One engineer dominates every conversation
What would you do?
You're in your morning stand-up. People in the team are not morning people. Coffee mugs are out, and your team is running through the usual updates.
For the fourth day in a row, the same engineer, let’s call her Alex, jumps in after almost every update. Challenges everything and everyone. Talks over quieter folks. Adds her opinion, and is generally quite disruptive.
She’s not being mean. In fact, she often makes strong points. But others find it hard to get a word in. The mood on the call gets heavier each time.
After the meeting, your Slack pings:
"Do you notice how Alex keeps interrupting everyone? I didn’t even bother finishing my update."
You’ve been thinking the same thing. But Alex is also your strongest backend developer - fast, smart, and confident. She means well, but she’s starting to have a negative impact without realizing it.
People are pulling back. Some stop sharing at all.
What would you do?
Outline
- 🔒 What are your options?
- 🔒 Breaking down each approach
- 🔒 What I would do in this situation
- 🔒 How the decision can backfire and what to do about it
- 🔒 Takeaways
- 🔒 Some useful links from me
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