Understanding the intrinsic nature of employees and their motivations can make a big difference in effectively managing them. According to Paul Glen, technology consultant and author of Managing Geeks: How to Manage and Lead People Who Deliver Technology, one of the biggest mistakes managers and executives make is failing to grasp that IT workers are different than the typical employee. By failing to adjust their management game plan, these leaders never get the most out of their technical employees.

Baseline caught up with Glen to gain his insight about how IT employees are cut from a different cloth. The following slides explore what he perceives as the top differences between IT geeks and other personnel, and how this should affect management's thinking and behavior. Here’s Chapter One in Baseline’s 4 part series “Getting the Best Out of Geeks.”