Productivity premium

There has been a great deal written about the productivity gap between the most talented and those possessing less talent. For the most part, it is true that highly skilled, talented inpiduals can produce 10 to 20 times more, and better, work than those at the bottom of the scale [1]. This discussion started in the late 1960s and was focused on programming when the dialog began, but research over the past five decades has illustrated that this phenomenon is prevalent in a wide range of human endeavors. "A study by Norm Augustine found that in a variety of professions – writing, football, invention, police work, and other occupations – the top 20 percent of people produced about 50 percent of the output, whether the output is touchdowns, patents, solved cases, or software." [2]

This dynamic is the same and may even be more pronounced in advanced analytics and AI teams. Talented and skilled people are better at all aspects of the job and there are a significant number of nuanced aspects to the role of senior or principal data scientist: stakeholder management, technical skills, project management, project estimating; written, verbal, and presentation skills; emotional intelligence, empathy, persistence, diligence, patience, and more. Not everyone is at the top of the scale on all measures, but those that are at the top of the scale in relation to multiple factors will be more adept at learning how to improve in the areas where they need to improve. Not only are the most talented the most productive, they are the least problematic.

In one of my analytic leadership roles, I had a data scientist who was just barely above a junior data scientist in all technical skills, below a junior data scientist in stakeholder management, and poor in verbal and written communications and presentations, but in their mind, they were the best on the team in all the aforementioned skill areas. Also, they produced the least amount of work of the lowest quality, required the most management attention, and generated the most stakeholder complaints and dissatisfaction. I had inherited this employee from the previous management team. This employee was nothing but headaches. I wish I could report that I was able to help this employee see the self-sabotaging behavior, the fixed mindset, and the lack of perspective, but I could not. I could only help this person move on to a new role in a new company and wish them the best on their journey. They have a long way to go, but, in the end, we all have a long way to go. We all have different starting and ending points on those journeys.