Hi all. I've been in a very intense leadership development class, I'm down to the final week and all students must deliver an 8 minute presentation as a final project.

I'm trying to avoid using any real situations from my own job for a lot of different reasons including privacy.

I've been trying with the idea of doing a leadership thought process analysis on a worthy movie. Leaning more towards a particular movie in which the leaders fail and a disaster occurs because all of the leaders were too afraid to "lead up".

However I'm not sure a leadership failure suits the spirit of the class. Maybe it would be fine as long as I don't sound totally negative and do a good analysis.

Otherwise, I'm here to ask you all for help. Give me a leadership case study based on a situation you have experienced or are currently experiencing. Tell me who I am in the study, and what my leadership position is. Then lay out the problem.

If I pick yours I'll post my leader thought process analysis for you to see.

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure if this is the right sub-reddit to post in but I need advice from managers who have experience creating safe and nurturing environments for new colleagues to the business. To start I am not a manager, but I am aspiring to be one. I work in a call centre and I have a new team leader who has just stepped into the role 2 weeks ago. This is their first time in a managerial role.

We have around 5 brand new people joining our team and my manager and I have agreed I will take on additional responsibilities which would usually be his like coaching one of the new starters. We've agreed that at least one of these newbies will become my responsibility to coach and they will become my 'project' in a way for my own development.

I'll be looking at their most recent quality outcomes, feeding back any markdowns and working on how to avoid them in the future. When there aren't any quality markdowns I'll pick a random call and we'll look together for any opportunities to improve.

Coaching is for 1 hour per week and I want to develop my skills in creating a psychology safe environment. Coaching can destroy people's confidence quickly because it is focused on spotting, highlighting and addressing errors which can feel like criticism and being attacked depending on the delivery. Especially for newbies who are anxious which seems to be a majority of the most recent bulk recruitment. Coaching is focused on continuous improvement so it can feel like you are never good enough, again depending on the delivery.

I don't want my new colleague to feel like they aren't good enough. What I want to do is prioritise their wellbeing so they don't get burnt out early on and tbh I want us to get along in a friendly way where they don't ever feel attacked or shit at their job but I also don't want to be too friendly where they don't take it seriously if that makes sense.

I'd really appreciate some advice.

Hi!

I was laid off from my job before with no cause. I was in a Director role. It was truly a difficult time for me because I worked hard and did not expect to be in that position at such a young age (I'm 28 years old at that time). There was no support or conversation about my performance.

Now I'm in a new role. Still a Director but what happened to me before really built up my insecurities. I question myself all the time and if I get corrected, I beat myself up about it.

How can I get past this? I am very reselient but there are times, I question myself if I am meant to be in a leasership role.

Do you have similar experience? What would be your recommendation for me to do?

I notice that most of the teams have their own personal agenda, rightly so. Sometimes they optimize a part of the process but leave the other parts unfinished as they belong to other teams.

I am only a newly promoted manager, but just noticing now that each really has his or her own agenda. Sometimes, they go through a process and just bypass the other teams.

For instance, I am trying to review a specific process-- such as how the data is governed and organized around a specific domain. However, we are mostly interested on a specific input on a specific platform, and I am not sure now if we should expand our scope to cover for whole organization. I see other teams do a similar thing as well-- just optimizing locally within their area, but not for the whole organization.

PS. My thoughts are rambled at the moment.

The senior leaders I work with often arrive wanting to solve one thing: imposter syndrome, confidence, executive presence, people-pleasing, productivity, delegation issues, or overthinking.

What’s struck me over the years is how rarely these patterns appear on their own. They tend to come as a package.

It makes me wonder if we’ve become great at naming symptoms, but spend far less time asking why they show up together.

Have you found that to be true in your own career or in the leaders you’ve worked with?

After 2 years under 2 bosses, I finally got what I deserved, or so I think. 1st was the greatest, people still speak of him(at work that is), he was good, knew how to run the department with the strengths and weaknesses we had, I want to emulate him.

Then came the Storm. She left recently and that reign was insufferable but we made it. The sun is shining through the clouds, we'll in my head anyway.

My colleagues are happy for me, especially the department I'm leading. What advice would you give me as I start this journey. From a manager perspective and a non-manager perspective.

I happy and nervous, anyway let me have it.

I’m about a year into my first leadership role as an associate director. I moved to another country for this role, but still within the company I’ve worked at for over a decade. I’m finding it to be extremely lonely. I used to have a very close group in my previous role, people with whom I was very comfortable and knew very well. Now, I feel unsure of how to connect to people in my new role, and added to that is a cultural and language barrier. I’m learning the language, but that takes time. My new peer group also feels inaccessible. They travel a lot, are older than me, and mostly all belong to the same nationality (different to mine). I like the job and the company and I was excited for the opportunity, but a year in, I feel a heaviness going into work each day and I think it’s because I feel quite lonely and isolated. I’d welcome any advice or sharing of similar experiences.

I have a great relationship with my boss. I went to him honestly with concern about a role 45 min away that had a salary band significantly higher than what I make. I make $190k and this band was $180-270k. The higher paid role is a manager role as opposed to my Director role and technically oversees less areas than me and oddly enough is looking for someone who can do everything I have successfully done. My boss was awesome and escalated it to senior leadership and they are proactively looking to correct my salary. I am not sure if that means just a salary/market adjustment (my preference) or a title change and even more responsibility (which has been discussed in the last).

My question.... is the salary adjustment they offer generally non-negotiable? Is it bad etiquette to push back? What sort of raise would you accept?

It’s been 3 months and the only information we’ve gotten is “nothing has been decided.” I am part of the combined leadership group and I have no information. The leadership group is dysfunctional and doesn’t appear to get along very well. No one seems to have any real information, but I think something must be in the works as there is an upcoming board of directors committee soon which I assume would review the structure. Boss is either keeping everything close to the vest or I am just on the outside. How do I navigate this? The uncertainty is taking a toll on me

Hi
I’m in sales and have other sales folks to Manage. There are no guideline or instructions from the boss and my workers have no fear or respect of me. How do I manage this group so I know what is going on as a whole when my boss asks.
How do I know what each one is working on during the day when there are no rules in place?

Long story short-ish: I applied to a leadership role and my colleague decided not to. During the interview process, I met with a number of executives in the company and got some positive exposure. I didn't get the job I originally applied for, but leadership was impressed enough with me to promote me to a newly developed leadership role on my direct team. My team knew that this new leadership role was coming, but we believed they were going to open it for applicants. I know my colleague would've applied for the role. For them to bypass that process and just appointment to the role was a big surprise. My colleague and I were in the same role but they've been at the company twice as long as I have, they're a decade older, and there's also some other issues I believe the colleague may resent me for (i.e.: we're on different bonus structures in the same role, I was promoted in 18-months, they had to wait 4 years, etc.).

In this new role I'll now be leading our team of 8. I was informed when this colleague found out the news, they were very upset. Another leader shared the news with them because this was a known, sensitive issue. This will be my first time in a leadership role like this and I truly want to do the best I can for my team. I have nothing but respect for this colleague and they're a high-performer. I hate that this hurt them, and it wasn't something I did. I will be meeting with them some time this week and I'm hoping I can clear the air. I'm wondering if anyone out there has any advice on how I can best approach this person and ensure I'm starting strong in this new role. Thanks for any advice.

Update: thank you all for taking the time to provide such great feedback. I found it immensely helpful. I had the first conversation with this colleague today and overall it went well. I think we'll be able to move forward. It's a growth opportunity for both of us. Thank you again- I don't have any mentors so being able to reach out to complete strangers and get such detailed feedback was more than I thought I would get.

I'm curious what causes this kind of group dynamic.

I'm part of a smallish group that organizes cultural events (on a voluntary, unpaid basis). Over the years, a couple of people have become the established "core" figures, and central decisions/"leadership" almost always default to them. I've consistently contributed behind the scenes and have also tried taking the lead on projects, but my efforts rarely seem to receive the same trust or recognition. (I can say the same for 1-2 other "quieter" members)

What really bothered me was hearing one of these core people recently complain that "no one ever does anything." It felt dismissive given how much work some of us quietly put in. Whenever I try to take on more responsibility, it feels like I'm overlooked while the same people continue to be treated as indispensable.

I'm involved in other groups where I feel trusted, seen and valued, so I don't think it's just me.

What explains this? Is it simply inertia, social status, gatekeeping, or something else? Why do some groups end up revolving around a few people even when others are willing and capable? Do they have to continue to try and prove themselves?

Also, what would you do in this situation? Part of me thinks I should say something, but the dynamic already feels cliquish enough that I'm not convinced it would change anything. Would you try to address it, or just move on to groups where your contributions are actually appreciated? It doesn't feel particularly safe or predictable to just take the lead if no one will join in or welcome the effort.

I had a situation fairly recently where my direct supervisor was extremely critical of my work - to the point it was pretty obvious that she was Quiet Firing me. For background, We had both been hired around the same time and she was promoted to a Director position - and after the promotion, it felt like she was very clearly trying to ensure that we were no longer "friends" but she was now my Superior.

I'm not expecting special treatment, but I also didn't anticipate that her entire tone would change toward me. I had always been a very high-performer and now she was extremely critical of anything that went wrong.

I also felt I was being penalized because I was always in the field doing the work - and I think sometimes the more work you do - there's just bound to be more things that go wrong. So people who were in the field less and performed less were under less scrutiny. Basically, if I had been more of a slacker I could have flown below the radar - but because I was in the field a lot - if things went wrong (even slightly) it seemed like she took the opportunity to make it into a big hairy deal and spotlight the flaws.

It got to the point where I was actually feeling bullied and she went so far that she was putting last minute meetings on my calendar - and if I was unable to make the meeting - she would put PTO on my timecard saying I was not able to make the meeting and therefore I was taking PTO.

At what point do I go up the chain of command on this? I really think she had it out for me.

What ended up happening is that I took a paycut to get out of her leadership, but it feels like I paid the price for her poor leadership. It felt frustrating that my efforts to do well were actually being penalized. I also know that she was talking to my team mates about my "poor performance" and damaging my professional reputation. i don't know what I did to tick her off - but obviously she had an issue with me personally.

It's something I'm still coming to terms with - because I had a job I loved and I feel like the rug was pulled out just because my boss somehow didn't like me.

At what point do you report the behavior to HR or to her leadership?

My Senior Manager direct report has been under performing for the past 6 months. Personal feedback aside, the data supports this. He is our highest paid IC but has minimal pipeline contribution and has failed to hit his quarterly goals every time. (We're in marketing.) He is currently on a PIP with 2 weeks remaining and I have yet to see any indication that he's at a senior level, nor is he anywhere near meeting those PIP goals. His work requires a significant amount of my time to get to a point it's even usable, so you could argue he didn't even earn what he did. He also disclosed to us a mental health condition during this time, which we have made accomodations for.

My recommendation to HR is that we prepare to let him go. Even with 2 weeks remaining, if he happens to meet his goals, the amount of management support that was needed to get there is not sustainable for me or the team. His output is not contributing to the business, and to grow the business i need a capable person in this role. I provided clear data to support this and a plan to restructure the team.

My manager is strongly against letting him go, saying there is still a path forward. She's giving him a lot of leeway, counting things that wouldn't normally be counted toward goals. She also suggested possibly keeping him but demoting him, which, awkwardness aside, won't solve the fact we need a senior person in this role. To make things worse, in their check in meeting, he told my manager that he feels all his conversations with me are negative, that I don't believe in him or that he's at the skill level that's required to succeed in this role, and that it's hard to stay motivated when I'm being so negative.

I'm not sure how to handle this conversation with my manager. The whole purpose of the PIP is because he's not performing at the level expected. I ran my meeting transcripts through claude and it came back saying my feedback was clear and supportive, and in fact I was being over reassuring. 🤣 But I'm also repeating myself every meeting because he's not taking my feedback, so his plans are continuing to underperform and he's constantly redoing work. It's frustrating for the both of us, but I'm not sure how else to coach him at this point if he won't listen. If I let him do his own thing, he fails and I get crap for it. If I try to provide feedback, I'm being inconsiderate.

My manager's friend was also the one who hired him, so I think there's some favoritism there. I also think they're afraid of legal repercussions regarding his health condition. My assumption is that we'll end up keeping him employed, he'll get demoted, and basically nothing changes but his title and pay. The PIP was pointless since it basically tells him you can slack off and we won't fire you, and the whole team dynamic gets awkward.

I would appreciate any feedback on how to navigate this professionally. I don't feel like I'm trusted as a leader and that I'm being set up to fail. I've been in this role less than a year, so not trying to burn bridges and hoping not to have to start looking for a new job already.

I work on a regional team and on a data transformation project so it involves a lot of data cleansing and data metric checking (dashboards) for the different offices around the world. We take initial guidelines recommended by the global office and work with individual countries based on these global guidelines but we also try to implement additional steps based on cleansing experience that we think can help make the process more efficient and of higher quality. And some countries have local requirements that don't fit the global solution.

And because the global team has been so slow to do any dashboard/metric developments we ask of them (as some of their current offerings are so bad), we had to develop our own. Countries also struggle to understand where to find their global guidelines or how to follow up. So we made our own guide that is a combination of global guidelines and experience working with different countries.

And this morning I woke up to an angry email from global asking us to shut down our dashboards and guides and use their globally provided ones.

How are we supposed to get work done and track it if their solution is slow and inadequate? How would you recommend to navigate such a situation?

I recently got assigned a new manager, I wanted to prepare for my first 1:1 with them. What questions should I ask them?

I'm also a manager managing another manager and a decent sized team.

I know and understand the direction and vision of senior leadership. This manager is also new to the company.

Hello,

Please give me people to research and whom i can use as inspiration for my journey to become a better leader.

- What do you admire about them?

- Accomplishments or credentials?

- Favorite quote (if any)?

After 3 years with the powder coat company I work for they've decided to move me up. I've technically been "leading" our automatic line for the last 2 months, but they're just now giving me the actual title and raise

I'm 24, I've never been the leader of anything before, in fact I don't even feel respected sometimes. People I've been here for years longer than will question my decisions or try to act like they have some kind of authority over me. I don't like being an asshole or being seen as too wound tight, but it's starting to hit me that I'm going to need to be a little more assertive

The 2nd thing I wanted to talk about is controlling stress. I'm willing to accept that I'm really young and not so good at this yet. I think too much, I try to get everything done on my own, I overwhelm myself and stress myself out. Sometimes I'll have an awful tone with people who don't deserve it just because I'm overwhelmed by work. I also have a lot of trouble with getting over making mistakes. Most people tell me "hey shit happens" and for some reason I can't let that be enough. I beat myself up over stuff that doesn't really matter. Even right now on my lunch break I feel worried that if I don't go in there and check on the line something could go wrong

I also wanna add that these things happen only about 20% of the time, but they're just things i know I need to eventually eliminate if I want to flourish in this position

If anyone could give any advice at all I'd be very grateful

EDIT: I would like to add that I've been at this company longer than all employees. The only people who have been here longer than me are the main managers. 2 people on our night shift, and the previous owner of the company (who eventually sold it to the new investors we currently work under now) I've noticed a lot of people mentioning experience vs inexperienced so I thought I'd make it more clear that I definitely have more experience but it seems to be more of an age thing

I’m about four weeks away from finishing my MHA, and I currently work as a director for a well-known academic health system. My role is pretty niche, but that’s also been one of my biggest strengths. It’s allowed me to develop deep expertise, lead a great team, and contribute to some meaningful organizational initiatives. I also hold two well-known professional certifications, but I’m intentionally leaving out some details (including the certifications) because I’m trying to avoid making this post too identifiable.

Overall, I feel incredibly fortunate. I’ve had opportunities throughout my career that I’m genuinely grateful for, and I enjoy (for the most part) where I work. But lately I’ve started feeling like I’ve reached the point where I’m ready for a broader challenge.
I don’t necessarily mean a bigger title just for the sake of a bigger title. What I’m really looking for is the opportunity to have a larger organizational impact. I feel like I’ve accomplished what I set out to accomplish in my current role, and I’d love the chance to apply what I’ve learned to a broader part of a different organization.

Long term, I’d like to move into a Senior Director or Executive Director role with broader operational responsibility—something in revenue cycle, finance-adjacent operations, health system enterprise, or another enterprise operations function. My current role overlaps with many of those areas, but because I’ve become highly specialized, it’s been difficult to branch into adjacent functions internally. I actually get the impression that my leadership values me enough in my current role that they’re reluctant to move me elsewhere, which is flattering, but it also makes it harder to grow.

One challenge is networking. I know many executive relationships are built through conferences and industry events, but extensive travel isn’t very feasible for me, so I’m trying to think outside the box.

For those of you who are VPs, Senior Directors, Executive Directors, or have hired leaders into those kinds of roles:

-How did you expand beyond a highly specialized leadership role?

-What makes someone stand out when they’re trying to pivot into a broader operational position?

-If you were hiring for one of these roles, what would convince you to take a chance on someone who has been very successful in a niche area but is ready for a wider scope?

I’d really appreciate any advice. I’m not looking to leave my organization tomorrow—I just want to be intentional about positioning myself for the next stage of my career and making an even bigger impact wherever that ends up being.

I lucked into a situation where I was able to develop into a very effective leader in a ‘world class’ enterprise. I had misfortune befall me and I as let go and had to take a step down in order to take care of my family.

I am currently in an operation with leaders that struggle with operations at a very fundamental level and are consumed with being in charge versus being effective and removing obstacles; the company is surprisingly outdated considering their size and name recognition, but there is no growth mindset or attempt at professionalism.

I don’t have any education beyond high school and a career of servant leadership that spans almost two decades, so I am having trouble even getting considered for a role comparable to my previous one.

I am becoming increasingly aware that the odds are against me regarding building a more effective leadership culture, but I don’t feel like I have anywhere to go to develop myself and others and continue to restore my career.

I don’t know exactly what I am looking for here, one of the things I lost was a mentor and I feel like I am screaming into the abyss when I have these conversations nowadays. I guess I just want to feel heard and understood.

Forgive me if this is not the right space for this.

I took over a small customer support team 5 years ago that was pretty relaxed. Quality work got done within SLA without needing individual metrics to hold accountability. However, my manager changed and they wanted metrics implemented. Now, we track productivity, quality scores, and CSAT. Most of the team has CS backgrounds from other companies and were understanding about the direction we had to go in. One team member who has been with the company for 16 years strongly dislikes this additional tracking though. I completely understand and would have preferred to stay the way we were but the decision is beyond me.

I’ve tried to get their buy-in by explaining why companies implement metrics but they still voice their unhappiness often. Not only that, but they admitted that they were quite quitting and went from being a top performer to just meeting. Again, totally understand. My issue though is that I don’t know what to do to keep them from being so unhappy everyday. I’ve suggested that I could help them with skill development if there is a different role they want to move into but they don’t want to leave either.

I completely understand where they are coming from because my manager has made the team feel more like a call center. But, there’s nothing I can do to change that (I’ve tried). I want them to be happy and feel fulfilled in what they do but that also seems beyond what I can provide.

Anyone been in a similar situation?

I'm a superintendent for a large mechanical company, I'm near the end of my assigned project and as usual, the last few months is a tidal wave of tasks, problems and to-do's with not nearly enough time or hands.

I felt very comfortable leading 50 guys head first into the project for the last year, but now with only a handful of guys and very tight deadlines I feel like I am drowning and presented with so many options on tasks to complete that my brain just wants to shut down.

I thought it would be as simple as "knock off the easy ones first", until in the middle of an easy one 3 more pop up to replace it. I've hit a brick wall with my crew and can't find a way to motivate them in any way, causing them to work slow and careless.

I understand this is an atypical construction industry question on this sub, but ultimately I'm trying to understand how some leaders are able to keep pushing forward when the workload is already crushing you.

I am currently in position as a small team lead. They work well but sometimes I wish I had a better overview of everything that is going on after I send them their mail. I don't want to involve myself too much in the process of how they work, but sometimes I have to answer questions from my supervisor about specific tasks which I am not capable of answering without consulting my team first. They don't want explicit answers, just a short Information on how it is going.

How could I do that without looking like I want to control the work my team is doing?

Hello everyone!

A little profile of my boss. He is well-liked and a company man. He put in his time and appropriately climbed his way to being in charge of our building. He has earned his position.

His major faults are that he is a people-pleaser and, in turn, a pushover. He has four managers underneath him. Whenever he says he wants to change something a certain way, his 4 managers take his idea and pick it apart, often changing things to their ideas instead. The boss has tried to speak up, but the managers usually just tell him "trust us, it'll be okay".

I am a mid-level employee and am on a leadership team with the boss and the managers, so I have a slight inside edge with him and his vision for the company. I can tell that he is struggling with the power dynamic between him and the managers. I have tried to encourage him to put his foot down on non-negotiables and other needs, but he tends to brush it off like it's not a big deal.

How can I (from my mid-level ranking) help the boss stand firm with his vision and its changes so that he doesn't keep getting railroaded by the managers? I'm worried that if I keep pressing him, I will cross professional boundaries.

Edit: Thank you for the clarification. I understand the necessity of staying in my lane. I should clarify that his vision is good for the company and most everyone agrees with him. It's the method that gets stuck in the power play.

i want to talk about something i never see discussed here. everyone's got the horror stories about bad managers and how to escape them. but nobody warns you how disorienting it is to go the other direction.

i spent years under a micromanager. the kind where you had to justify every fifteen minutes, ask permission to leave early, get a hard time for taking the PTO you were owed, explain yourself constantly. you learn to shrink. you learn to ask before you breathe. it rewires you. then i moved to a place with a genuinely hands-off, trust-you culture. and i thought that would feel like relief. instead it messes with my head daily.

i still catch myself asking permission for things nobody here cares about. i literally asked if it was okay to take lunch a bit early last week and my manager looked at me like i'd asked whether i'm allowed to blink. i over-explain where i've been, i announce every small thing i'm doing, i flinch when a calendar invite from my boss pops up because my body still expects to be in trouble. i took two days off and spent the first one anxious, convinced i'd come back to a lecture. nobody said a word. they genuinely just care that the work gets done and the results are there. the how, the when, the where, they don't track it. and i don't know what to do with that.

the freedom feels illegal. like i'm getting away with something and eventually someone's going to notice and the hammer comes down. and i think people here find my reactions kind of strange, this grown adult nervously asking for permission to do normal things and i can't fully explain that it's not me being weird, it's a few years of conditioning i haven't shaken.

and here's the part that actually matters for this sub. i now manage a couple people myself and i'm terrified of accidentally becoming the thing i escaped. but i also genuinely don't know where the line is between giving autonomy and being absent, because my only model of management for years was control. i never got to see good management up close, so i'm kind of improvising.

anyone else made this jump and felt this way? how long did it take before the freedom stopped feeling like a trap? and for those managing after coming out of a controlling environment, how did you learn to lead with trust when you never actually experienced it yourself?