The Best People

It turns out that all people have flaws …

For a long time, I believed that there was this elusive upper echelon of people in high-tech. Perfect, brilliant, and productive. Total geniuses. Execution machines, to boot. How could I crack into that world? Over time, I began to understand that I was already working with the best.

How could that be? These people around me all had flaws. It turns out that all people have flaws. Brilliant, capable, productive — these are all attributes of humans executing in a context that suits them.

You can take any “superstar”, create an unsuitable context, and have that superstar flame-out. Leaving people alone isn’t a management strategy. It isn’t leading. That’s why I reach for a club when I see slogans like the panglossian drivel inset below:

If you’re going to have talented people work together as a team, then you’re going to expend a lot more effort than just “getting out of their way”. Surely being absent is preferable to micro-managing with an all-star team, but let’s hope that as a manager you’re aiming a little bit higher than that.

Let’s assume that the basics are covered: your team has a consistent view of values, goals and priorities. You’re actively listening to your team members. You’re understanding their personal goals, and creating opportunities for their personal success. (Even that sounds like a lot more than “getting out of their way”, doesn’t it?)

Beyond the management basics, you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team members. You need to combine your team members with each other (and possibly their subordinates) so that you optimize output and reliability.

Let’s make it concrete with a simple (and common) scenario. You have a brilliant “explorer” type — learns very fast, prolific in output — however never truly finishes. An 80%-er. If you can pair that developer with another who is a “closer” type — someone who is anal-retentive and sweats the details — then you have a machine.

I’m making it simpler than it is. An example: I once employed a brilliant guy we called “The Chef”. You placed your order, and you almost never got what you asked for. Thing is, 90% of the time you got something much better than what you asked for, better than what you imagined. 10% of the time it was a turd. Employing The Chef was a total win, as long as you always had a contingency plan in case the turd was served. It was more management effort, but worth it. “Getting out of the way” would be deadly 10% of the time.

There are more dimensions and scenarios than I can enumerate. You need to know your people, and to a large degree, the people who work for your people. and you need to make sure that the “setup” points in the direction of team success. Cultivation, tending, and leadership are required. They’re not just “talented people”. They’re your talented people (team), and as their manager you need to be involved!