is likely to feel a sense of urgency about getting back on top."

    How do you do that?

    1. Set up consistent processes and guidelines. "If there's no process in place, HMHPs will create their own," says Leviss -- and that can lead to chaos. But don't let an HMHP determine what the process is going to be, even though he or she will probably try. Instead, assign designing the structure of a project, including deadlines, to "more methodical, step-by-step team members who are good at that."

    2. Assign them tasks they can "own." This is largely a matter of turning an HMHP's outsized ego to your, and the rest of the team's, advantage. Since these are people who want to put their own stamp on their work -- and since "they're usually highly technically proficient," Leviss notes -- put them in charge of the part of each project where they can shine the brightest.