“Geeking Out” – 5 great management talents waiting to be discovered

Do you have “geeks”, “dorks” or “nerds” working in your midst? If you’re unsure just mention how Yoda was your favorite character in Lord of the Rings. If they cringe or walk away stunned, you’ve found them. While they may have been shunned in high school, there’s an amazing set of skills just waiting to be tapped if you can understand how to put them in the right roles (and we don’t just mean fixing your computers). In case WOW, DnD, RPG and DKP are foreign terms to you, here’s a quick rundown of 5 common “nerdy” types, and the unique skills they bring to the table.

A young Greg Hudgins perhaps?

The Dungeon Master – For the uninitiated, the Dungeon Master designs and regulates the scenarios for  role playing games (RPG’s) like Dungeons and Dragons, and in the process learns a tremendous amount about how people interact with systems and processes. A great DM knows how to create scenarios that lead the participants through them naturally, instead of a feeling of being forced. If you are lucky enough to have a great DM on your staff (or are one yourself) get them involved in new projects where they need to develop processes for others to follow, or have them work on troubleshooting existing processes. You may be surprised with the creative solutions they come up with, and how well the other staff responds to the changes.

The Collector – This is the stereotypical comic book geek. He has every issue of spiderman, and takes great pride in the condition, completeness and meticulous organization of his collection. This attention to detail makes them excellent candidates for tedious work with large sets of data, so long as it has a clear, definable and realistic end (Think matching up two sets of lists, not finding a needle in a haystack). From personal experience, I know collectors work very well in the finance department as accountants and bookkeepers. We might have one or two on staff ourselves.

The “Know it All” – You know the annoying guy who corrects all of your movie quotes, can recite all kinds of useless statistics and completely crushes you in trivial pursuit (think our old friend Sheldon Cooper)? Don’t let him fool you, he wasn’t born with all that knowledge. The “Know-it-all” is a voracious reader, and places a high value on being right all the time. If you need research done for a new marketing campaign or understanding a complicated new point of sale system, toss it to the know-it-all and they will not only figure it all out, they’ll let you know where you went wrong in the first place.

The Guild Master – If you’ve never played a massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), the term “Guild Master” may sound barbaric and foreign, but nothing could be further from the truth. The GM’s primary role is as the executive leader of his guild-mates. He is responsible for setting the tone of the organization, enforcing guild rules, managing rewards and organizing events. Of all the “dorks” you  might encounter, the GM might be the most surprising, because he’s probably already a manager in your organization (if not your boss). A great GM has to exercise all of the same skills of a CEO running a large company and as a result many larger companies have started considering GM experience as being relevant for job prospects (if you don’t believe me, Google Stephen Gillett, who’s experience as a GM in World of Warcraft landed him a top spot with Starbucks and now Best Buy)

The Stat Machine – Still think there are no geeks at your company? Look for the guy with a fantasy baseball or football team (or two or three). With the rise of fantasy sports stat geeks are no longer confined to dice based RPG’s, they love to crunch stats of all kinds looking for the best combinations and min/maxing their performance against their competitors. One of the Stat Machine’s strongest points is the ability to quantify and compare data, so they are an excellent choice for projects like management projections and weighing complicated options against each other.

So if you catch your co-worker with a tube full of dice or a baterang paperweight, don’t be so quick to dismiss them as “the computer guys.”  You might find their outside knowledge gives them a unique perspective on the problem you’ve been struggling with. If you felt like any of the above described you, send us a message and share your insights. We’d love to hear from you.

p.s. No nerds, dorks or geeks were harmed in the writing of this post.

Dr. Sheldon Cooper and 4 lessons on “Getting Technical” with clients

If you’ve ever watched “The Big Bang Theory” it’s hard to forget Dr. Sheldon Cooper. For those of you unfamiliar, he’s a genius physicist with an amazing mind for order and rules that makes it hilarious to watch him interact with the rest of the world. His major problem is that while he puts a tremendous amount of thought into the smallest details, he fails to grasp that others don’t. Below is a clip that just about sums him up:

Great, so what does this have to do with my business? If you are in any kind of service business, it’s easy to forget that while you have a great technical knowledge of your area of service, many of your clients might not possess the same knowledge or care as greatly about the details as you and your technical staff do. Even as an accountant, I often have to stop and re-start myself when I get too technical with clients, or start focusing on small details that feel insignificant to them, but may feel huge to me.

If you and your staff interact with a public that is less educated about your product/service than you are (should be all of you!) Then be aware of the following Sheldonian mistakes!

Failing to assess the clients understanding of what you do – It’s easy to jump headlong into a technical explanation of why you need to ask that question, or how a specific product feature was designed, but if the client doesn’t understand or doesn’t care, you’re not only wasting your time, you may be making them uncomfortable.

Unintentionally being condescending – Knowing as much as we do about our professions gives us a great sense of pride in our work and sometimes the entry-level concepts seem like just common sense to us. By glossing over these details or making clients feel less intelligent for not knowing them, you quickly kill any desire they have to actually care about what you are trying to explain.

Not explaining the big picture – As technical people the details can be the most important part of the equation for us, but many times a strong focus on the details leaves the client not seeing how the pieces all fit together. Taking the time to build the big picture and check their understanding makes all the difference in their ability to be interested in what you are trying to communicate.

Explaining WAY TOO MUCH of the big picture– In the clip above, Penny wanted to understand a little bit of what her boyfriend Leonard did at the lab, so Sheldon started with the beginning of the science of physics. Sometimes it’s hard to resist the urge to share our excitement for a topic, but a complete understanding of your area of expertise is rarely necessary.  When in doubt, ask them questions and keep it simple.

Avoid Sheldon’s communication pitfalls and hopefully you can keep you clients engaged and interested in the conversation!

Bazinga!