Managing GTs in IT Organizations

Here are a general set of guidelines that I put together some time ago. It appeared first on my personal blog, but here I reproduce it for the benefit of others who may have GTs in their departments and organizations.

GT is short for ‘Gifted and Talented.’ These are adults in the workforce who may or may not have been in a Gifted and Talented program during their schooling. They may or may not have received high grades when in school. They may or may not be members of Mensa. Generally, they score in the upper 2% of standard intelligence tests such as the Stanford Binet and also demonstrate multipotentiality (talent and accomplishment in multiple disciplines and areas). It’s more than simply being intelligent. And yes, I qualify as GT under the generally accepted criteria.

Information Technology often has more GTs than other areas of business. Unfortunately, many managers do not know much about how to manage a GT; it’s simply not covered in Organizational Behavior classes or texts on management techniques. Here’s what I came up with when I thought about what I would look for from a manager.

What most GTs need is simply good and fair management. This means management without negative effect on their natural productivity and creativity. If management provides this kind of environment, the GT can both shine individually, and make both the department and the manager look extremely impressive as well.

• Recognize that a GT Person in Your Department Can Be a Substantial Asset

A manager can easily be threatened by abilities of many GTs. This may well be entirely unreasonable and more a measure of the insecurity of the manager than the actual intentions, conscious or unconscious, of the GT. Many GTs simply do not want management positions, since those positions would entail dealing with people more than they would like.

• Seek to Build a Partnership with the GT Person

GTs will often be quirky people, but they have a surplus of creativity, intensity and understanding and often a very strong work ethic. The aim for a manager should be to build a partnership of mutual cooperation with the GT. An attempt to build a relationship of managerial domination will more often fail than not.

• Practice Uniform and Fair Expectations for Performance, Promotion and Pay

One experience that GTs often have in both school and the workplace is a continually rising bar of expectations for them, often much greater than others theoretically at the same grade or job level. Unless there is a special job level especially for GTs (and antidiscrimination laws would not permit this), be fair in applying the corporate expectations for performance, promotion and pay to the GT as to the nonGT. In other words, it is simply discrimination to expect stronger performance from the GT to receive the same promotions and pay that a nonGT with the same responsibilities would receive.

• Do Not Assign Them to Work with Underachievers to Bring Up the Performance of the Underachievers

Another experience that GTs often have in both school and the workplace is that they can be paired with the underachievers with the hope that they can bring up the performance of marginal students and employees. This is often quite counterproductive; the marginal employee may simply slack off even more, or even attempt to sabotage the joint effort once because the disparity in abilities simply smarts even more because of having to work with someone whom he or she may deeply resent and envy.

• Foster an Atmosphere of and Be an Example of Professional Courtesy and Cooperation

Most companies have values statements which set forth standards of professional conduct. Review them, practice them, and hold others to them. Often these are enough, but unless these standards of professional conduct are followed, they are simply window dressing.

• Retain Your Own Authority and Responsibility as Manager

Ultimately, the responsibility for the department is that of the manager. Allow the GT to lead, but do not abdicate authority. Retain and practice your right and responsibility to set the direction and standards of the department.

• Provide Challenging Assignments Which Call for Creativity

GTs can be bored easily with routine work. This is one area where it may call for extra thought to provide these kinds of assignments, but the payback in retention of the GT will make it definitely worthwhile.

• Accept and Encourage Lateral Leadership by GTs

Refer the GT to the book Getting It Done: How to Lead When You’re NOT in Charge(Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp, HarperCollins Publishers, New York 1999), for the concept and methodology of lateral leadership.

• Recognize that GTs May Move Up and Onward More Rapidly Than Others

This may entail some 'going to bat' for the GT with Human Resources, if there is some track laid out for advancement which is too rigid in terms of timelines. The GT employee may actually be promotable more quickly than someone who takes longer to master the same skills. Thus the GT employee may not follow a timetable that was set for the advancement of nonGTs. The danger here is that the GT may become overqualified for his or her job level or responsibilities, and leave to find something else because the way of advancement is simply too slow.

#giftedandtalented #gt #management #itmanagement