Ask HN: Managing people smarter than you

> But I guess I'm wondering how to best manage this person. Do I just sit back and let them do their thing?

I think the best way to think of this is not "how to I manage this person?" but rather how to I manage effectively the team with this person's contributions? Where things are working well, let them run, and where ever possible make sure everyone is aware of what's happening and keep people on the same page.

> Try harder to meet them at their level and challenge them?

I think the thing to do is make sure that what they're doing is comprehensible to you, the team, and to a wider audience. Be the 'straight guy' in the middle of a sitcom where everything happening around them gets illustrated to the audience.

> How would you all like to be managed if you were in their position?

I often am. A balance is best, sometimes stay out of the way and let creativity fly, other times make sure that other members of the team get a chance to flex their brains. Having them work together on things (e.g. pair programming) with various teammates could have good attributes rub off and other social benefits 'rub on?'.

I've also appreciated feedback to work more 'in the open' so that folks can see what leads up to these ideas/solutions. I use that to now write-up detailed descriptions in issues or code changes for review including some of the ideation history and perhaps a discarded or pre-optimized simple-case design evolution to the proposed one.

try to see yourself like an editor (newspaper) guiding your team, everyone has a place and you are obviously meant to lead. dont be so hard on yourself, you are also learning from them, enjoy the ride.

You’re a team. It’s great for you that one of your teammates comes up with good solutions. It helps everybody move forward.

Now you’re good at selling these ideas to the rest of the company, so just do that. Make sure you give the credit to the right people, and they’ll feel rewarded.

If you want you may give people some slightly more specific title like “lead developer” or “solution architect”. Though this may annoy some other people. You may also reward the person with higher salary (disclaimer here: I am not that person).

Just refuse to be exhausted. So if someone seems to be arguing and exhausting you, because they want to "misunderstand" (argue) just don't let them. Shut down the conversation until the next day or week. These are your business contacts, not your friends, and you are their superior. People don't like being told what to do, and if you let yourself be tone policed you'll get an ulcer. Speak in a diplomatic way, use a compliment sandwich, all that jazz -- you hand ammunition to an intelligent person wanting to pick apart your language.

Speak shortly and directly, you're aggressive and condescending, at best.

So be ready to call the bluff if someone is basically threatening to not like you -- lots of people don't like their boss... that's why it's work, that's why you get a paycheck, instead of all living in a house doing tye dye and bong hits between coding sessions.

I think the state of things is pretty good overall. most of my anxiety comes from this fear that I'm not gonna be an owner of what we've built if they're the one making all the decisions. it's silly, but letting go of that isn't easy. 'preciate the thoughts.