Working hard & fast...

wjt340
Jan 8, 2024
2 min read

Setting realistic, yet aggressive goals for yourself or your team/project seems to be such an elusive thing.

People seem to fall in to 2 camps:

I've worked with so many people who default to putting December 31st as the deadline for all of their annual goals...why do we do this? Is it just a habit? Is it laziness?
There's also those who fall victim to the "planning fallacy" - a cognitive bias that leads people to significantly underestimate how long it will take to get something done.

When you're transforming operations, or running a unit, it makes sense to deliver results as quickly as possible, with incremental goals throughout the year, but how do you make sure you are being realistic?

I've often been heard saying: "I work in weeks, not months", and I am serious when I say that. When I write my goals, I have their due dates scattered throughout the year based on when I think I can realistically, but aggressively achieve them. In my experience, people really struggle to get the right mix of realistic & aggressive.

For me the keys to success are:

Consider the least amount of time you think it will take to do a task, taking into consideration all factors
Build your plan based on the totality of that, plus 20% contingency (just like you would with a budget)
Tightly manage the schedule with more than just "weekly" or pre-scheduled meetings - you will need to employ your best "situational leadership" skills - course correcting, adjusting and pushing to keep things on track
Be prepared for things to go off track, but don't accept it as the norm and keep it to a minimum
Act swiftly if your team is not delivering - change out the PM, bring in additional help, and lean in more as a leader if needed to get it done - don't spend time wallowing in the bump in the road!

I personally like to work hard and fast to deliver sizeable and sustainable outcomes. I think a certain amount of pressure and heat gets the job done. I lead with love & compassion so that my teams feel safe under the gun...but the expectations are high, and deadlines are tight.

Hope you enjoyed reading,

Cheers,

Wendy