Harvard business review goal tight deadline năm 2024

While it’s common to believe that pushing back a deadline might reflect poorly on us and be seen as unprofessional, we know relatively little from research about the actual consequences of asking for more time. Researchers conducted 10 experiments and 1 survey with nearly 10,000 employees and managers in the U.S. We found that, across occupations, asking for more time to work on an assignment was, on average, perceived positively by managers – and it reduced employees’ stress levels and improved their performance. However, employees rarely ask for an extension, even when deadlines are clearly adjustable (e.g., their manager had explicitly said, “If you need more time, just ask”). Employees – especially female employees – worried that by asking for a deadline extension, their managers would think they were incompetent and unmotivated. But in contrast to employees’ predictions, managers judged both male and female employees who asked for an extension as more motivated than those who did not.

Whether it’s a seasonal crunch time or an intense project with a tight deadline, it can be hard to keep people focused and motivated when they’re overloaded. What’s the best way to rally the troops? For starters, you need to check your own emotional energy. You’ll be hard pressed to lead your team if you’re feeling beleaguered or stressed. To jumpstart your engagement, reflect on why the work matters: why it’s relevant and who benefits from it. Then, convey that message to your employees. Your goal is to inspire excitement and enthusiasm. Express confidence that the team will prevail, and assure your staff that you’re all in it together. Finally, remember that incentives are your friend — and they should be deployed throughout crunch time, not just when the project ends. Find ways to reward your team’s hard work: a Friday afternoon off perhaps, or an all-office ice cream social. Moments of celebration foster camaraderie and create sustained engagement.

In 2002, professors Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham published a summary of their 25 years of research on goal-setting, which could have been the final word in how to create goals. But many organizations don’t follow Locke and Latham’s advice. In fact, there are three techniques common in today’s organizations that go directly against their findings: SMART goals, cascading goals, and percentage weights that indicate relative goal importance. The SMART method (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) encourages people to set low goals instead of demanding goals that generate the greatest levels of effort and performance. Cascading goals start with the president setting their goals, then the VP, then the directors, and so on, with each level supporting the one above. In practice, nobody can begin the goal-setting process until their boss has created their own goals, so the process drags on interminably. Assigning percentage weights to goals to indicate their relative importance is counterproductive because it’s impossible to accurately identify the relative importance of goals to a 5% level of granularity. This method also results in an overly mathematical approach to performance appraisals.

Research shows that people typically prioritize tasks with the shortest deadlines — even if those tasks aren’t the most important or valuable. In this piece, the author suggests several strategies to help you be more intentional about what you spend your time on: First, schedule important tasks, and give yourself way more time than you’ll probably need to complete them. Next, isolate the most important elements of important tasks and find ways to make incremental progress. Third, anticipate the feelings of anxiety that likely surround working on more important tasks, and prepare yourself to manage them. Fourth, spend less time on unimportant tasks, and prioritize actions that will reduce the number of these less-important tasks you’ll have in the future. Finally, pay attention to the things that help you see the big picture, whether it’s travel, catching up with friends, or time-tracking exercises. Struggling to prioritize your most important work is extremely common — but with these simple tips, you’ll be set up for success.

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What is your strategy to successfully deal with tight deadlines?

Break down work into smaller tasks One way to meet deadlines with less stress is by breaking down projects into micro-goals and proceeding from there. This means that you are one step closer to completing projects with every task your team completes.

How do you respond to a tight deadline?

How to Manage High-Pressure Deadlines With Ease and Efficiency.

Create a Checklist. It's normal to feel overwhelmed when you have a heavy workload and tight deadlines. ... .

Prioritize the Most Difficult Tasks. ... .

Create Fake Deadlines. ... .

Leverage Your Tech Stack to Create Efficiencies. ... .

Take a Quick Break. ... .

Ask For Help..

How do you handle tight deadlines and ambitious goals assigned to you?

10 Tips to Ensure You Are Meeting Hard Deadlines..

Outline Your Projects, Goals, and Their Deadlines..

Use a Project Management Tool to Keep Track..

Break Projects Up Into Smaller Milestones..

Clarify Timelines and Dependencies Between Results..

Set Priorities Among Tasks and Hard Deadlines You Set..

How do you professionally say you can t meet a deadline?

How to tell a supervisor you missed a deadline.

Address the situation as soon as possible. While the deadline may have already passed, addressing the situation as soon as possible is still important. ... .

Provide a brief explanation. ... .

Apologize for the delay. ... .

Propose a new timeframe. ... .

Show your appreciation..