"CIOs, as you well know, are now strategic partners in their organizations," says John Baldoni, of Baldoni Consulting and a columnist for US CIO and Darwin magazines. "While many have become accomplished people managers, their subordinates are sometimes lacking in person-to-person skills.

"However, like all good engineers, they are very willing to learn what they don't know. So what you do is train them. You provide IT people with the same professional development opportunities that other managers have. You can also create special courses in customer service for IT folks. By nature, IT folks are problem solvers; they live inside their own heads and don't reach out, unless prodded. That's why training in customer service (even for internal customers) is so critical. In my experience, I have found IT folks to be very willing to learn; they accept input and act upon it," Baldoni says.

Different Strokes for IT Folk

When it comes to grooming your geeks, a little classification can help. Since 1992 Setty has lived in Malaysia, Hong Kong, France, Belgium and the United States, and managed close to a thousand people. He says the IT professionals who worked for him over that time have all fallen into one of three categories.

The careers of about 10 percent just took off, he says. Some of these people today are entrepreneurs, while others work in key positions and are doing well. Another 10 or perhaps 20 percent either did an MBA and moved on to other fields, or found other reasons to leave the IT business. The rest have fallen into what he characterizes as a "continuous spiral syndrome".

Setty says the pattern goes something like this:

1. Over the course of two or three years, the IT professional picks up short-term skills that will take them to a new level. Their bosses recognize these and reward them fittingly, perhaps with awards like Employee of the Month or Star Performer. This is the period of rise in the spiral.

2. Then something happens - think 9/11, outsourcing, technology obsolescence - and the value of their current skills erodes. Now they are on the downward part of the spiral. Since plenty of other people are going through the same downward trajectory, they justify this downward movement as something out of their control.

3. Being smart, they do not fall too far. Rather, they pick up new skills and start heading to the top again.

4. Time flies and they return to point number two.

So what is the difference between those whose careers take off and those stuck in the spiral? While the successful ones - like their peers - invest in short-term skills, they also invest in long-term skills.

Of course Setty argues the biggest missing skill for IT professionals today has no relation to technology. "The real issue, and most common missing skill, for IT professionals is really the combination of a number of non-technical skills that are focused on the long term," he says.

Drawing on his work with technology professionals, and especially with those whose careers have soared, Setty has written Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps. His argument is that today's tech pros, facing the crisis of commoditization, must learn to stand out by developing the "soft" skills that can help them rise above the rest to become remarkable.

Instead of just encouraging staff to learn Web 2.0 because it is "hot", you should be encouraging them to invest in long-term skills such as learning how to learn, mind mapping and neurolinguistic programming (NLP), he says. (NLP sets out models and principles describing the interactions of the mind [neuro] and language [linguistic, both verbal and non-verbal]. Proponents believe programming these can have a positive influence on an individual's mind, body and behaviour.)

IT professionals also need to learn how to build long-term relationships, a skill that becomes increasingly important with age, even to get a new job, since experts suggest 80 percent of new jobs come through some connection. "If you don't establish those connections early it's hard to go and make a lifetime friend when you are 35 or 40. You have to invest in those things early in your game," Setty says.

And then there is likeability. Those considered likable can inevitably achieve more than those who are not, Setty argues, yet many geeks imagine they are automatically likable because they are so smart. "What they have to understand is that likeability is not an entitlement: it does not come with smartness. They may be wanted, but that does not in any way mean that they will be likable. So they have to work towards becoming likable," he says.