One of my favorite essays from Rands so far. He’s talking about people who not just don’t click with other personalities on the team, but in fact have very different goals and philosophies which make them the square peg in your organizational culture’s round hole.

We need these folks, but it can’t be at the cost of the existing culture. Yes, this toxic person might have a core cultural contradictory belief that is key to the future of the business, but assess the risk. What if the cost of integrating that idea is half the team quitting because they can’t work with the idea’s toxic architect? Is that a viable solution?

This is a really, really tough topic, and Michael’s nailed it here. Sometimes, an individual can be incredibly talented in various ways, but still be toxic to the rest of the team, which makes it even harder.