managing really good people who are also passionate

[Barbara Hubert <barbara_hubert -at- epicdata -dot- com>]

Anyone want to explore this?

Writer A:
In the same spirit, I'm kind of hard-headed in so much as sentence A can

clearly be
>better than sentence B, and to this I would fight to the end.  Are
people
like
this a detriment to a team of tech writers, especially if they are not
in
the
>Sr. position?

Writer B:
People like this are exactly the kind of people I like to hire - but
they're also a lot of
work :^). (Really good people who are also passionate are often a
challenge
to manage, but that's another thread)
Passion is good. But it needs to be directed to the right things - to
things that count in your project and in your circumstances. If it isn't

focussed constructively, then it is a problem.

Me ;-)
I consider myself a really good, passionate writer -- keen to learn the
technology, like to build sprite programs in my spare time, etc., worked
on some fairly prestigious tech comm pubs (ie: CATW's Technostyle). My
manager doesn't really have a clue about what it is that I do, she calls
an anomaly.

I'm not complaining about my job, because I love what I'm doing right
now.

But, the questions are:

How would you manage someone like "Me ;-)"
Have you been in similar situation as "Me ;-)". If so, what did you do
about it? Or did you do anything at all?