Leading others has always been likened to herding cats. Individuals have their own free will and their own motivations. Getting an entire organization aligned and effectively executing requires constant attention. This is especially true in the weeks leading up to a critical milestone. Focus must be maintained. Distractions must be minimized. There is absolutely no reason to slip a milestone by a day or even a week. Those time frames are recoverable through proactive management. If you are going to slip, slip a month never slip a day.
This is the time where you have to keep an eye on exactly what is going on. You need to keep your trusted lieutenants even more accountable than usual. Normally, a weekly status meeting is sufficient for keeping on track. If you do that you’ll know well in advance if you have completely borked the estimated timeframe for the milestone and you will be able to adjust and remove unessential work to meet the milestone.
Once you get to within a few weeks of a major milestone it is time to start assessing risk. It also may be time to ramp up the frequency of those status checks. Ask the hard questions, look out for discrepancies or “squishy” information. When staff gives you hand wavy answers, ask for details. About two weeks out, ask your team what they think the major risks are for making the milestone. Listen carefully. Figure out if the problems are caused by anxiety or if they are real. Anxiety based issues can be resolved through empathy. Real problems need recovery plans. Herd those cats!
The next step is to get a final commitment from your team to meet the milestone. Ask them if they think the milestone is possible. Have them listen to their intuition. If the leaders are committed and the milestone is achievable (I didn’t say easy), their staff will work as hard as possible to make it happen. Everyone wants to be successful.
About a week before the deadline, shift to daily status. Right now you need to run fast. Meetings need to be quick – if everything is on track – get everyone back to work pronto. If something is falling off track, this is the time to rally the troops to figure out how to punt the issue or get it resolved as soon as possible. Give your staff the chance to make that determination and let them come up with the solutions. They are closest to the issue.
A week or so before the milestone make sure that everyone on staff knows what they need to do. They need to know exactly what they need to finish. They need to know the processes to follow in the end game. This information can be passed on through your leadership team, or directly through you to motivate the team. This information has to been disseminated. People need clear goals – targets to shoot for.
