Ziv was appointed as Tokido’s R&D manager just around three months ago. He is responsible for 12 developers but in the process of hiring more employees. In his previous position, he managed a development team of 15 people in an advanced startup, which he joined immediately after he had left the famous military unit. For years he had wanted to advance, to become an R&D manager and then perhaps establish and become the CEO of his own startup company. When approached by Tokido, he knew this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. It was clear to him that he was ripe for promotion, but at least it was initially a smaller team than the teams he managed in the past.
The first month on the job was exciting, he was exposed to management, board, investors and customers
The first month on the job was exciting. There were many new things to learn, meetings of the company’s management, and he was suddenly exposed to investors, sales, and many other aspects of the role which he was not familiar with before – it was exactly what he was looking for. He got along well with the employees, just like in his previous position, thanks to his ability to dive into details and help people solve problems. The CEO, who was an amazing salesman, trusted him with his eyes closed and was not ashamed to say that he “doesn’t understand anything about development.” Ziv implemented what he saw Shay, the VP of Development at his previous company, do. Shay was a brilliant engineer, who always knew how to be two steps ahead of everyone.
He was quite confused and not mastering his tasks
Despite this, after a few months, Ziv discovered that he was quite confused and not mastering his tasks to the level that he wanted. The CEO, who seemed to be a friend in the first few weeks, became stressed after a big demonstration for a client was delayed and had turned out less impressive than he had imagined, and, additionally, because Ziv was unable to recruit new people according to the plan that had been set out. Ziv found himself spending hours building fancy Excel spreadsheets for a board meeting budget presentation; he was never exposed to the wages of employees, nor the costs of the equipment and subcontractors, but his CEO came back and rejected the data because “the amounts had come out too expensive.” In his previous company he got everything he wanted. He found himself agreeing (at first with joy and later with gritted teeth) to the requests of the marketing manager who used to invite him to coffee in the afternoon, telling him about the exciting business opportunities that depended on the development of small and simple product features.
In meetings all day and staying into the night, sitting alone in the lab, coding and trying to solve problems for the demo
Two of the most experienced engineers announced that they were leaving without warning. Ziv found himself in meetings all day and staying into the night, sitting alone in the lab, coding and trying to solve problems for the demo. He had never felt so alone. The pressure was pushing on him from all directions – from his counterparts in the organization, from the CEO, from the members of the board of directors who were kind but asked questions for which he had no answer, and even from the employees who didn’t seem to ‘lie on the fence’ as he expected them to do.
Lashing out at people at work and at home, regretting it a moment later
He hadn’t gone to the gym in weeks, and already three times he had to stay late on the weekly afternoon that he used to devote to his children. He found himself lashing out at people at work and at home, regretting it a moment later. Efrat, the company’s human resources manager, recognized Ziv’s predicament, and the gaps in knowledge and experience between what he did in his previous position and what was required of him now. She introduced him to Frida, the organizational consultant that advised her. Ziv’s dynamic with Frida was pleasant; she immediately understood the dynamic between Ziv and his team leaders, and even offered interesting insights. However, Ziv felt that the answers he received from her were partial. Maybe because she came from a different background than his, or because she focused on human relations and dynamics and less on the technological and budgetary challenges.
Although Frida made it clear to him that she was bound to secrecy, he found himself thinking many times before each sentence, unable to fight the fear that weaknesses or doubts about his character might come up in her regular meetings with the CEO and the other VPs.
Ddiscuss difficulties, go up to the macro and help with the micro
We founded HALO Team to help Ziv and other industry technology managers facing similar challenges. With extensive experience in technological management roles in startup companies and medium-sized companies, both private and public, we are partners for open and honest dialogue. We provide a discreet environment where you can discuss any administrative and technical difficulties, assisting to problem solve at the macro level to formulate priorities as well as down to the micro level, offering you solutions for the immediate term and the next quarters. Additionally, we are able to take on supporting tasks, such as helping to build management teams, recruitment, creating workshops for team building, and more.
