March 29, 2025
I was asked to take over the redesign project as lead engineer after a team from another site had struggled and failed to meet the financial target. The assignment came with one condition (which, in hindsight, should have been a big red flag): “Don’t let the original leader know he’s not in charge anymore, we need to keep him engaged.” If I had it to do over again, I’m quite certain we could have delivered on the goal in half the time if team leadership had been clearly defined.
Management made several fundamental errors with this team: (1) They should have recognized the original project was not on track and intervened to course-correct much sooner. (2) They should have trusted the original team leader to act professionally and contribute despite being displaced, rather than feel it necessary to deceive him. (3) They should have made the leadership responsibilities unambiguous to everyone involved.