EBTech's leadership and morale crisis in the development team

Case Review / Proposal

Key Issues

EBTech might have a cash flow problem, and it definitely has a motivation problem. There might be a leadership gap in the development team, and that in turn is negatively affecting morale. The CEO feels that the development team is disengaged from the major project on which the future of the company is staked.

Possible Solutions

There are a number of ways to address this. First, the CEO has to step in and fill whatever leadership void now exists. It might take too long to bring in outside talent. Somebody within the development team should be promoted to run this project, which might be rudderless at this point. But the CEO might have to get involved here to instil a sense of optimism and motivation. What news is leaking is generally both speculative and negative – none of which is okay for morale. The reality is that everybody needs to be focused on the task at hand, not distracted by the defections or concerns about a cash crunch.

The CEO also has to look inward here. There does appear to be a disconnect where she sort of sees the devs as not having the right motivation, but she doesn\\\\\\\'t seem to really know what\\\\\\\'s going on in that department, and is afraid to address it head-on. Yet, somebody has to. So the best solution right now is probably that the HR professional gets in there, talks to the people in that department, and finds out for certain what the key issues are – diagnosing the problem from afar, on the basis of opinions held by someone who seems to have low emotional intelligence, is simply not good enough. My first task is to listen to the other side of this, and only then formulate a plan.

Summary