CEO Note to Self

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DEADLINE--BEWARE.

I do love a good deadline.  It snaps me into focus and action and urgency. Pretty darned good thing for an organization.   Budgets, store openings. product unveiling.  Good stakes to put stakes in the ground.

 But here's the deal.  You, who are top leaders have a very different sense of time and orientation from the rest of  the organization.  Your work is made up of  thickets with surprises in them. Complexities bumping into complexities.  This is where the art of intuition helps you know  an optimal moment to act--which may or may not match a declared deadline.  You have many constituents wanting competing things.   And sometimes you stew.   In fact your action may involve quite a bit of thinking and talking and musing and  before action.  So it is understandable that your deadlines may have to be flexible and a moving target.

 Therefore watch your mouth.  Don't fall into the trap of trying to show movement or force movement by making a tight deadline.   Don't let your Board or your colleagues  or your own sense of embarrassment (if we tell the truth) move you to declare an uncertain deadline.  Keep your mouth shut unless you are willing to stake your job on the deadline.  Dead lines that are met build trust and reliability.  They activate energy that you can't afford to waste by wobbling.  Missed deadlines build distrust in your word and frankly your competence in people who don't "get" your vantage point.

Here are some deadline land mines:

*Your direct reports count on that deadline when you casually mention about promotion or a raise.  Even if it is approximate. Waiting too long for a promotion or a raise or  spoils the huge X-factor of motivation and energy that comes from a deadline met or the surprise of an unexpected career boost.

*Boards feel relieved to see a million milestones but don't use them to  assuage its members.

*Downsizing and acquisition are a horror of faulty deadlines that keep an organization anxious and drain talent  prematurely as well as taking people's eye off the business.  Don't use them to give false closure and certainty to your associates.

I've seen sliding deadlines kill a healthy culture in a company.
I've seen tight, well kept deadlines rebuild trust and certainty in an unstable company.

Use your deadlines well.  They are an Executive tool.