Share the Real Deadline

Do you like fake deadlines? We've all experienced them: someone isn't sure if you'll deliver on time so they pad their deadline. It could be days, or even weeks subtracted from the actual time you'd have to finish a project or task. Why do people do this?

People give us fake deadlines because they don't trust us, or they need to approve the work first, or they need to do something with the work after we hand it in -- or any number of personal reasons. The problem is, when we don't know the real deadline for something it becomes much more difficult to prioritize our portfolio of work. We deserve real deadlines, and we work best when our deadlines are real.

False deadlines destroy trust.

Successful supervisors build trust by sharing real deadlines with their people.

Do you share your actual deadlines with your people?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

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