What Do You Do When Your Boss or Senior Leaders Want You to Adopt Overly Aggressive Goals that You Know are Impossible to Achieve?
You need to push back. You definitely need to be the leader that you are, and rationally explain with passion why that is not possible, and what is possible.
But there are other ways of managing expectations. People often throw out deadlines without any specific rhyme or reason. “Oh, next Friday” or, “the end of the month”, or whatever it may be. But those deadlines aren't always associated with very real deadlines that they may have. That's important for you to find out.
If someone gives you a deadline that is just way too close for you, you can say, “I hear this deadline. Right now I have a lot of other really important things that need to be done soon. I don't mind doing this one. It just means that I might not be able to do these other tasks.” Or explain your situation, and ask, “When is the latest that I can get this to you by.”
“When is the latest I can get this to by” will force them to stop and think about the due date. And oftentimes it'll be much later than they originally thought - a week or two, or even a month sometimes. You're helping them think that through, and you've just bought some time.
There are also Times that You're Asked to Set Your Own Deadline by Your Boss or Senior Leaders
Maybe you want to look good. Maybe you want to appear that you're going to get everything done super quickly. But that's not the way to go. That is short-term versus long-term thinking. Your credibility is on the line. You need to be thinking long-term. So if you're asked for a deadline, the first thing you say is “By when do you really need this done by?”
Really take your time to think about how much time is really needed. Don't set yourself up. Think about it. Think about who's going to be doing it. Think about how you're going to be checking the person's work. If they make a mistake, they might have to do it again.
Create buffers, realistic buffers. What you think should take a day might take three days. And then once you have a realistic determination of how long the task should take with all of these buffers, then you want to add another buffer - another pillow of extra time - just in case.
We all know emergencies happen. Things just happen. So why set yourself up for overwhelm? Give an extra few days - give an extra week or two depending upon the task - so that you don't get caught up in a last ditch effort where everyone is crazy trying to achieve something.
And the great news about that, in addition to saving you time and overwhelm, is that if it gets done early - which it should because you've given all this buffer time - then you're a hero. Then you're delivering before your deadlines.
So, make sure you take the time to get present before setting expectations and setting deadlines.
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