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I worked with one client that had a true genius like that, and their solution seemed to work well -- they took him off the "team". He became like a little R&D

I worked with one client that had a true genius like that, and their solution seemed to work well -- they took him off the "team". He became like a little R&D department, reporting to top management. This allowed him to work away at his pace and in his fashion. He was available to projects as a consultant, which helped reset expectations as to how he would engage with teams day-to-day. They would assign bright people to work with him sometimes (akin to a research assistant), which helped drive an incentive in others to achieve that kind of excellence in the hope that they can attain the same autonomy. It seemed to work out well from what I observed.

Xelbair 7y ago
That is really good to way to handle such people - it is a win-win situation for everyone. 10x gets flexible work hours and, more importantly, interesting and varied projects. Team doesn't get annoyed by one odd guy, but they are still available to support them, and other teams. And there is mentoring in there too - this system basically makes them share their knowledge and thought process with potential others like them. EDIT: There is also a benefit of not having them be a cornerstone of any project(ie - if they leave it fails).