Useful guide to managing smart brats

Some of the most difficult people I’ve had to manage were also the smartest. Technically brilliant, incredibly productive, endlessly curious, but somewhere along the way, they decided that being right mattered more than being helpful. That pushing hard was the same as leading or that building something alone was better than building it together.

I’ve been that person too. Early in my career, I loved to challenge everything. I thought it was bold and funny to question the status quo in a provocative way. I wanted to shake things up, but it often came off as arrogant or exhausting. And I can say clearly now : it didn’t help my career.

The problem with brilliance

I’ve worked with a developer who was smart, thoughtful, and a great teammate. I helped him grow into a tech lead role. He was thriving. Then he invited me to collaborate on a start-up he was building and that’s when something shifted. He began calling himself “director” but had no understanding of what that role meant. He dismissed questions, pushed his opinions without listening, and slowly became very difficult (not to say unbearable) to work with. The brilliance was still there, but the humility and openness were gone, taking with them a part of our friendship.

I’ve also seen behavior that’s far less subtle. A tech lead who deliberately excluded me from team meetings. He would discard my input in technical conversations and claim his decisions were always best. At social events, he would turn his back or avoid talking to me altogether. It wasn’t just disagreement. It was control.

These people aren’t villains. But they become toxic when no one holds them accountable. Their ego and ambition start working against them. And eventually, against everyone around them.

What “brilliant jerks” often don’t understand

They think their value is purely in their technical work. They measure success in lines of code, bugs fixed, or decisions won. They don’t see the silence they create in others. They miss the slow erosion of trust, the people who stop speaking up, the resentment that builds quietly.

They want influence, but they don’t realize that influence only works when people choose to follow you, not when they’re forced to or when they feel shut down.

What engineering managers can do

As a manager, you can’t ignore it. Hoping a smart brat will grow out of it isn’t a strategy. You have to address it early. And directly.

Start with clarity and don’t sugarcoat. Tell them the exact behaviors that aren’t working. Not vague feedback like “you’re too blunt”, but be very specific. How they speak in meetings, how they dismiss teammates, how they react to disagreement.. Take the time to put words on what they do, and speak with candor and kindness.

Then show them what growth looks like. If they want to lead, define what leadership means, the behavior it entails. It’s not just deciding or coding, it’s helping others to succeed. It’s listening with patience, earning trust, not assuming it. Being a role model is not easy, but a good leader must integrate that their actions have an impact on others.

And yes, you need to hold the line: If someone refuses to change, if they continue to damage the team (even while performing technically) you need to act. Protecting the rest of the team matters more than keeping a high-output contributor.

A better kind of brilliance

The best engineers I’ve worked with weren’t the loudest or the fastest. They were the ones who made others better. They knew when to speak, but also when to step back. They brought ideas to the table and made space for other voices too.

Brilliance doesn’t have to come with arrogance. Ambition doesn’t have to mean steamrolling people. And leadership never works when it starts with ego.

If you’re managing someone smart but impossible, don’t wait too long to step in. That person might have the potential to become a true leader. Or they might just burn everything around them.

Either way, your job is the same. Help them grow or protect the team from the fallout.