Midnight Musings

Tag: Team Dynamics

  • Right Person. Wrong Role.

    Right Person. Wrong Role.

    One of the hardest parts of leadership is accepting that good people can still be wrong for a role.

    I once heard Girish say:
    “Right person for the right job.”

    Simple sentence. Difficult responsibility.

    Because eventually every leader faces the same uncomfortable reality:
    the person may be hardworking, loyal, and trying their best – and still not be the right fit anymore.

    You see it slowly.
    Missed ownership.
    Repeated escalations.
    The team quietly compensating in the background.

    And this is where leaders hesitate.

    Not because they don’t see the problem.
    Because they do.

    They delay the conversation hoping time will solve what clarity already knows.

    But keeping the wrong person in the wrong role too long is unfair to everyone involved – especially them.

    Hard decisions do not require emotionless leadership.
    They require calm leadership.

    Be prepared with data.
    Be clear.
    Don’t over-explain yourself.

    The best leaders handle difficult decisions quietly.
    No drama.
    No corporate theater.
    Just clarity.

    Because delayed decisions rarely become easier.
    They usually become expensive.

    #midnightmusings from the trenches of delivery.

  • Still Working on It

    Still Working on It

    Escalation calls are every program manager’s rite of passage. You join with no solution, an angry customer, and the uneasy feeling that your only update is still, “We’re working on it.”

    About nine years ago, I was in one of those situations on a BI project. A critical issue had dragged on for weeks. Three weeks in, I took a pause — stopped defending, turned my camera on, and just listened. I acknowledged their frustration and was honest about what we were trying, where we were stuck, and what we still didn’t know.

    Eventually, when we finally resolved the issue, the real outcome was unexpected — they trusted me more than before. Somehow, the escalation built a stronger relationship instead of breaking it.

    Customers understand technical challenges; they’ve faced them too. When you’re transparent — when you say, this is the problem, this is what we’re trying, and we don’t yet have the answer — you build trust even when things are breaking.

    So the next time you walk into one of those fiery calls, remember — you don’t always need a solution. Sometimes, you just need to listen.

    — Midnight musings from the trenches of delivery.

    #Midnight-Musings