Beyond The Basics: Strategies for Delivering Challenging Objectives
Building A "Get It Done" Mindset
Hey, fellow Leader 🚀,
I am Artur, and welcome to my weekly newsletter. I am focusing on topics like Project Management, Innovation, Leadership, and a bit of Entrepreneurship. I am always open to suggestions for new topics. Feel free to reach out to me and share my newsletter if it helps you in any way.
There is not enough conversation around the mindset of achieving objectives. Milestones are in place, and the work is all planned out, but the part of actually getting there is sometimes not technical in nature. It is probably one of the hardest soft skills to accurately assess.
If we push the engine too hard, it will obviously break, and as Leaders, we need to pay special attention to when too much is too much. Especially when asking the engine to work too hard for too long. However, we should strive for a “Get It Done” mentality across teams. So, how do we get to deliver challenging objectives?
The Right Tasks
Asking people to work harder doesn’t work. What really makes almost any professional tick is their level of autonomy, visibility, and appreciation. If, for any reason, the person feels they don’t have the right tools, or whatever they are doing is pointless, or somebody would take the credit for their achievements, and they never hear any good feedback, we wouldn’t expect them to be very productive or committed to the project deadlines.
This is the very basic of things to take into account, on which everything else can be built. Even highly talented people won’t perform at their best if they feel the work they are doing is pointless. This can be clearly seen on migration projects, when the business requests a complicated feature on a system that will be decommissioned (even if the decommissioning is a few years on the horizon). Imagine how boring it is to tackle a complex challenge just for the comfort of a set of people who want features for their convenience at the expense of the engineer’s time and patience.
Milestones Are Milestones - Not Guidelines
When a milestone is set, efforts should be made to meet it. The mentality of “we can move this date a few days” is the type of mindset that steals time from the team. Projects tend to have higher pressure at the end than at their beginning, so any days that we move around in the earlier stages for the sake of “nobody really complains now if we move this a week further” will have consequences. The consequence of that mentality is that by the time the project is scheduled to be delivered, having just one extra week would be amazing for the sake of everyone working on the project.
Save time in the early stages as much as you can to have more breathing room when the project arrives at the final destination. Sponsors and higher management might not care much if the intermediate milestones are late by a few weeks or sometimes months, because they are expecting the end result on the same date as was promised. Be mindful of moving away from intermediate milestones, because it might be a reflex that the timeline won’t be met.
Quick Wins Are Buffers For Success
When time is getting short, quick wins taste like chocolate. However, sometimes quick wins aren’t given their own due credit. They are only seen as useful if everything else is failing and the team needs to present results.
If a quick win is part of the project scope, it is scope nevertheless, and therefore should be delivered in the same fashion as a highly complex delivery. Sometimes, quick wins can compensate for the fact that deliverable A was not met in time, because the team anticipated the delivery of B (which was a quick win).
The goal here is to save as much time in the beginning as possible to avoid a big headache on the crucial final days of the project. Getting those victories in early creates buffers of time that can help the team focus on the most complex part of the projects with more time available.
“Is It Urgent?” Pitfall
Well, if it is urgent, then someone is already falling behind. If we manage a project only on “urgent” tasks, we will end up burning out the engine before we arrive at the destination. Sometimes, I get this question about why I ask about progress on task A or B. My strategy is always the same: understand the pressure or the workload that person is currently under, and try to accommodate the task before it becomes truly urgent.
I try to emphasize the advantages of getting something done early, and sometimes I try to influence the planning (even if this responsibility is outside the team) to meet the goals. Of course, this is easier said (or written) than done, but I try not to be too annoying at the same time that I am pushing for something before it actually becomes urgent.
Re-Check On Repeat
There is nothing worse for a sponsor than getting the bad news that the project, which was funded with so much love and a giga amount of money, is not meeting the deadlines just a few weeks before it should actually happen. We should avoid surprises at all costs. However, if worst comes to worst, the bad news should arrive as soon as possible.
Yes, sponsors might have unrealistic expectations, but it is better to factually confront that with time than working on a project for months in a row, only to tell them a few weeks before the deadline: “Sorry, we cannot meet the deadlines and we need 30% more <insert time, money, or both>”.
The sooner people know about the bad news, the more options can be put on the table to address, mitigate, or rethink the entire plan. Committing resources only to learn the team will fall short is a tough place to be in. Re-check the planning every week, every couple of weeks, or every month. Whatever timeframe you feel is feasible for the endeavor to catch those bad surprises as soon as possible.
That’s it. If you find this post useful, please share it with your friends or colleagues who might be interested in this topic. If you would like to see a different angle, suggest it in the comments or send me a message.
Cheers,
Artur
Very important point, Artur. Sloppiness at the beginning isn't just the cause of stress in later project phases, but also of inefficiency and frustration among colleagues who are punctual. Leadership is responsible for maintaining a reasonable workload through smart prioritization.