I specialise in helping teams with trouble (delivering, quality, etc.) I have many times met engineers that were super smart but caused more damage than they brought value because their manager had no plan how to use them effectively.
Smart engineers can be very productive but they also demand good managers that can wield them effectively.
1. Keep praising them for their smarts. Few smart engineers will stay when the praise stops.
2. Delegate responsibilities rather than tasks. Demand results. Set up clear accountability for results that are important to you. (You may want to read Crucial Accountability).
3. Let people make mistakes. This is key. You need to show them their course of action causes problems and you will achieve nothing until they understand they are responsible for the result. If they have a plan and you put your fingers on it, they will have an excuse that their original plan would work if you did not meddle in it. Smart people are extremely good at finding excuses and believing in them.
I am selective where I let people fail. If I have a good occasion, I will present my concerns, but if the engineer presses his solution anyway I will let him. I try not to make it a super critical project or anything that would cause long term detriment. Ideal occasions is just wasted time which I try to balance against gained wisdom. I also try to find things that will have rather quick resolution.
Also, I try HARD to not be smug about it.
4. Demand teamwork. Make smart people work with other people, help other people solve their problems. Make your entire team propose and discuss the solution before it gets implemented. When I managed a team that had a lot of trouble with design quality, I found that forcing people put forward and defend their proposed solutions on the forum of the team helped eliminate worst design offenders without me having to step in. Saved a ton of time on review afterwards, practically eliminated changes that had to be scrapped and improved ability to prioritise changes.
5. I can't recommend it too much. Keep praising people. Make sure it is not empty praises. People need safety to focus on their work and the best way to do it is by praising them for things they did well. Understand is that your ability to get heard when you criticise them comes directly from the amount of praise you gave to them up to this point. But do not get into habit of following praise with criticism, otherwise praise will completely lose its value as people will start expecting to get criticised and will see the praise as just a tactic to soften the blow.
I understand this is very general advice that applies pretty much to all, not just super smart engineers. But remember that everybody thinks about themselves as smart. I find it is better to create an environment where particularly smart individuals can be productive than try to make exceptions for them. I find that smart individuals can be an inspiration to the rest of the team only when they work within the same system. When they work within the system they show to others that it is possible to be successful. When you create exemptions from the rules you show the opposite -- that the only way to be successful is to be treated specially by your manager. There are few things more damaging to the team morale.
Smart engineers can be very productive but they also demand good managers that can wield them effectively.
1. Keep praising them for their smarts. Few smart engineers will stay when the praise stops.
2. Delegate responsibilities rather than tasks. Demand results. Set up clear accountability for results that are important to you. (You may want to read Crucial Accountability).
3. Let people make mistakes. This is key. You need to show them their course of action causes problems and you will achieve nothing until they understand they are responsible for the result. If they have a plan and you put your fingers on it, they will have an excuse that their original plan would work if you did not meddle in it. Smart people are extremely good at finding excuses and believing in them.
I am selective where I let people fail. If I have a good occasion, I will present my concerns, but if the engineer presses his solution anyway I will let him. I try not to make it a super critical project or anything that would cause long term detriment. Ideal occasions is just wasted time which I try to balance against gained wisdom. I also try to find things that will have rather quick resolution.
Also, I try HARD to not be smug about it.
4. Demand teamwork. Make smart people work with other people, help other people solve their problems. Make your entire team propose and discuss the solution before it gets implemented. When I managed a team that had a lot of trouble with design quality, I found that forcing people put forward and defend their proposed solutions on the forum of the team helped eliminate worst design offenders without me having to step in. Saved a ton of time on review afterwards, practically eliminated changes that had to be scrapped and improved ability to prioritise changes.
5. I can't recommend it too much. Keep praising people. Make sure it is not empty praises. People need safety to focus on their work and the best way to do it is by praising them for things they did well. Understand is that your ability to get heard when you criticise them comes directly from the amount of praise you gave to them up to this point. But do not get into habit of following praise with criticism, otherwise praise will completely lose its value as people will start expecting to get criticised and will see the praise as just a tactic to soften the blow.
I understand this is very general advice that applies pretty much to all, not just super smart engineers. But remember that everybody thinks about themselves as smart. I find it is better to create an environment where particularly smart individuals can be productive than try to make exceptions for them. I find that smart individuals can be an inspiration to the rest of the team only when they work within the same system. When they work within the system they show to others that it is possible to be successful. When you create exemptions from the rules you show the opposite -- that the only way to be successful is to be treated specially by your manager. There are few things more damaging to the team morale.