The Analyst Who Stopped Delivering
Ana, a senior business analyst, was your strongest performer on a 40-person programme. Six weeks ago the programme reorganised and she began reporting to a new functional manager. Since then she has missed three deliverables, her analysis packs have gone out with errors twice, she keeps her camera off in every meeting, and her messages are timestamped between 01:00 and 02:00. The team spans four time zones, so she is often on calls from 22:00. A stage-gate review is five weeks away and her requirements sign-off sits on the critical path. In your matrix organisation you own her project work; her functional manager owns her line reporting. You have not spoken with her one-to-one since the reorganisation.
1. What is your first action, and what will you deliberately not do?
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First action: a private one-to-one within 24–48 hours. Before it, assemble facts - deliverable dates missed, the two error instances, her meeting hours across time zones, and her current workload against capacity.
Deliberately not do:
- Do not open with performance consequences or a formal improvement plan; you do not yet know the cause.
- Do not diagnose burnout, illness or attitude - that is not your role and it poisons the conversation.
- Do not raise it in a team forum or in the stage-gate report before speaking to her.
- Do not silently redistribute her sign-off to someone else; that hides the problem and humiliates a strong performer.
Why: the pattern - onset after a reporting change, night-time hours, camera off, new-manager relationship - fits several explanations: unclear expectations under a new manager, workload and time-zone overload, a personal situation, or disengagement. The first conversation is diagnostic; acting before it risks fixing the wrong thing and losing the person.
2. How do you structure that conversation?
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Short, private, curious, and anchored in observed behaviour - not labels.
- Open with intent: "I want to understand what has changed for you since the reorganisation, and what would help."
- State observations factually: three deliverables missed, two packs with errors, calls running to 22:00. Avoid "you seem disengaged".
- Ask, then be quiet: what has changed in her role and reporting line, what her week actually looks like, what is blocking her, what she needs from you.
- Separate the two problems: the performance gap on the critical path (your accountability) and whatever is driving it (partly hers, partly the organisation's).
- Agree two or three concrete actions with dates - a review buddy before packs go out, a revised meeting schedule across time zones, clarity on priorities with the new manager - and a follow-up in one week, not one quarter.
- Document the agreements briefly and factually.
Why this shape: it protects the relationship and the gate review at the same time, and it surfaces whether the root cause is yours to fix (workload, clarity) or belongs elsewhere.
3. When and how do you involve her functional manager or HR?
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Engage the functional manager early but as a partner, not a complaint. In a matrix, you own delivery on the project and they own her line management, development and any formal process. A short, factual conversation - here is what I have observed, here is what I have agreed with her, here is what I need from you on role clarity after the reorg - prevents the classic "two bosses, no owner" failure.
Involve HR when: a formal process is required (sustained gap after support, policy breach), a health or safety concern arises, or a reasonable adjustment is needed. Offer available support routes such as an employee assistance programme without probing into personal circumstances.
Escalate immediately if: there is any indication of risk to her wellbeing, or if the gate review will genuinely be missed.
In parallel, protect the project: re-forecast the sign-off date, identify a secondary reviewer for the critical-path deliverable, and report the revised forecast rather than absorbing the slip silently until it becomes a surprise.