In this episode, we discuss a leader of leaders’ struggle with a member of their team over-committing and throwing their team under the bus.

I’m a leader of leaders. One of the leaders on my team has what we’ll call a bad habit. At the start of a sprint, he will agree to a certain amount of features to be completed. Without fail, halfway through the sprint, he informs us that “the team” has decided that they can’t finish all of the features, or that they will be late in doing so. I’m trying to coach him out of this habit, but it still happens, without fail, every delivery cycle. He seems to feel he’s “voicing the concerns of the team”, when in reality it feels like he’s throwing them under the bus. What else can I say that makes it clear to him that his tactic is both passive-aggressive AND harmful to his team?

Don’t forget to read Jane McGonigal’s “Reality is Broken” along with us for our bookclub!