Leading in Tech, week 5 case

Case: the name you give your manager

A team is splitting in two, and its lead must recommend who leads the new half, by Monday morning.

One candidate is the strongest coder in the department, and juniors avoid him. The other is technically weaker, and the team runs through her.

You will now hear the full case, one page, 5 minutes. Listen for what has already been tried.

Leading in Tech, week 5 case

Case: the laws in tension

  • The Lid: whoever leads caps the new team, and the lid is measurable
  • Legacy: the settlement flow has a bus factor of 1, and it is his
  • Connection: whoever is not named will guess whose recommendation it was

Three laws, and they do not point to the same name.

Leading in Tech, week 5 case

One recommendation, both tracks

Whether you lead a team of reports or lead technical direction without reports, someday a manager asks you: who should lead?

Your answer is a lid decision: reward the strongest output, or bet on multiplication.

The Peter Principle study measured exactly this trap, on 53,000 careers.

Leading in Tech, week 5 case

Activity: prepare your camp

Assigned camps, 10 minutes. One camp argues: name Omar, keep your best coder, manage the leadership risk. The other argues: name Hana, protect the new team's lid, manage Omar's exit risk.

Build your opening and your best evidence from the case text.

Challenge: what is the other camp's strongest attack on you?