The Brilliant Engineer Who Misses Commitments

The situation

Your best engineer has solved problems no one else could, and your largest client asks for this engineer by name. Over the last year this engineer missed most commitments made to other teams, without warning, and two team leads now plan around the engineer rather than with them. The client wants the engineer promoted to lead its account team of twelve, and hints the renewal depends on it. The engineer wants the promotion.

Your decision

Do you promote the engineer now, later, or not at all, and what do you do about the missed commitments?

Make your decision & compare with TRU

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Source context

Foundation: Person consistently does what they say they’ll do.

Vanguard Leadership, Volume 1 · vl1-ch10, Layer 1: Individual Reliability (vl1-ch10.c005)

Layer 2: Team Trust (12-24 months through vulnerability and delivery)

Vanguard Leadership, Volume 1 · vl1-ch11, Section 3 (vl1-ch11.c004)

How would you make your case?

1. State your decision.
2. Explain your rationale in up to 250 words.
3. Identify the evidence and sources you would use.
4. Say what would change your mind within 90 days.
5. Explain what you would not do, and why.

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