Management Nugget No 19: Explain Deadlines and Reasons

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Nugget 19: You will get far more engagement from the people you work with if you give them a decent and full reason why you are asking them to go above and beyond.

Explanation:

Very often managers, project leaders, or directors, just state “oh, we need to meet deadline X” when they are asking for an extra push from teams and seem to infer that just because a deadline exists that all other people regard that as in some way critical.

But I have found that spending five minutes of giving a decent explanation in your communications as to why you genuinely need it, and the end consequence you are trying to avoid by asking for extra effort works wonders, And by that I do not mean threatening “If action X does not get completed by the end of this week, then director Z will be mad”. 1

Show people valid business orientated consequence in a non threatening way. Ask for their assistance to solve a slightly more holistic problem. Don’t just demand, don’t just threaten. You can chase, you can cajole, but if you give people a good reason, then they will help you and understand why, doing it this way also aids them in providing answers as to why you are jumping the queue, If they have a good reason they can also use that to give to their boss to try and get extra resources for this kind of issue.

Ultimately, give people solid reasons, if your work is so important they should be easy to supply.

 

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

  1. The very worst incarnation of this push for deadline without a reason issue, is when the people doing the work know what the deadline is and the reasons for it, but you chase for them earlier. A perfect example is if something has to be done before the end of a day and people plan their work accordingly, But you are chasing them for an update at 9.30am. This helps no one, it doesn’t mean the project will be done better, quicker, or more professionally, it just means that the team is no longer going to give you any update unlessed force. Because you are unreasonable with your update expectations.[↩]

Corporate term: “Magical 5 year old football”

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Definition:

A situation inside a corporation where there is one point of interest which causes everyone to cluster in one place, ignoring all of the current essentials that require that their existing coverage be maintained.

Explanation:

This is a phrase heard at a security conference that quite gave me the giggles and in context, it means that if there is a large security incident or general outage, suddenly everybody in the corporation from network and security people to management, all suddenly cluster around this one issue, getting in each other’s way and not being efficient, just kicking at the problem without any plan. Everyone wants to be seen leaping to the most important thing, abandoning their current duties and leaving the space open for a more coordinated assault by competitors or bad agents.

 

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

The Poison of “On a Roll”

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“While we are on a roll” is a phrase often used when a manager has just received notification of success in a number of things or for a particularly tricky deliverable, they use it to signify that while we have this momentum of success we should keep pushing at the same level and see if we can get even more done.

The use of this phrase is one of the most innocently toxic things a manager of any level can say to someone who has just delivered something.

Let me explain.

Somebody has worked their guts off for the company or project, come up with a delivery often going above and beyond and presented it to you, You have then dismissed it most likely with no more than a “Great”, and then said, “Can I have more? and have it faster than last time”

There is a line in “Cider with Rosie” by Laurie Lee that fits this situation

“And the more I got, the more I called for more. It was like feeding a fat young cuckoo”

Every time someone does something for you above and beyond 1. Acknowledge it. Respect the effort, feedback that you respect it and give them a moment to take a breath before you reload them with other things. If you do not respect, give them positive feedback and reward them, then what reason do they have to put the effort in? 2

If you are still wondering why I’m making a fuss over this, imagine you are doing housework and have just spent a hard Saturday gardening and getting some of the really nasty chores done, you complete them and invite your partner out to see your handy work. But they just reply, “Good, As you are in a tidying mood, can you do the bathroom” … do you still feel like going above an beyond with your share of the housework?

  1. and I do mean every time not just the first[↩]
  2. Now there are times when the intention behind this phrase is valid but that is nearly always to do with a third party or a set of access or resources that are not normally available, in which case be specific on what you think would be a good idea to minimise work, i.e. “while we have the XXX team on the call, is there anything else you needed them to answer for you, so we don’t have to organise another call”[↩]

Corporate term: “Peeling the onion”

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Definition:

When rolling out or building a new project, every iteration or every action you take exposes either a new unforeseen problem or an additional action you need complete before being able to move forward.

Explanation:

This is a term actually coined by a recent client. I think I’ve heard it before, but not in general use.
This situation happens often when you’re adopting or moving around on cloud services or in company mergers, it happens where you’re dealing with new infrastructure, or after a large security update in which new rules have been applied, and not all teams are aware of the rule changes, particularly project teams who have been beavering away at their own stuff, so when they try and move out of their silo, or integrate with the corporatization in a wider sense, they end up battling every step of the way, every action they take only exposes another action or another sign off to be achieved from somewhere else before they can complete their work and moreover they are unaware of how many more are still to come.


You might hear it used in the following context :
Q: “So how long is the new system going to take to roll out”
A: “We do not know. We are still peeling the onion!”

 

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

Corporate term: “Goodyear stripes”

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Definition:

“Goodyear stripes” are the tire marks left over your body when you have been thrown under a bus by someone in a work setting.

Explanation:

For those that don’t already know, to be thrown under the bus is to be named and blamed for something in a public fashion in a work environment 1.

This leaves you with mental tire marks from the experience, “Goodyear stripes” is just one of the politest ways of saying you have been betrayed in this fashion.

 

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

  1. ,This does not necessarily have to be your fault. It merely means that the person doing it is using you to escape blame for something[↩]