Ever thought how important it is to give your team or sub-ordinates a ‘Realistic Target. Would you embark upon a journey in which you are not sure of reaching the destination….??? Atleast i would not…!!
Recently my freind was naratting an incident in his present company wherein his team was given an unrealistic and un-acheivable deadline to complete a project by the Boss. My Freinds team was the team with core-competency (we shall refer them as main team) which had to complete the project and there were other supplementary teams ( we may call them allied teams) who had to hand-over the project in cordination with the main team. Now the Boss kept on pressurizing the Main team to complete the project in an unreasonable and unrealistic time period but never did he talk to the Allied teams or ever ordered them to cordinate with the main team and take the handover. Certain documentation and paper work was also required to be completed to make sure that the project is handed over or complete and no headway was made by the allied teams to get the same done.
Since all the teams shared a common floor in their huge office, the word spread about the lapses of the allied team and the casualness was reflected in the approach. As a result, every one was complacent and no one even started the work. The deadline came and went away un-noticed. Result —- Another high profile meeting and another unrealistic Deadline (Target Date ) being fixed. To my freinds surprise, the Boss was unresonable and stuck to his unrealistic deadline. Nothing happened ….Just the deadline came and went UNNOTICED again..
Such an impractical approach helped nothing but ensured an atmosphere of complacency and casualness. Every one in the organisation was doing nothing but joking around regarding the completion of the Project.
Kaunsa NASA ka project hai jo time par karna hota hai…?? >
said one when quizzed about the completion
If you ask me, any target date or deadline you wish to fix for any particular task, be it for your team or personaly for yourself, the target should be very much achievable and realistic. That shall pass on a message that you are serious about completion of the task in time. By giving unrealistic targets you are doing nothing but fooling yourself.
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Exactly right Madhur,
When it comes to my company it’s the same thing.
As I am new to the Corporate World, I used to think that this is the problem only with my company……….
I just wonder when more than half of the time we are busy in meetings and strategy, when are we going to deliver? I hope my boss is not listening…………….
Jokes apart………….Strategies and Targets are the backbone of every Industry and we can’t run without a target. I completely agree with you that these targets need to be realistic, or else Who cares for the target set by Big Boss……………
Myself is lucky as my boss always lends an ear to what I say (no ego massaging)………..