Deadlines to Live By
The Captain comes on the intercom, “Welcome aboard, we are happy to get you where you are going today and just have a few more pieces of luggage to load and we’ll be off in 10 minutes!”
Heard that before? Thirty minutes later and nothing has happened and then 45 minutes in the First Officer comes on the speaker and says there are some technical difficulties and will be back on track in 10 minutes. We all know the outcome.
Why can’t we just be honest and say how long it will take?
It drives me crazy. In every interaction people have expectations. Things go downhill when we don’t clarify those expectations and what happens isn’t what the other expected. We set ourselves up for problems that don’t have to exist.
Whether it is a client request, dealing with a colleague, delegating or being delegated to, or any business interaction, set a reasonable deadline so we both know and agree on the timing. Note the word “reasonable” as well. Nothing is worse than picking a time to make someone else happy knowing you can never meet it - stressing out racing to make it happen and then not being ready and the other person thinks your incompetent.
Early in my career I had a project to do for my business partner’s father – an engineer. I told him “No problem, Mr. B., I can have that to you by Tuesday!” So, it wasn’t done by Tuesday and I was working hard to provide the best possible report for him. When I got it to him on Friday, I will never forget his response, “Michael, I appreciate your work but I needed it on Tuesday – if you can’t meet your deadline, you might as well not do it at all.”
Cold hard truth hit me – and stayed with me ever since. No matter how pretty the report – or whatever – if it is late you have lost the game.
We all do it – tell people what they want to hear and then hope we can apologize our way through it when we don’t meet the timeline. Or no one mentions a deadline and each walk away thinking we both know when the due date is (I think Friday and you think Tuesday) and neither one of us is happy in the end. And then there is the “pilot effect” when people tell you “it’s the next thing on my agenda” and “I’m getting to it next” and four weeks later and nothing happens. Lawyer, engineer, or whatever professional you may be, delay and be late and you are incompetent.
Sometimes clients will say “tomorrow” when you ask them when they need it. That may be true but generally isn’t the case. The problem is we never ask them if they would mind the due date being three days later. Most people pick tomorrow because it is the first day they think of – they would be open if we just ask. We all just need clarity of expectations. We create incredible and unneeded pressure for our teams and ourselves trying to meet unreasonable and unnecessary deadlines. Or we create just as much pressure by not setting a deadline and hoping we are all on the same page.
We need to be proactive with deadlines and stick to them. Don’t tell me “it’s the next thing on my list”, tell me “I will have it to you 10 days from now, is that ok?” I will say “yes or no” and we are fine.
Don’t look incompetent, know and respect your time – and your team’s and client’s time – and agree on a reasonable deadline and then work to meet it.
Just my thinking…
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