Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Managing Energy: A Team in Crisis

Goldberg, Rebecca,...

Case

Managing Energy: A Team in Crisis

Goldberg, Rebecca; James, Erika Hayes

OB-1023 | Published July 12, 2011 | 10 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Volatility can emerge in any working group, particularly in a flat hierarchy with no established leader; add diversity and exhaustion to the mix, and a group is vulnerable to buckling under the pressure of its own goals. This fictional account of a contentious learning team at a business school dramatizes both the words and thoughts of the participants as frictions lead them to consider disbanding. It provides a means of discussing the nature of leadership among peers and in particular the critical but easily overlooked role of personal energy management--mental, physical, and emotional; even when the strengths of diversity are leveraged proactively, interpersonal interaction still requires a significant reservoir of positive energy, whereas its depletion can sabotage even the best of intentions.