Managing a Team in Difficult Situations

There can be many reasons a company or team is undergoing rough patches. The company might be going through a crunch time, or the team may be near a significant and hard deadline, and not possess the bandwidth to meet it. As a leader, it’s the responsibility of a manager to steer through these challenging situations.

Difficult times

In February 2020, nearly all companies worldwide were directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19. The aftermath of the pandemic is still present in our lives. It was a difficult time for most companies, as almost every team was affected for a very long time. For some companies, it was extremely difficult, as their revenue dropped by more than 80%.

Most engineers, particularly senior engineers, are compensated via company stocks in modern tech companies. Many tech companies went through a rough patch, with a significant drop in their stock prices during the pandemic. We also saw recessions during which stock markets tanked, which affected the overall morale of the teams.

Sometimes, ...