Strong Tech, Weak Teams: When Middle Managers Struggle to Lead

When a mid-sized IT company in Adelaide started losing key talent, their first assumption was market competitiveness. After all, they were paying well, offering hybrid work, and had a strong reputation for technical delivery. But a closer look told a different story. Exit interviews pointed to one consistent theme: employees felt unsupported, unheard, and uninspired by their managers. And these weren’t poor performers — they were technically brilliant engineers, architects, and developers. But they hadn’t been equipped to lead. That’s when we were brought in — not to run a generic leadership program, but to diagnose the problem first. We audited their middle management layer using structured interviews, 180° feedback, and behavioural diagnostics. The pattern was clear: strong technical IQ, but low relational EQ. Managers were focused on delivery, not connection. Their teams felt transactional, not human. The business didn’t need more training. It needed targeted capability building and real-time visibility into whether those behaviours were shifting. That’s where HiJulio came in — and that’s where the real change began. 👉 In Part 2, we’ll share how we built individualised leadership roadmaps and used HiJulio to assess, track, and shape behavioural change — one manager at a time.