Q: I
have a small software business, and even though my employees are
not overworked, we constantly run up against deadlines. We break
our necks scurrying around at the last minute to complete tasks on
time. We have even missed a few deadlines. Why can't my
employees plan their time better? Or is there something I should be
doing differently as a manager to improve the situation?
A:
Your question reminds me of a saying I made up recently:
"People are doing the best they can today, given the way they
are being managed." While it's often satisfying to look to
employees as the source of your problem, it will rarely lead you to
a satisfying solution. The fact that you have a general problem of
meeting deadlines suggests that it's not a performer problem,
but rather a system problem.
You are the one who created the environment in which this work
takes place. That environment is, by and large, responsible for
what employees do on a day-to-day basis. The environment is
composed not only of the physical aspects, such as office space and
equipment, but also the management environment, which includes
policies, procedures and the relationships of managers and
supervisors with employees. The last part of the environment is the
social aspect, which involves the relationships among peers and
with customers. All these things put together cause the majority of
workday behavior.
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To get to your specific problem of deadlines, I would not look
to employees as the source of your problem. Look instead at how you
set deadlines, how you respond to people when they meet them and
how you respond when they don't. If employees frequently miss
deadlines or rush around at the last minute to make them, it
suggests to me that the consequences for meeting deadlines are at
fault. If the only consequence of meeting a deadline is to avoid
your displeasure or that of a customer, then you can expect at best
last-minute completion. What you need to do is to create rewards
for early completion.
For major projects, you might do something like Eastman Chemical
did several years ago. They set a target date for project
completion, and if they met the target before the planned
completion date, they were to celebrate that they called Gravy Day,
in which executives serve biscuits and gravy at a breakfast meeting
to all employees. They tracked their progress daily, and at the end
of each week they projected when Gravy Day would occur. As it
happened, the target date was December 31, and the celebration was
sometime in mid-November.
Two things are important here: whether the project is large or
small, individual or group. The first is to assume success and plan
how you're going to act when the employees are successful. What
are you going to do and what are you going to say? The second is to
have a way to see progress along the way. Put a large graph in the
work area where everyone involved can see it every day. If you can
track progress such as percent completion on a daily basis,
you'll get a better result than if you graph it only weekly.
However, weekly is better than monthly. Monthly graphs are barely
better than none at all.
One final piece of advice: Check with employees each day. Give
them a chance to show you how they're progressing, how hard
they're working and how clever they are. If you do these
things, you'll be surprised by how energized your employees
will become and by the increased pride they take in their work.
Before long, meeting deadlines will become a routine part of the
workday.
Aubrey C. Daniels, Ph.D., founder and CEO of management
consulting firm Aubrey Daniels & Associates (ADA), is an
internationally recognized author, speaker and expert on management
and human performance issues. For more about ADA's seminars and
consulting services or to order Aubrey's book Bringing Out the Best in People: How To Apply The
Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement, visit www.aubreydaniels.com, or
contact Laura Lee Glass at (800) 223-6191 or lglass@aubreydaniels.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are those
of the author, not of Entrepreneur.com. All answers are intended to
be general in nature, without regard to specific geographical areas
or circumstances, and should only be relied upon after consulting
an appropriate expert, such as an attorney or
accountant.