365 Days of Stories – Day 15: When Tough Decisions Had to Be Made

365 Days of Stories – Day 15: When Tough Decisions Had to Be Made

This story is from an enterprise account where we were managing the entire suite of applications, handling both development and support.

I was heading technology for the account, leading a team of 130+ people, split across application development and support.

🚀 The First Month – Observing & Analyzing As I took over, I spent a month analyzing: ✔ How things were working. ✔ Team alignment & ownership. ✔ Understanding the complete system architecture.

💡 Everything seemed like BAU—until a boardroom meeting with the CEO changed everything.

The CEO’s Priority List – A Crisis Unfolds During a status review, we presented 10-15 CEO-driven projects—all were delayed.

🚧 Some were behind by months (3-6 months or more). 🚧 The CEO was furious. 🚧 He instructed the finance team to STOP our payments.

💰 The money at stake was huge. My super boss was in panic mode.

He turned to me and said: 💬 “Partha, what do you need to fix this?”

The Structural Issue – Architects & Ownership I had already sensed a strange issue in the team structure: 📌 Development & support reported to me. 📌 But architects—who play a crucial role—were reporting elsewhere.

💡 I told my super boss: “I need direct access to all architects and complete control over execution.”

📌 He agreed instantly. I now had the power to fix the problem—but time was ticking, and payments were on hold.

Identifying the Root Cause – Leadership Misalignment I held 1-on-1 meetings with 11 managers and all senior tech leads to assess the ground reality.

🚧 Managers didn’t grasp the urgency of the situation. 🚧 They weren’t stepping up to fix the delays. 🚧 Tech Leads knew the systems inside out, but managers were acting as non-technical coordinators.

I went back to my boss and said: 💬 “Managers aren’t aligned to the urgency. We should elevate Tech Leads and let managers go”

He simply said: 💬 “Do what’s needed.”

The Toughest Decision of My Career I called all 11 managers—explained the expectations.

📌 A few aligned to the new approach. 📌 But 9 out of 11 didn’t, and I had to let them go.

💡 In just one month, at a new company, in a new account, I had to release 9 managers.

At the time, I strongly believed: First, work for the company, then the team, then yourself.

I thought whatever was good for the company had to be done. I didn’t consider the personal impact on individuals—my focus was on turning the project around.

But over time, I questioned this philosophy. 💡 Now, I believe a leader’s first responsibility is to the people. ✔ First, people. ✔ Then, the team. ✔ Then, the company.

Because when you take care of people, they take care of the company.

But this mindset can’t rely on just one leader—it has to be ingrained in a company’s DNA.

💡 Do you agree? Should leadership always prioritize people first?👇

hashtag#365DaysOfStories hashtag#Day15 hashtag#TurnaroundStories hashtag#Entrepreneurship hashtag#Leadership hashtag#StartupJourney hashtag#PersonalBrand hashtag#ElevateIdea