How to Manage Geeks

Learn what your geeks are looking for

This is a golden era for geeks -- it doesn't get any better than this. In the early 1970s, an engineering recession hit, and we reached a low point in engineering and technical salaries. Ever since then, salaries have been going way up. Geeks have figured out that increasing their compensation through stock options is only fair: They expect to share in the wealth that they help to create through technology. Today technology salaries are at least twice the national average. In fact, tech salaries are going through the roof, and non-tech salaries are not -- which presents a serious problem for many companies.

But, as important as money is to tech people, it's not the most important thing. Fundamentally, geeks are interested in having an impact. They believe in their ideas, and they like to win. They care about getting credit for their accomplishments. In that sense, they're no different from a scientist who wants credit for work that leads to a Nobel Prize. They may not be operating at that exalted level, but the same principle applies.

Create new ways to promote your geeks

If you don't want to lose your geeks, you have to find a way to give them promotions without turning them into managers. Most of them are not going to make very good executives -- and, in fact, most of them would probably turn out to be terrible managers. But you need to give them a forward career path, you need to give them recognition, and you need to give them more money.

Twenty years ago, we developed the notion of a dual career ladder, with an executive career track on one side and a technical career track on the other. Creating a technical ladder is a big first step. But it's also important to have other kinds of incentives, such as awards, pools of stock, and nonfinancial kinds of compensation. At Novell, we just added a new title: distinguished engineer. To become a distinguished engineer, you have to get elected by your peers. That requirement is a much tougher standard than being chosen by a group of executives. It's also a standard that encourages tech people to be good members of the tech community. It acts to reinforce good behavior on everyone's part.

Either Geeks are part of the solution -- or they're the problem

Here's another thing you need to know about the geek mind-set: Because tech people are scientists or engineers by training, they love to solve really hard problems. They love to tackle a challenge. The more you can get them to feel that they're helping to come up with a solution to a tough problem, the more likely they are to perform in a way that works for you.

When you talk with them, your real goal should be to engage them in a dialogue about what you and they are trying to do. If you can get your engineering team to agree with what you're trying to accomplish, then you'll see them self-organize to achieve that outcome. You'll also need to figure out what they're trying to accomplish -- because, no matter what you want, that's probably what they're going to do.

The next thing you need to remember is that you can tell them what to do, but you can't tell them how to do it. You might as well say to a great artist, "I'll describe to you what a beautiful painting is. Then I'll give you an idea for a particular painting. I'll tell you which colors to use. I'll tell you which angle to use. Now you just paint that painting." You'd never get a great painting out of any artist that way -- and you'll never get great work out of your geeks if you try to talk to them like that. You need to give them a problem or a set of objectives, provide them with a large amount of hardware, and then ask them to solve the problem.

The best judges of geeks are other geeks

Make sure that there is always peer-group pressure within your project teams. For example, if you want to motivate your project leaders, just require them to make presentations to each other. They care a great deal about how they are perceived within their own web of friends and by the professional community that they belong to. They're very good at judging their own. And they're often very harsh: They end up marginalizing the people who are terrible -- for reasons that you as a manager may not quite understand.

It sounds like I'm touting tech people as gods, but there are plenty of bad projects, and there is plenty of bad engineering and bad technology. You're always going to encounter techies who are arrogant and who aren't as good as they think they are. A team approach is the best way to deal with that problem. Tech people know how to deal with the wild ducks in their group -- on their own and with the right kind of peer pressure.