Don't let your project slide off the rails before it even starts. Keep your team on track and on time with these tips.
It's the Monday morning staff meeting, and the week's urgent projects are on the agenda. Plenty of assignments for everyone: some that involve a few quick phone calls, and others that will require overtime. How do you make sure you nail every deadline? Share these tips with your team.
- Start with specifics. When exactly is the deadline? Clarify whether “end of the week” means 5 p.m. Friday or first thing Friday morning. And hammer down the results: What does your client want? How will they measure your effectiveness?
- Negotiate. Better to do it now rather than later. Is the deadline realistic? Suggest alternative dates, or work out what other tasks you should put on hold in order to give the deadline the attention it deserves.
- Break the task down. “Complete big project by Friday” is not an action item. Start with the biggest tasks and break them down into individual steps that have their own deadlines.
- Build in a buffer. As you schedule individual tasks, give yourself a cushion. Mark the due date a few days ahead of the actual deadline so you have time to deal with changes or last-minute emergencies.
- Make it OK for people to ask for help. No one gets extra points for trying to be a hero. It’s far better for the team (and your client) if employees admit early on that they need more time or extra manpower. Check in often; your job as the leader is to help the team remove potential roadblocks before they become full-flown crises.
- Get started. Don’t end the first project-planning meeting without assigning everyone a next step and a deadline. This will help the team focus on the small steps in front of them and not the magnitude of the project ahead.
One of my favorite sayings is, “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” That statement has three parts: 1) the goal, which is what you want to achieve; 2) the dream, which is what you think you can do; and 3) the deadline, which means you will accomplish what you set out to do.
Deadlines aren’t bad. They help you organize your time. They help you set priorities. They make you get going when you might not feel like it. And meeting deadlines successfully is one of the best motivating factors out there.
