The Lonely Chair — A Newly Promoted Managing Director Builds Support, Delegates and Survives

A four-round, intermediate leadership simulation set inside Talea Digital Solutions, a Barcelona-based B2B software and digital-services firm (EUR 78M revenue, 16% EBITDA, 640 employees). Three weeks ago the board promoted Elena Roig, a respected 39-year-old delivery director, to Managing Director of Enterprise Platforms — 280 people and 60% of revenue. The colleagues she relied on for candid advice are now her direct reports; one is the internal rival who also wanted the job. The chair is hers, and it is lonely. On her first full week the board hands her a non-negotiable commitment: deliver Project Atlas (a EUR 9.2M re-platform for the firm's largest client) by a fixed 30 November 2026 go-live — already 5 weeks behind an 8-week runway — or trigger a EUR 1.8M penalty and risk the EUR 4M annual renewal. Engagement has slid from 74 to 61, four senior engineers are flight-risks, 23 decisions are queued on Elena's desk, approval cycle time has tripled from 2 to 6 days, and Elena's leader-wellbeing index sits at 42/100 while she works 70+ hours a week. Playing Elena's leadership group, you (1) diagnose the isolation trap and separate symptoms from the root cause; (2) build the support architecture — coach, peer board, chief of staff, delegation with decision rights and protected recovery — investing a scarce pool of Elena's hours and a support budget; (3) run six live decisions under deadline pressure (Atlas recovery, the rival, the board's amber-vs-green call, a resignation threat, the weekend, candor with the team); and (4) institutionalise a 90-day sustainable operating model and present it to the board sponsor. The math rewards the concept's correct strategy — treat isolation not effort as the binding constraint, delegate with escalation thresholds, couple wellbeing to delivery, choose honest amber, and repair the rival — and measurably punishes the hero trap, abdication-by-delegation, burning the team for the date, green theatre and avoiding the rival. Final KPIs track Team Engagement, Leader-Wellbeing, Decision Quality and Delivery on Target, with Elena's hours used against a sustainable cap and the support budget committed against EUR 120k.