Separation Anxiety Don't worry if you have an employee who's not a team player--it <i>is</i> possible to deal with loners in a way that makes everyone happy.

Serial entrepreneur Peyton Anderson faced a big employeechallenge a few years ago when he was at the helm of his firstventure, SciQuest. The problem started when one senior-levelemployee rejected the team approach Anderson, 38, favored. Hedidn't explain how he did things-but didn't mind tellingother employees how much smarter he was than them. He sat alone inhis office all day and stood in the corner at the company holidayparty. Other employees kept their distance.

Anderson agonized about fitting this talented but unapproachableemployee into the company. "He would come up with somethingonce in a while that was wicked smart," Anderson says."[But] he was not the kind of guy you'd want to have lunchwith."

Anderson decided to make the employee a "department ofone" who reported directly to him and worked exclusively onspecial projects. "We did it in the context of 'We wantyou to work on the important stuff-we don't want you distractedwith small personnel issues,'" he says. "He likedthat."