Liderazgo y negociación · Teoría del liderazgo

The Servant Leader — Atlas Squad's First Six Weeks

A four-round, intermediate leadership simulation set inside Polder Digital B.V., a Rotterdam data-and-product consultancy (220 staff, ~EUR 34M revenue).

4 rondas MBA / Máster English, Español
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Sobre la simulación

A four-round, intermediate leadership simulation set inside Polder Digital B.V., a Rotterdam data-and-product consultancy (220 staff, ~EUR 34M revenue).

You have just been promoted from star individual contributor into your first team-lead role, taking over the 8-person Atlas squad mid-flight: a contracted client acceptance milestone is due Friday 19 June — six weeks out — and slipping it triggers a EUR 180,000 penalty and threatens a EUR 2.4M renewal with Atlas's largest account, a Dutch bank. The squad is talented but strained.

A fresh pulse puts engagement at 71 (down from 78 firm-wide), the meaningfulness score at 6.1/10, and turnover risk 'elevated' for 3 of 8 members.

Three dilemmas hit at once: the strongest engineer (who owns the critical path) has gone quiet — an exit slips the milestone 3–4 weeks and costs ~EUR 95,000 to backfill; two high-potential mid-level members were promised ~40 hours of development time the crunch tempts you to cancel; and a previously solid engineer has missed sprint commitments because of a caregiving situation at home.

Across four two-week rounds you (1) read the team — diagnosing the underlying need behind each dilemma rather than the symptom and choosing where to spend scarce one-on-one time; (2) empower or direct the disengaging star and decide whether the development promise survives pressure; (3) hold the underperformer's standard humanely — diagnosing cause before escalating and protecting well-being while keeping the bar — and allocate remaining capacity at the milestone; and (4) land the milestone and present the resolved outcome to a Polder partner.

The math is built on Dirk van Dierendonck's servant-leadership model (empowerment, stewardship, humility, accountability) and his 2023–24 work linking servant leadership, meaningfulness and flow as an upward spiral.

Each classic error measurably underperforms: directive-only pressure starts a downward spiral and triggers the exit that blows the milestone; empowerment-as-abdication lets the underperformer slide while the team watches; cancelling development burns two flight risks; escalating without diagnosing cause signals that struggle is punished; and one fixed style applied to an expert, two high-potentials and a struggling junior costs you on at least one.

Four KPIs — team engagement, meaningfulness, performance index, and turnover risk — are tracked before and after, alongside the milestone outcome (hit, partial, or slipped) and the star's stay/leave decision.

Para quién es

Una simulación de nivel intermedio para participantes que ya conocen los conceptos básicos de la materia, pensada para programas de máster y MBA.

Cómo funciona una sesión

  1. El docente crea una sesión desde el panel de Eureka e invita a los participantes.
  2. Los participantes juegan 4 rondas. En cada una envían sus decisiones y la simulación calcula los resultados.
  3. La simulación se puede jugar en: English, Español.
  4. El docente sigue el progreso y los resultados de cada participante desde el panel, y usa los resultados de la clase para el debriefing.

Decisiones que toman los participantes

Las decisiones que toman los participantes durante la simulación:

  • Diagnose the ROOT of the star's disengagement (not the symptom).
  • Diagnose the ROOT of the underperformer's slip.
  • Spend your scarce one-on-one time this round (total must be 8 h)
  • The disengaging star — pick your move along the empowering↔directive spectrum.
  • The development promise to your two high-potentials, under deadline pressure.
  • How much of your own week do you spend removing blockers vs. adding oversight? (% on removing blockers)
  • The underperformer missed a fourth commitment — act on the performance dilemma.
  • Where do you set the bar in that conversation?
  • Allocate the squad's remaining capacity for the milestone push (% onto the critical path).
  • Final two weeks — how do you run the milestone push?

Qué siguen los participantes

Lo que los participantes siguen en pantalla a medida que avanzan las rondas:

  • Engagement, Performance & Turnover-Risk Trajectory

Temas que cubre

Diseñada para asignaturas de Teoría del liderazgo.

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