6 tips for dealing with prima donna IT superstars

Most CIOs will tell you there are three or four people in their organizations who deliver enormous value to IT and are worth every dollar they get. They’re the superstars of databases, data management, security, applications, infrastructure, and systems. They can troubleshoot and resolve any issue, come up with any new module you might need for integrating software, organize and manage data, and perform delicate background systems functions and tunings that produce enormous impact for IT projects.

But there is often a flip side to managing these elite IT pros. These individuals know their value and take pride in their expertise, which can result in king-size egos. It’s little wonder then that some CIOs refer to these tech giants both as “gems” and “prima donnas” — sometimes in the same sentence.

In IT, prima donnas — an Italian term for those who find it difficult to work under direction or as part of a team — can often be those very same tech gurus CIOs need most to do the heavy tech lifting for major projects. Other staff members are also attuned to the guru–prima donna syndrome, and they look to their CIOs and project managers to solve the personal issues that can arise when a personality of this type is part of the team. But this isn’t always easy.

How prima donna tech gurus disrupt teams and IT operations

Knowing that their unique talents are indispensable, IT superstars can ignore departmental meetings and memos, saying they have more important work they need to be doing and they just don’t have the time.

They can design a technology architecture or approach on their own, without input from anyone else, and simply install it.

They can give lukewarm support to project teams if the projects are among those they don’t feel like working on.

They can refuse to mentor junior staff members or withhold knowledge.

They can force IT to “work around” their daily work habits, such as showing up to work at odd hours, or when they want to.

All are ways tech superstars can upend projects and be difficult to work with, and almost every CIO I talk with acknowledges they have experience working through personal challenges with some of their most talented people.

Examples from the trenches

My own experience as a project manager and CIO bears this out, but having to navigate these personalities also led to some successes — and hard-earned advice for how to deal with or work around talented colleagues who struggle to contribute productively to team efforts.

There was the IBM mainframe CICS (customer information control system) guru who was assigned to one project I managed. She refused to participate in a timely manner and sparingly returned phone calls or emails. She said she was busy. My management was afraid to buck her, leading to risks in project deadlines for a client. The solution: I brought a junior CICS person into the project, and stopped waiting for her. We moved slower to accommodate a CICS learning curve, but we got the project delivered on time.

There was the senior application programmer who had so many handwritten, custom routines that no one else could figure out the company’s core system or these highly complicated routines when there was a technical glitch. This impacted customer service and brought the system down several times. I asked her whether she would mentor some junior staff so we would have backup when she went on vacation, but she became defensive and highly argumentative. I went to upper management and recommended we retain a consultant for the core system so that junior staff could be trained, but management was afraid to risk losing her. HR said she had too much seniority, and they feared a lawsuit. The solution: We had to find ways to work around the situation.

There was the tech guru who was supposed to mentor more junior staff but just referred them to documentation instead. The solution: I hired an outside expert in the area to train junior staff. It worked, and we grew our staff knowledge.

Finally, there were two tech gurus who were on the cusp of retirement, and I asked them to train junior staff. They loved it. They’d always wanted to teach, and they wanted to give back. They were fantastic mentors. They grew our staff’s knowledge, and I retained them as part-time consultants after they retired.

Tips for making the most of a challenging situation

What are the takeaways from these varied examples of success and challenge? Here are six ideas to help you deal with IT superstar issues.

Develop a risk management strategy for personnel

Personnel risk management is a consideration for disaster recovery and business continuity, but not always when it comes to assessing vulnerable knowledge and skill areas in the IT staff.

CIOs and IT leaders should identity the vulnerable skill and knowledge points in the organization and look to see whether there is a junior person or understudy capable of stepping up if a tech guru is absent for a significant period of time, or leaves the company.

In most cases, knowledge and skills gaps will be found in IT. This is where IT needs to build bench strength through either recruiting or internally training and mentoring existing employees.

Deepen your IT bench

IT managers know who the high-potential staff are in their organizations. These are the people who could be trained and mentored to back up tech gurus. The goal is to be at least one deep on the IT “bench” — whether the specialty is data management, applications, systems, or something else.

Developing an IT bench will require help from your IT experts. Some will be more than glad to train and mentor understudies, because they have so much work to do and can use the help. Others appreciate teaching as a break from their normal routines. Then, there are those who have either no interest or no talent for training junior staff. If the latter is the case, training and mentoring will likely need to come from outside the team — and likely outside the organization.

Lean on outside consultants

If the time of a tech guru can’t be spared or obtained for training an IT junior staff member, the next best option is to retain an outside technology consultant who can do this job. Outside consultants are also handy in the event that you lose a tech guru for an extended period of time or to another company, and you need backup.

Touch base consistently with your tech stars

If you have an uncooperative IT superstar who is difficult to work with and won’t help others, it’s important meet with his individual right away to see whether there is a way to create a viable working relationship for the individual and IT project teams.

Tech gurus are fiercely (and rightfully) proud of their technical chops, which took years to develop. These are also their calling cards to high salaries because they are not on a management track, so understandably, there can be hesitancy to share technical know-how.

In these situations, it’s best to know early on whether you can find a way for everyone to work together — or not.

Keep management in the loop

Communicate with management if you have a challenging personnel situation with a key contributor. Let them know how you are working to solve the issues.

In some cases, you may need to replace a key person — but it should never be a surprise to management.

Communicate with staff

Your staff is counting on you to resolve any personnel issues that arise, and a tech superstar’s lack of cooperation can be a major one. Certainly, some adjustments can be made, but CIOs and IT leaders should never lose sight of the fact that the overall welfare of the IT department is most important.

“I faced this situation once,” a CIO acquaintance of mine recently told me. “We had several tech gurus who were used to doing things their own way, and when we shifted our IT culture to a service-oriented one with an emphasis on responsiveness and cooperation, they didn’t like it.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“I took a risk,” he answered. “I told them we were shifting to service, and that if they didn’t want to work that way, they could leave. They were in high demand, so about half left. I brought in consultants to fill the gap and we recruited new people — but most importantly, my management backed me, we were able to shift to service, and my staff respected what we did.”