| > But I guess I'm wondering how to best manage this person. Do I just sit back and let them do their thing? I think the best way to think of this is not "how to I manage this person?" but rather how to I manage effectively the team with this person's contributions? Where things are working well, let them run, and where ever possible make sure everyone is aware of what's happening and keep people on the same page. > Try harder to meet them at their level and challenge them? I think the thing to do is make sure that what they're doing is comprehensible to you, the team, and to a wider audience. Be the 'straight guy' in the middle of a sitcom where everything happening around them gets illustrated to the audience. > How would you all like to be managed if you were in their position? I often am. A balance is best, sometimes stay out of the way and let creativity fly, other times make sure that other members of the team get a chance to flex their brains. Having them work together on things (e.g. pair programming) with various teammates could have good attributes rub off and other social benefits 'rub on?'. I've also appreciated feedback to work more 'in the open' so that folks can see what leads up to these ideas/solutions. I use that to now write-up detailed descriptions in issues or code changes for review including some of the ideation history and perhaps a discarded or pre-optimized simple-case design evolution to the proposed one. |