Leading Geeks

In this summary, you will learn

• Why knowledge workers, or "geeks," are different and harder to manage
• The nature of geekwork, to help you understand what they do
• Techniques to implement better leadership in light of your new knowledge of geeks and geekwork

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Why you should read Leading Geeks

Management consultant Paul Glen’s thorough discussion of geeks brings you brain-to-brain and eye-to-eye with high-tech, specialized knowledge workers. Don’t blink: you need these people, so you need to know how to fit your management style to them. Glen describes their primary personality traits and attitudes: commitment to logic, interest in problem solving, independence and, to put it politely, occasionally under-developed social skills. The author, who doesn’t seem to mind describing an entire subset of the labor force as if each worker in it had the same personality, explains what geeks need from a manager. You need to nurture motivation, provide internal facilitation, furnish external representation, and manage task, structural, and environmental ambiguity. getAbstract.com suggests this organized, authoritative guide to those who manage knowledge workers. If it’s all geek to you, here’s the codebook.

About the Author

For more than 15 years, management consultant Paul Glen has advised clients in the U.S., Europe and Asia on building effective technology organizations. He served as an adjunct faculty member in the MBA programs at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and at Loyola Marymount University. Prior to founding C2 Consulting, he was western regional manager for SEI Information Technology, a national IT consultancy. He is a self-described "geek."