Why Overconfidence Led to a Major Project Failure in This SDE Manager's Leadership

Sure. Uh, so, well, uh, uh, last year, this happened almost like an uh one year back, so In our team we had less number of people in our team, so we borrowed some of the team members from another team, and we found that one of the team members that we loaned from another team was exceptionally good. He was very, very good, not only in the technical aspects but also in various people. I mean he was very easy to work with. He was very approachable and other things. And in the same way we had a, we had an equally experienced guy, a person in our team who was good with the technology, but due to a lot, a lot of years of working, there was a lot of over. Confidence that that he developed and there was a lot of competition between them. I mean this uh there was uh this one person in my team, um, got a little threatened by him and then didn't want a lot of work to flow into that uh core work to be done by the new person so there was one. We had uh this, uh, person in my team, we, uh, had a lot of work. There was one very, uh, prime module that got, uh, discovered and, uh, it had a lot of visibility. It had a lot of visibility amongst, um, top people. All the vice presidents and the top architects were interested in getting this feature done, this entire module done. So the problem was that this person in my team was so passionate about it, passionate in the sense he wanted to get his, uh, all the limelight. So he. Literally begged prima primarily he, he, he, he said that, uh, not to worry about his uh current work workloads and everything. He primarily, uh, primarily begged primarily. He said he showed a lot of passion, said, uh, I'll make sure that this is done to the top notch and everything. So even though the other person was a little, uh, had a good amount of time because this was, uh, we just gave it to him because he was, he was, uh, desperate to do that thing. So. Uh, the, he couldn't complete it in the, uh, in the time frame. Second thing is the person who took it up, the desperate person could not do it in the, in the, uh, stipulated time frame. The person whom we loaned his, uh, tenure ended, and then we had to, uh, he had to go back to his original teams. So this entire feature just remained for a long period of time. Um, I knew that this person could not be depended on. He was not a stable person, but because of his desperation, I couldn't say no, and, uh, because I had to work with him for a long time. But unfortunately, he couldn't manage the show and then, uh, neither did he show much of a regret in it. So that was a big mistake that I did and um. As almost I mean the same parallel feature was done in uh other platforms but for this platform it just remained for a long period, almost like 8 to 9 months and then um. It was a blot on our team.

Uh, so the process was, uh, I thought why not give uh another opportunity. The process was, this was a person, uh, who's going to stay in my team. So, I thought he's showing a lot of desperation, a lot of passion. So we should give one more, uh, opportunity. Yeah. The past doesn't say that, uh, um. But from the past, from his history, it doesn't feel like uh he's the right person to handle that, but we thought we should give an opportunity when he's so desperate about it. Um. And uh let the past be the past and then maybe it might be a new, uh, maybe there's something new that I would learn about that person. That was the driving factor in giving it to him. And does that answer your question?

Absolutely, yeah. Uh, I had the data then too. I mean, um, I, I knew that this person cannot be 100% dependent on, but then I just took my chances and then I failed them. Um, now I know that, uh, uh, when his plates are completely filled, it's better not to, it's, it would be better to convince him not to take it up rather than, uh, Giving a, a hint to, uh, giving up to his, uh Uh, constant task and uh

Oh, so, once the person was gone, I mean the loan person, the person whom we loaned, he went away and then, uh, we didn't have uh enough bandwidth to do that. Then, um, what I did was, uh, I started coaching another person. I mean, there was another person in my team who's working on a completely different, uh, um, uh, platform, so he was a high. His commitment levels were very, very good. His, uh, uh, attention to detail and a lot of other factors which would be qualities which would help in creating a great product, were very high. So I motivated him to come into this platform, uh, uh, to learn something new, and then he started, he started learning it, and then, uh, he's the one now who's who, who, who has become a backbone for that entire platform for now. So I handed over this product to him. Through in this way, make sure that this product, uh, that module. Uh, gets delivered. So primarily brought in, uh, um, convinced another person to come into this thing, uh, showed him the benefits of it for his career too, and then he was convinced and then gave him the opportunity to coach himself in, uh, the newer languages. I was there to support him, uh, give him all kinds of moral and, uh, uh, confidence boosts that, yeah, he can do it and he should plunge into it. He plunged into it and then, uh, both of the people after that, uh. Completed it. There were a lot of other challenges when, uh, it, uh, when I took that decision where I had to make sure that the new, I mean the, uh, person who was working on a different platform has a good handshake with the person who's already working here without having, uh, unnecessary jealousies and other things coming into the picture without another person getting threatened with a, uh, new entrant into the thing.