I think it's pretty rare to set out to hire a wolf, although a manager of a large, well-resourced team could do so just to shake things up. That would be tough,

I think it's pretty rare to set out to hire a wolf, although a manager of a large, well-resourced team could do so just to shake things up. That would be tough, though, since it is very difficult to come in from the outside and perform as a wolf immediately. My own experience has been, instead, that a wolf emerges from the herd after 6–12 months. They've learned the culture, they've learned the personalities, they've learned the dividing line between the strictly forbidden and the mostly forbidden. Your juvenile wolf will show a propensity for solving long-standing hard problems that had long been deferred or inventing new trifles. A cowboy may act similarly, but generally gets into more trouble and has less substance behind his solutions. A kludge is a hack that works; a wolf is a cowboy who gets the kill. It is at this point that you must act to place new wolves in an environment where they can excel. I think customer-facing interdisciplinary teams work well, where success is demanded, glory is possible, market feedback is immediate, and they provide unique skills to the team. You can also place them on more seasoned technical teams, where the burden of management is a bit lighter. I am a wolf (it's been over a decade since I told my first manager I wanted to become "the wolf", a la Pulp Fiction). There are downsides. The more process-driven the management, the more battles you will have to fight. The wolf often wins, but not without injury. Corporate combat is exhausting and, worse, can become an end unto itself. Also, being always on the hunt often precludes working on a single large project for a sustained period of time. A wise wolf must remember to hunt big game instead of feasting on readily-available mice. In other words, it's easy for the wolf to become the asshole. Both proper management and self-awareness can keep this from happening.