Managing Through Crises and Lessons Learned: Insights for Leaders

In this episode, we delve into the world of effective crisis management. Discover valuable insights and strategies for engineering leaders in this interview with Hima Madala, a seasoned engineering manager at Disney with a proven track record of leading teams through crises.

Hima shares her experiences and lessons learned from managing up to senior management during a crisis. She emphasizes the significance of transparency, trust, and clear expectations in fostering successful communication and collaboration with senior management during challenging times.

We also explore engineering managers’ critical role in managing customers and peers during a crisis. Hima discusses the importance of empathy, responsiveness, and transparency in maintaining customer relationships and offers examples of successful customer communication and collaboration during a crisis.

In addition, Hima provides valuable insights into managing the team during a crisis. She highlights the essential elements of leadership, trust, and empathy in guiding a team through tough situations and shares examples of effective team communication and collaboration during a crisis.

Lastly, we discuss best practices for managing crises, as Hima imparts her knowledge on preparing for, responding to, and recovering from crisis situations. She emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and improvement to prepare for future challenges.

CHAPTERS

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:30 How do you balance fostering a culture of innovation and risk-taking?
• 1:38 Accountability
• 2:31 Examples
• 6:36 When the mistake was like a direct result of your decision!
• 8:52 Strategies for managing stress on the team
• 10:31 On-call rotations and learnings
• 12:16 Capturing Lessons
• 13:50 Chaos Engineering, Automation, Stress Tests, etc.
• 15:40 Documenting
• 16:49 Other thoughts
• 17:45 Keeping perspective
• 19:04 Contact

Resources

https://www.linkedin.com/in/himatejam/