The real purpose of a good engineering leader is to help mentor people like this to become mature. They have talent -- they just need everything else (humility,

The real purpose of a good engineering leader is to help mentor people like this to become mature. They have talent -- they just need everything else (humility, social skills within the team, shared vision, whatever). With good mentoring, I've seen a few of these so called "hacker" types transform after a few years. Also when you are 20 you're into one thing -- competition for the ego -- and 10 years later into something else -- collaboration for the group. Responsibility and experience are great transformers. But someone has to actively give that feedback, and the "hacker" type has to be willing to learn, it's true. Some engineering leaders lack the courage to do so and this really is where the problem starts.