I guess this is my month for rants.  Gosh I hope I’m not coming across as a complainer as that’s not the message I want to have you hear.  To me nothing is more important than relationships and underneath what works and doesn’t in relationships is about communication.  We communicate through our behavior and our words.  We even communicate with what we don’t say or do.  Missing deadlines or ignoring them altogether communicates a message, more about this in a bit.  Not communicating that you are going to miss a deadline conveys a message.  And accepting missed deadlines as SOP clearly makes a statement.  Hang in with me while I cover these topics.

Deadlines Aren’t For the Faint of Heart

When you commit to a deadline do you really commit or in your mind you think “well I’ll do my best to make it?”  Really commit means you have considered how realistic it is based on other things going on, how much time you estimate this will take and what factors might get in the way of you completing on time, and then say YES knowing it’s doable.  I’d venture to guess most of us sorta think about it, probably complain about the deadline not being reasonable and say yes anyhow.  Or maybe you don’t even think about it much and just say yes.

But committing to a deadline isn’t a ‘if I can’ concept.  It’s a promise, an obligation, an assurance to the other person that you will do what you say you are going to do by a certain date.  We shouldn’t take this promise lightly.  It deserves forethought and consideration of all the issues involved before saying yes.

Not Communicating is a No-No

Look, we all miss deadlines.  We underestimate how long something is going to take or we didn’t pay enough attention and half way through the project realize we need something from someone else or something unexpected happens that we couldn’t have planned for.  The issue with missing deadlines is two-fold.  First not letting it repeatedly happen and second not communicating.  Both are within your control. In most situations you know long before the deadline that you are going to miss it.  At that point you should be communicating this to whomever you made the promise.  The conversation shouldn’t be excuses though an explanation is appropriate.  It should include a by when you will get this completed and what if anything you need in order to complete.  This date now becomes firm.  No excuses, no delays.  It’s incumbent on you to not only meet the new deliverable date but  perhaps even provide updates along the way of your progress.

Accepting Missing Deadlines As OK

Letting others habitually miss deadlines ultimately says that a deadline is not really a deadline, it’s a guidepost or a ‘we hope’ date, but it’s not a requirement.  Accepting missing deadlines as all right becomes SOP and no one will take a deliverable date seriously.  So don’t be surprised if that’s what happens in your organization.  If you want people to be accountable to meeting deliverable dates then you have to hold them accountable and not ignore it when one is missed.  And a final comment.  You have to hold yourself to the same standard you hold others to.  You can’t require them to meet deadlines and excuse yourself.  Commitment works both ways.

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