Dealing with Divas: A Delicate Dance of Team Dynamics

Top athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?

Gwande from Personal Best.

When most people think of the word diva, they think of a talented female singer who makes sure in her contract that only green M & M's appear backstage when she gets through with rehearsal. But in reality, many high performers in your school, organization, or business can take on diva like traits as well. If coached poorly, divas can drain an organization's energy. Empowered and coached effectively, divas can elevate an organization to incredible heights. Thus, a delicate dance is necessary when dealing with diva dynamics.

When I joined 2Revolutions awhile back, I was quickly amazed at two things. First, the sheer amount of talented, passionate, and empathetic folks we had on staff was inspiring. Second, I noticed we also had a few divas - the author of this blog probably the closest to Mariah Carey himself.

Over the past few years, we've been able to collaborate, commensurate, and coexist through a few tactics that I call "Dancing with Divas". I share these as you assemble and work with your own teams of high performers as lessons learned. Moreover, I offer them as suggestions for how to optimize your work place and truly help everyone "Do what they love for good".

Dance Lesson #1: Divas Need a Mic or a Stage

When you work with talented folks, you need to empower them with a project, a presentation, or a lead solo on something. This is where divas shine. They can have many gaps, but get them in a room and they'll carry it. Divas are often not concerned with details so you'll have to take them through a few rehearsals, but a patient mentor can coach a diva on things that they'll need to know before the dance. Where to step? Where the spotlight is bright or dim? Which partners to avoid? All of this is critical for the diva who tends to be very good at improvising. When you find out you are dealing with a diva - resist the urge to lead them. Rather, enjoy coaching them.

Dance Lesson #2: The Spotlight Brings out Blemishes

Divas need to know that their performance is being evaluated. They don't like or initially respond well to data. But secretly they crave it. They read the reviews. Show a diva forty-five positive responses on a survey, and they'll obsess about two people who did not like them. At heart, they care deeply about improvement. Use data after a diva's best and worst performances. You will not have to motivate them, they'll already be looking for the new dress, the right vocals, and better dance routines.

Dance Lesson #3: Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant

When communicating with divas - have the crucial conversation. Don't put it off. Don't let things fester. While many divas in the entertainment industry have folks that walk on egg shells around them, true divas need communication in a timely and specific manner. Divas can build elaborate routines in their mind without specific feedback. Don't allow that to happen. When a diva does not give you quality, provide specific feedback about how they can improve. What about their performance was not quality? Be very specific. Was it what they said about your brand? What they did with their body language? Divas soak it all up. They may pout for the afternoon, but their fear of failure is far greater than any difficult conversation you may need to have with them. Divas hunger for the next performance.

Dance Lesson #4: Coaches and Judges Matter to Great Dancers

With the recent success of Dancing with the Stars, it is hard to not see how divas crave both the spotlight and the feedback. If the greatest tennis players and singers in the world need coaches - then are we saying teachers, leaders, and business men do not? To bring out the best in divas - pair them up with a coach, mentor, or performance sherpa right away. Divas walk a tight balance between supreme confidence and insecurity. Making sure you have trusted coaches to deliver the message of the organization can be vitally important. If I cannot get my point across to a diva in a productive way, I transmit my message through their trusted coach. Often the performance is improved, because the coach can say it in a way a parent, boss, or rival cannot.

Dance Lesson #5: Let em Dance

A well placed diva can move a crowd far beyond a team of well intentioned, hard- working wall flowers. Do they need to be managed? No. They need to be coached. This is the hardest lesson for organizations with high performers. Autonomy mixed with great coaching cultivates a wonderful dance floor for divas. But most importantly, give them the opportunity to do what they do best. Research done by TMBC offers the following info-graphic as to why team members often like to play to their strengths (I'm sure it would be x10 if they studied divas):

In all, dancing with the dynamics of diva personalities is much more nuanced and in many cases more difficult than working with the low to mid performer. However, when we get intentional around coaching high performers, the performances can be astounding. Not unlike the "light but tight structure" of a Soul Train line, a bit of coaching and cheerleading can spawn some unbelievable performances in your organizations. Let the Divas dance, but pair them with coaches who know the moves.