Riders on the Storm: Leading an Engineering Team Through Turmoil Towards Triumph

What kind of leadership do people need in challenging times when the atmosphere is far from calm? What do teams expect from their manager? There is no single answer here because everything depends on the nature of the crisis. Some practitioners argue that instead of vision per se, teammates need some kind of "holding," which is the ability to acknowledge people's emotions and give them a sense of context and reality against all odds. I believe that vision is always needed even during difficult stages, but perhaps not as far-seeing as usual. As the project progresses, there are goals and objectives and a certain distance that needs to be covered.

But when, for instance, war comes to a country, your vision is blocked by the questions “Will there be work tomorrow?” or “Will there be tomorrow at all?”. In such a coordinate system, a vision has a small focal length, but it requires transparency and clarity.

Fueling morale

Under stress, a person's cognitive flexibility is reduced, which means the perception of information is somewhat distorted. We have to be mindful of what and how we tell our teammates and how we ourselves, as leaders, show our flexibility. The first thing I considered necessary was to convey to the employee that everything one does, matters a lot. Yes, we all found ourselves in a dire situation, but we share much more than that - we have a common passion. And if there are things that prevent us from doing it, our task is to help each other deal with everything that stands in our way. Plus, we all perfectly realize the truth: the client is not to blame for the fact that we have a crisis. Each of us is responsible for the success of the project. And the universal understanding of our duties and obligations does not allow everything to fall apart. Therefore, it needs constant replenishment.

In our team, a persistent reminder of the importance of our work for the client and ourselves worked perfectly. At the same time, of course, there were cases when the internal resource dried up, and people communicated their fatigue. First of all, you need to give the teammate the opportunity to rest and only afterward analyze and discuss the causes of fatigue or burnout. When a person acknowledges their state and comes to the leader with this, in no case should one devalue a person’s feelings, saying: “Nah, come on, you are fine.” Let a colleague recuperate. Even when letting someone go on a two-week vacation, try to keep in touch delicately and find out whether rest helps or additional time is needed. After vacation comes to an end, you can tackle the root cause of the problem with renewed vigor.

Imagine that you find yourself in an environment where your emotional state is being hit by external circumstances beyond your control. In addition, they do not stop and will surely surround us for some time. I, as a manager, do not think that here you can solve anything by talking the talk. The problems of people who experience hostilities are deep-seated; they need to be worked out with specialists.

Emotions: calming the waters

Since the end of February 2022, I have observed a whole range of feelings and emotions of my people. But most of all, I had to deal with fear, and this fear had many faces: fear due to a lack of understanding of what was happening, uncertainty about tomorrow, and sometimes even today. For the first six months, all people's questions boiled down to one thing: “what will happen next?”. I cannot say that today we know much more or are more certain. But, due to our nature and internal national settings, we are wired to get used to things and adapt.

Of course, the team was quite rightly worried about how things would be with the work and whether everyone would be able to keep it. Now there are other questions about whether there is connection, electricity, or any communication. If there is no network either at home or in the office, what can be done to establish a working mode?

The first month was the most difficult because the fear was primitive — people simply feared for their lives. And hand in hand with this feeling came a number of other emotions, including irritability. Nevertheless, all experiences motivated people to get in touch more often and join calls and meetings. We organized separate sessions where we just talked and shared our affairs and who felt what. The remote mode was supplemented by evacuation and resettlement; people were even more scattered across regions and countries. Everyone had their own story and their hardships, and everyone should definitely be heard. No one wanted to fight their own fight alone.

Authentic Leadership and Transparency

Of course, there are always things that shouldn't be said out loud or shared with the team. Let's say there is a team that works, and you, as a leader, need to save it. People do not need to know now that if this unity is not maintained, the client will leave. In such an environment, the focus should shift to the people themselves and the importance and timeliness of each of them. Here we are talking about balanced truth, that is, communicating the things which will not add even more stress. This leads us to the topic of communication with people. There is a difference between reporting a fact; let’s compare: “If your performance goes down, it will affect the team” and “if your performance goes down, everyone will be fired.” Same idea, but various wrapping.

My approach now is that I have become more interested in the burning, pressing problems of each teammate. If, in normal times, such communication comes down to a brief conversation about the state of affairs, today, it is talking about security, the benefits of civilization, the presence of warmth, shelter, and essentials. Whether everyone has a place to go in case of a blackout.

In general, transparent leadership is a must at all times; it is unlikely to change from external circumstances. This is also an internal attitude, which in turn is based on three pillars. First, a sense of balance. There are no perfect companies where the sun always shines; there are always cloudy days and storms. Here, too, you need to maintain a balance because sometimes the team reacts painfully to negative information, which affects the overall mood. So here, sometimes, the leader must show support for the team and, perhaps, even this vibe. At the same time, you will then be able to navigate all this energy in a certain direction.

Second, honesty matters a big deal in terms of expectations from the employee. A person should have a clear idea of ​​what the company expects, and if the expectations are not met, then one has the right to honest feedback on this matter. And the third is consistency and commitment to yourself, your ideals, and your approaches. In fact, I think that in a crisis, a manager should not invent anything new or make dramatic changes. The main thing is to be true to yourself. Of course, an individual approach to everyone has a place to be, and it is mandatory. Another thing is that it should not radically differ from person to person or between teams. Whatever teams I worked with, I followed my established outline, adapting where necessary to the client, business, or any other stakeholder. But there is only one single vector reflecting how you choose to interact with the environment.

Self-leadership, inspiration, and work on myself

Now, I have no official mentors, although structurally, there are people I report to. I constantly watch my leaders; there are things I like and use in my team in the future. There are types of communication and leadership styles that are not close to my heart, and I will not practice them. I experiment a lot, test approaches, and see what works and what doesn't. For my self-development as a leader, in my opinion, the most important thing is to work with a growing number of people. In general, each person, except for yourself, is a new separate experience that you require. For each specific case, you find a code.

I draw inspiration from my colleagues at work. One of these people is Andrii Poddubnyi, Software Development Director. I learned a lot from him, and I think it shows. There are many teams that respect him and drive inspiration from him, who have grown under his leadership and work consistently and effectively. I think his phenomenon is rooted in being brutally honest. People hear from him exactly the truth they need to hear. Thanks to him, I also learned about the reverse side of sole decision-making, felt all the pitfalls, drew conclusions, and built my culture.

Taboo: something that is always beyond the pale

There are things that I, by virtue of my business ethics, will never allow myself, and no circumstances will affect this. I can't imagine myself saying the phrase, "Your problems are not that serious." Now in our realities, there are no small or insignificant issues. You never know what is really hidden under this thick layer of emotions. I, as a leader, have no right to belittle the significance of everything human, either in thoughts or conversation. If a person completely trusts you and comes to share, this requires a reverent attitude. People are very good at feeling when they are not as important as they would like to be.

In this article, Cheslav Novytskyi, an Engineering Manager at Innovecs, describes how to lead an engineering team during challenging times.