Sonali joins EdtoWork, an ed-tech company, as the Learning Director of its Advantage division, which caters to high school students preparing to study abroad. She is an established leader in the industry and has proven her capabilities in previous engagements with various companies.

She walked into the EdtoWork office full of positive energy. After all, the last couple of years had been really hard, thanks to the pandemic, and starting afresh with a new organisation was a welcome opportunity. She walked in with a bright smile and asked her way around till she finally located her manager sitting at a far remote corner of the office. She had expected to be greeted by someone at the reception, but she shrugged off the thought thinking that that was how startups functioned. She introduced herself to her manager, Rajeev, who gave her a big smile and asked her to make herself comfortable. He hurriedly added that he was swamped and he would catch up with her later in the day. For now, he wanted her to meet the team and get to know them. With that, he turned his attention back to his system, and Sonali was left to fend for herself. She then walked around the office, trying to locate the Advantage team. After some initial asking around, she finally found her team. There were about 10 of them; she assumed that the rest must be the Sales folks who would be away on the field. She introduced herself - a sixth sense told her there was some hostility, but she brushed the thought aside without giving too much thought.

Soon, her team HR, Ashwini, walked up to her and called her inside a big conference room. Without wasting much time other than the basic introductions, Ashwini handed her some documents she needed to sign. Just before leaving the room, Ashwini winked at her and said, By the way, the team is not very excited that they have someone between them and Rajeev. Rajeev is hugely popular with his team and they absolutely adore him. Not for nothing has he been the best-rated manager by team members three years in a row. I really hope they treat you well. Before Sonali could react, Ashwini had left the room.

Soon after, Sonali got her office laptop with the specifications she had requested during the pre-induction process. Waiting for her in her inbox was an hour-long team meeting invite starting at 3 pm from Rajeev. Since it was already close to 1 pm, she decided to check with her team for lunch. She could see that most of them were preparing to go for lunch. She asked them brightly, Can I join you guys for lunch? To her utter surprise, instead of graciously agreeing, one of them said, Well, we actually go for lunch with the Opportunity team, and they might not feel comfortable if you are around. Why dont you go with Rajeev? Sonali couldnt believe that they actually turned down her company! Managing a stiff smile, she walked back to where Rajeev was sitting earlier. Now he was nowhere to be seen. She finally found him in one of the big conference rooms, sitting alone, finishing his lunch. Putting in as much positivity as she could gather, Sonali asked him if she could join him for lunch. To her relief, he waved her in, and they soon started chatting. Rajeev asked her whether she had met the team. She said she had wanted to mention the lunch episode, but before she got the opportunity, he started telling her how fantastic the team was, how dedicated and smart. Sonali decided to keep quiet. Rajeev went on to say to her that his only worry was that despite such a winning team, his learners werent happy - neither with the courses that were tailor-made for them nor with the student support that they extended to these learners. Rajeev confided that the ratings were dipping and the top leadership was not amused. He went on to say that they believed Sonali would be able to crack the puzzle and bring the team their much-deserved appreciation. Did Sonali sense a tone of bitterness in Rajeev while he said this? Sonali promised to do her best.

Sonali walked into the meeting room at 2:57 pm, only to find it completely deserted. Till 3:10, there was no sign of anyone. She called Rajeev to make sure she was in the right room. He laughed and confided to her that he always came in late to meetings so that the team could settle in comfortably before the meeting started. The group started drifting in with coffee mugs casually by 3:15 and took another 5 minutes to settle down. The meeting started.

Rajeev asked Luna, the project coordinator for Advantage, to pull the previous weeks data. To Sonalis utter shock, most of the sheet showed red or amber. As per the sheet, course launches had happened late, actual course coverage varied from the published syllabus, student support sessions werent held on time, and queries from prospective students werent being responded to. Rajeev looked at the sheet and asked each team lead to present their respective cases. One by one, each lead stood up, spoke of the challenges they faced on the ground, spoke of how they were just working on a revolutionary idea to turn things around, and how they needed Rajeevs cooperation and understanding. When Sonali asked about the delay of a specific course that showed red consistently for the previous three weeks, Guru, the Content team lead, told her sheepishly that the content developer, Hansa, had gone on a week-long vacation to the hills and had been suddenly taken ill there. She was expected to be back the next week, post which she would launch the course since she was closest to the content. On close questioning, Sonali also found that the previous three student-support sessions could not be held as the student-support team had mixed up the student data. As a result, the invites/notifications were sent to the wrong set of students.

Throughout the meeting, Sonali couldnt help noticing that none of the team leads missed adding how lucky they were to have a leader like Rajeev who trusted them and let them try out their innovative ideas and how they all wanted to make Rajeev and EdtoWork proud. Rajeev thanked them profusely for their dedication and hard work. He added that now that Sonali was here, he hoped he would get some more time to focus on strategising how to grow EdtoWork to 5x of its current revenue in the next five years. He also added that it was now Sonalis job to turn the scoresheet green. The meeting was over, and everyone walked out with happy, cheerful faces.

Rajeev asked Sonali to stay back. So, what do you think of your team? Without waiting for an answer, he continued, you must have noticed how well-bonded the team is! These are all bright, young people trying to do great work. I know they are not quite getting the results - and that is why the top leadership has brought you in. We want you to motivate this team further and help them reach the projected outcomes. That will give me some time to spend on my thought-leadership papers. But dont you ruffle them a lot. After all, we dont want to spend the next three months hiring new folk and training them, do we? Who has the time? With that, he smiled brightly and walked out of the room. Sonali was left staring after him.

Project Objectives

1. Analyse the key factors responsible for the teams poor performance
2. Recommend the best strategies to overcome the business crisis
3. Critique the role of Rajeev as a leader to foster business growth and team growth

In the next segment, you will be introduced to the assessment questions of this project.

Post going through the given use-case in the previous segment, answer the following questions:

Q 1. These are all bright, young people trying to do great work. We want you to motivate this team further and help them reach the projected outcomes. That will give me some time to spend on my thought-leadership papers. But dont you ruffle them a lot. After all, we dont want to spend the next three months hiring new folks and training them, do we? (5 + 5 = 10 marks)

1. What do these words from Rajeev tell you about him as a leader? What do you think about his commitment to work?
2. Based on the use-case, do you agree that these are bright, young people trying to do great work? Give reasons for your answer.

Q2. How would you describe Rajeevs leadership style? Do you think he is an inspirational leader or a collaborative one? What do you think are the top 3 reasons behind the teams poor performance? (2 + 2 + 6 = 10 marks)

Q3. Keeping in mind Rajeevs leadership style, if Sonali were to turn things around and drive up the performance of the Advantage team, what leadership style should she adopt? Give reasons for your answer. (8 marks)

Q4. Putting yourself in Sonalis shoes, what would be your next steps? List down the steps chronologically - your aim is to drive up the performance of the Advantage team - dont hesitate to take harsh steps if you absolutely need to. (12 marks)