Technical ability and people skills are largely orthogonal. We are just more willing to tolerate poor people skills to get technical ability.
WTF? That's not how it works. The most highly skilled person in the world can also be the nicest person... or a dickhead, just like the nicest person in the world could also have really great skills, or not... there's no necessary relation between the two things.
The opposite is also true for similar reasons - a mediocre individual will be a bad fit in an unusually competent group.
This is almost the definition of cultural fit: people with complementary skills who are all working at more or less the same level.
No one likes outliers because they just don't fit. This has nothing to do with whether or not they're friendly or likeable people.
Not being social is orthogonal to that, and a different problem.
It has everything to do with perceived hierarchy and the level of power and influence they have. They're tolerable as leaders if they have some ability in that direction. But they're intolerable as equals - unless perhaps they can be sidelined into a niche where they won't bother everyone else.
As the unusually competent individual who rarely “fits in”, this hasn’t been my experience. Mutual respect and some humility can bridge any experience gap I’ve encountered. I’m always happy to teach. If someone doesn’t know something, it’s an exciting opportunity to learn.
If someone just doesn’t have the ability, I’ll be gently honest with them and work to find their strengths. Not everyone is cut out for deep work, but everyone has things they are good at.
To do this effectively, I carefully guard my time. I block out at least two 4-hour blocks during the week for my own responsibilities. Usually Tuesday and Thursday at the same time every day.
I manage this with a disability that limits me to 40 hours or less each week. I never overcommit and set expectations early and often. I’ve never been more productive in my career, even before my disability.
Where I live, everyone has this disability :D it's called the law.
Very much this - to an extent, you need some deep-divers in places but the non-cohesive teams, I find, end up with a similar performance but lower levels of employee satisfaction.
Having worked in a variety of settings and witnessing varying levels of team performance within those, this is what I, personally, have come to believe is true.