Surface Ripples

The Importance of Deadlines

Our lives are about getting things done – either by ourselves or (as leaders) through others. 

One of the aspects of leadership and task management that receives less attention than it deserves is setting deadlines.  We’ve probably heard the phrase “they want it done yesterday!” meaning that (senior management - or whoever) want something done as soon as possible.

Not setting deadlines has a significant impact on how people prioritise.  If the deadline’s close, they’ll put it at the top of their list.  The human mind naturally focuses on tasks with deadlines versus tasks without.  As a result, they prioritise what’s “urgent” but not always “important”.  This phenomenon has been well documented in what’s known as the Eisenhower Matrix which provides a graphic representation of the differences on how we should handle tasks that are:

• “Urgent and important”
• “Urgent but not important”
• “Important but not urgent”
• “Neither urgent nor important”

We tend to focus on the “urgent” tasks, whether they’re “important” or not at the expense of the “important but not (yet) urgent” tasks.

Setting deadlines is vital to all our activities as leaders.  Some leaders are excellent at giving deadlines for every task delegated (and sometimes the deadline is even realistic!).  Others, however, just describe the task but not when they need it done.  A week later they come back asking “why haven’t you done it?” Or “is it ready yet?”  Of course, the person to whom the task was delegated may well answer in the negative as they didn’t realise that that task needed to be completed within (say) a week. 

Another practice I came across when delegating tasks was for a leader to say, “unless I say otherwise, I want things done within a week.” Giving this kind of guidance saves time on both sides.

Equally, we as team members need to get into the habit of asking “what’s the deadline?” if none is specified (and if our leader tends not to set deadlines).

My (unspoken) guideline for responses to emails that I send is latest seven days of the date of that email (unless I specify otherwise).  I diarise to chase after a week, so that the recipient knows I’ll be keeping an eye on them.  Is this fair? Perhaps not, but it does work for me and means that I stay “on top” of things.

A common email fault is people prefacing emails with “urgent” (often in capitals followed by two exclamation marks!!)  The problem is that if this is their habit, recipients will realise very quickly that most messages from that person aren’t “urgent’ and won’t prioritise them in as such.

Setting expectations in terms of deadlines as a leader is critical to the smooth functioning of our team. New team members should be told that we expect them to respond to a delegated task within (say) one week unless specified otherwise. We should also be explaining to them that, if they run into problems, they should let us know so that we can arrange support.

Another issuing encountered was a team member’s perception that everyone else’s deadlines weren’t important (let alone urgent).  It wasn’t until I explained that often, when I set them a deadline, it was so that information could be gathered to pass onto another senior manager who had to consolidate that information with other information before submitting it to a more senior manager within that senior manager’s deadlines.   This resulted in a “lightbulb moment” for that colleague who’d clearly never considered this.  Once they knew how to distinguish things that might be urgent and what their potential remedy was, they were able to plan their day as well.

I explained that if this person felt that the deadline was unrealistic, they should say so and explain why to allow us to ask for an extension if possible (or at the very least explain why meeting the deadline might result in substandard information being supplied).  

Like “urgent” emails, this only works if it’s applied sparingly.  If it becomes a habit, you’ll only gain a reputation of being disorganised, incapable, a poor planner, bad at prioritising or whatever people care to describe you as.

(Interestingly, I’ve observed that human beings also tend to meet deadlines which are important to them, aside from those that are perceived as urgent and imposed by others.)

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. 

Labels: Career, Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork

posted by William Martin @ 09:05