How to Answer: “How do you manage a high performer who is difficult to work with?”
A complete guide to answering this common interview question — including what interviewers are really looking for, practical tips, and a worked example answer.
What interviewers are really asking
Show nuance — this is one of management's hardest problems. Demonstrate that you take behaviour seriously even when performance is strong, that you're direct about impact rather than style, and that you don't let team culture pay the price for individual output.
Tips
- Show that high performance doesn't excuse damaging behaviour.
- Demonstrate you focus on impact rather than personality.
- Show you've had the direct conversation rather than managed around it.
- Be honest about the limits of your tolerance.
- Give a real example if you have one.
Example answer
Sample response
“I had a senior engineer who was technically exceptional but was consistently dismissive in code reviews — junior team members had started avoiding asking for their review. I had a direct conversation focused entirely on the team impact, not their style: 'Three junior engineers have told me they feel reluctant to share work with you, and that's slowing down their growth and our delivery.' Not 'you're difficult' — 'here's the concrete impact'. They didn't know they were creating that effect. The behaviour changed meaningfully. If it hadn't, I'd have been clear that high individual output doesn't offset team output — and that would have been a harder conversation.”
Adapt this to your own experience — never use any example answer verbatim.
Use the STAR method
Structure your answer as: Situation (brief context), Task (your specific responsibility), Action (what you personally did), Result (the quantified outcome). Most strong interview answers follow this pattern.
Full STAR method guide