Coaching cases · Anonymized actual case · Conversations & trust
A place to begin
An IT project manager explored the tension between reliable delivery, repeated departures and a team that rarely spoke up.
B2B SaaS and IT development · project manager · delivery pressure and team departures
The starting situation
The projects met deadlines and customers received quick responses, yet people continued to leave. Questions were also disappearing from meetings. The manager had understood reliable delivery as the main sign of a well-functioning team. Coaching opened space to consider what working in that team felt like, alongside the results it produced.
What coaching explored
The conversations explored technical decisions concentrated with the manager, rapid intervention under pressure, corrective feedback and task-focused 1on1s. When describing project risk, the leader noticed tension in the chest and shoulders and an immediate urge to check.
Checking was connected with responsibility and the wish to prevent failure. The inquiry considered what happened when intervention arrived before a colleague had time to think, and whether safety could also come from shared criteria and appropriate support.
Practices the leader tried
The leader clarified levels of technical decision authority, matters requiring approval and the boundaries of recoverable mistakes. Meetings made more room for questions before answers, and 1on1s included development as well as delivery.
The account describes anxiety continuing at first. Instead of treating that feeling as an instruction to intervene, the manager practiced referring to the agreement and waiting. Problems that emerged could then inform a conversation about clearer criteria or additional support.
Changes reflected on in the account
The published account describes less direct intervention, more independent judgment and greater willingness to raise questions and mistakes. A meaningful shift for the leader was seeing work move forward without checking every detail personally. These were changes in everyday interactions as well as in the allocation of decisions.
A question for HR
HR can ask about the experience behind apparently reliable delivery. When did questions begin to disappear? Which decisions can people genuinely make, and what happens after they raise a risk? Discussing delivery safeguards alongside learning opportunities can make the leader’s development more concrete.
Questions about this topic
What challenge did this leader bring?
An IT project manager explored the tension between reliable delivery, repeated departures and a team that rarely spoke up.
What practices did the leader explore?
The leader clarified levels of technical decision authority, matters requiring approval and the boundaries of recoverable mistakes. Meetings made more room for questions before answers, and 1on1s included development as well as delivery.