How to Lead Your Team when the House Is on Fire
The tech industry is going through challenging times: from one side, funding dried up due to the end of the Zero Interest-Rate Period; on the other one, the rapid rise of AI disrupts previously safe domains and business models. These forces are pushing companies to "wartime" mode, a concept I first read about in the works of David B. Black, some of which were published in "Wartime Software: Building Software when Speed Matters"; or the Peacetime CEO / Wartime CEO article from Ben Horowitz, similarly from more than a decade ago.
These works describe "wartime" as an existential fight for survival that requires a different type of leadership compared to the relative prosperity of "peacetime". Many of the principles outlined by both Horowitz and Black are as relevant as ever for Engineering Managers leading in today's climate. For EMs, wartime means leading low-morale teams through ambiguity, hard constraints, frequently changing goals, and intense pressure to perform. It can feel like working in a house on fire. What can an EM do in this situation?
Wartime doesn't change these fundamentals, but it does require some shifts in approach and priorities. Let's go through them by focus areas.
