Setting Project Deadlines

Everyone says good project managers are great at planning. I disagree. Great project managers are great at replanning. Your original plan will die within 48 hours. Every. Single. Time. The vendor will be late. The requirements will change. Someone will quit mid-project. The budget will get cut. A "quick fix" will break everything. So what separates the good PMs from the great ones? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆. Good PMs panic when the plan breaks. Great PMs expected it to break. They built flexibility into everything:  • Buffer time that actually exists  • Backup vendors already vetted  • Team members who can wear multiple hats  • Stakeholders who understand trade-offs 𝗔 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲... I've never delivered a project according to the original plan. Not once. But I've delivered every project. Stop obsessing over the perfect plan. Start getting good at fixing things fast.

Your team isn't lazy. They're confused. You need a culture of accountability that's automatic: When accountability breaks down, it's not because people don't care. It's because your system is upside down. Most leaders think accountability means "holding people responsible." Wrong. Real accountability? Creating conditions where people hold themselves responsible. Here's your playbook: 📌 Build the Base Start with a formal meeting to identify the real issues. Don't sugarcoat. Document everything. Set a clear date when things will change. 📌 Connect to Their Pain Help your team understand the cost of weak accountability: • Stalled career growth • Broken trust between teammates • Mediocre results that hurt everyone 📌 Clarify the Mission Create a mission statement so clear that everyone can recite it. If your team can't connect their role to it in one sentence, They can't make good decisions. 📌 Set Clear Rules Establish 3-5 non-negotiable behaviors. Examples:  • We deliver what we commit to  • We surface problems early  • We help teammates succeed 📌 Point to Exits Give underperformers a no-fault, 2-week exit window. This isn't cruelty. It's clarity. 📌 Guard the Entrance Build ownership expectations into every job description. Hire people who already act like owners. 📌 Make Accountability Visible Create expectations contracts for each role. Define what excellence looks like. Get signed commitments. 📌 Make It Public Use weekly scorecards with clear metric ownership. When everyone can see who owns what. Accountability becomes peer-driven. 📌 Design Intervention Create escalation triggers: Level 1: Self-correction Level 2: Peer feedback Level 3: Manager coaching Level 4: Formal improvement plan 📌 Reward the Right Behaviors Reward people who identify problems early. (not those who create heroic rescues) 📌 Establish Rituals Conduct regular reviews, retrospectives, and quarterly deep dives. 📌 Live It Yourself Share your commitments publicly. Acknowledge your mistakes quickly. Your team watches what you do, not what you say. Remember: The goal isn't to catch people failing. It's to create conditions where:  • Failure becomes obvious  • And improvement becomes inevitable. New managers struggle most with accountability:  • Some hide and let performance drop  • Some overcompensate and micromanage We can help you build the playbook for your team. Join our last MGMT Fundamentals program for 2025 next week. Enroll today: https://lnkd.in/ewTRApB5 In an hour a day over two weeks, you'll get:  • Skills to beat the 60% failure rate  • Systems to make management sustainable  • Live coaching from leaders with 30+ years experience If this playbook was helpful... Please ♻️ repost and follow 🔔 Dave Kline for more.

I missed a $6 Million call because I was prioritizing urgent items over important ones. How can you avoid making this mistake? As you're studying your calendar,it helps to understand what I call the “Do It Now” rule. You have to evaluate your tasks by urgency and importance to determine priority. The next time you look at your calendar, ask yourself: “Is this important or just urgent?” If a task is.... Urgent and Important: Do It Now. Not Urgent: Plan it, schedule it in your calendar. Give yourself a deadline! Urgent but Not Important: Delegate it. Trust your team to take care of it. Not Urgent and Not Important: figure out a way to eliminate it. It’s obviously not worth your time.

Do you close every meeting with actions and deadlines? Does every deadline have accountability? How you close your meetings and conversations can make or break your project and the team's productivity and momentum. If you are closing with actions, great! If those actions are not assigned a deadline and accountability, well...that's not great. And, it happens more often than not, especially when a meeting goes really well. Nobody likes to break the momentum of the meeting's success by assigning deadlines and let alone, talk about accountability. But when we fail to assign actions with deadlines and accountability, we are leaving our success to chance and making it much more difficult to hold ourselves to account. As a general practice save the last 10 minutes of every meeting to assign actions, deadlines and accountability. Here are 3 questions you can begin to use consistently if you aren't already: 🎯 What actions do we need take on and by when? (action + deadline) 🎯 Who will take that action on and by when? 🎯 To the owner of the action...How do you want to be held accountable for that action? When you get in the pactice of closing every meeting with actions, owners, deadlines and accountability, you are setting you and your team up for success. Try this #Tuesdaystip and let me know how it goes! ** For more tips and tools to communication effectively on your team, join over 87,000 Learners in my Linkedin Learning course, "Communication Skills for Modern Management". Link in comments. #Tuesdaystip #accountability #actionitems #meetingmanagement #emotionalintelligence

How I Set Expectations So Things Don’t Slip as a Program Manager at Amazon Most deadlines don’t get missed because people are lazy. They get missed because expectations were unclear. At Amazon, alignment isn’t optional…it’s how we move fast without creating confusion. Here’s how I set expectations early…and keep things from slipping: 1/ I write down what “done” actually looks like ↳ Not just “finish the doc” ↳ But “complete draft with metrics, reviewed by 2 teams, and shared by Friday” Example: I once asked an SDE to finalize “the dashboard,” but they thought I meant visuals…I needed filters too. Now I write detailed definitions of done. 2/ I repeat timelines in writing ↳ Verbally aligned = easily forgotten ↳ Written timelines = shared truth Example: After any kickoff, I send a recap that includes the key milestones, owners, and due dates. If it’s not written, it’s not real. 3/ I ask people to confirm in their own words ↳ “Can you recap what you’re owning?” ↳ It surfaces misalignment early Example: I had someone say “Sure, I’ll get it done” but when I asked them to repeat the task, they described something completely different. Easy fix…because we caught it fast. 4/ I set check-in points…not just a final deadline ↳ Midpoints help course-correct ↳ It’s easier to fix week 1 than week 4 Example: For a 4-week launch, I add 2 mid-checks: one for progress, one for review. That’s saved me from last-minute fire drills. 5/ I clarify escalation paths up front ↳ “If you hit a blocker, who do you ping?” ↳ Removes friction when things go sideways Example: We once hit a resource crunch mid-project…because no one knew who could approve temp help. Now I list “go-to” escalation contacts in every kickoff doc. You don’t need to micromanage. You just need to make expectations unmistakable. How do you set clarity from day one?

For all my project schedulers out there... One of my best scheduling tips is to set aggressive (but not unreasonable) dates for key deliverables. When discussing a task with a team of engineers, I often ask, "What's a reasonable duration to budget for this"? When they respond, I'll follow up with, "What would we have to do to cut that in half?" Then, I'll push to get their buy-in on the more aggressive (read: shorter) duration. *BUT* I'll still plan for the successor tasks to begin closer to their initial "comfortable" date. To do this, I use the predecessor "lag" to build a buffer between tasks to allow for slippage. (The benefit is that I can avoid the trap of Parkinson's law and drive towards that aggressive date.) → Aggressive end date for the preceding task. → Comfortable start date for the successor task. → With a buffer in between. Sometimes, we use that buffer and arrive 'on time' to start the next task or phase. But, more often, we accomplish the aggressive dates and arrive ahead of schedule, and my team looks like heroes. ~~~ Do you ever use lags to set aggressive dates while preserving a buffer? What are your best tips for project scheduling? ____ 👋 Subscribe to my newsletter on my profile page for more streamlined enterprise project management tips. . .

Starting a new PMM role can feel like you're juggling a million tasks all at once. 🤯 So, how do you prioritize what to tackle first? Here’s where the Action Priority Matrix comes in. This simple 2x2 matrix helps you categorize tasks based on Impact and Effort, allowing you to quickly identify "Quick Wins" and strategically plan larger projects. Here’s how you can make it work for you: 1️⃣ List all your tasks for the week (or another time period you prefer). 2️⃣ Rate the impact: For each task, ask yourself how impactful it is on a scale of 0-10. Remember, impact is about how crucial it is to the company’s and team’s key goals. 3️⃣ Evaluate the effort: Then, score the effort required to complete each task. 3️⃣ Plot your tasks on a 2x2 matrix and group them into 4 categories: -----> Quick Wins: Focus here to build early wins and gain confidence. -----> Major Projects: Plan these strategically. Break them into smaller milestones and turn them into quick wins, or seek additional resources. -----> Fill-Ins: Tackle these when you have downtime, or reduce the scope if possible. ----->Thankless Tasks: Avoid these. Delegate or eliminate them! The image shows some sample PMM activities grouped by category - bear in mind these are just examples :) Once you have your priorities mapped out, turn them into an easy to consume list and communicate them to your manager and get their feedback. This is a great way to show that you’re organized and disciplined. Don't be afraid to ask for support—or politely push back by explaining why some tasks may need to be prioritized. Over the years, this simple yet powerful framework has helped my clients achieve more results while avoiding burnout. What has worked for you? #ProductMarketing #newjob #coaching #growth #tech

A missed deadline is never just about the deadline. It’s about the tension it creates within a team, the trust it shakes with stakeholders, and the self-doubt it can breed in the person struggling to keep up. In one of my roles as a Scrum Master, I faced this challenge head-on. A team member was consistently missing deadlines, and I had to decide: Do I let it slide? Micromanage them? Confront them bluntly? None of these felt right. What I learned was this: moments like these test us as leaders. They’re not about finding quick fixes—they’re about balancing empathy with accountability. They’re about understanding the why before jumping to the how. I’ve learned to approach situations like this with curiosity, not judgment. A one-on-one conversation is my first step—not to assign blame, but to uncover challenges: What’s been holding you back? Is there something I can do to make things clearer or more manageable? How can we ensure this doesn’t become a pattern? These conversations aren’t just about solving a problem; they’re about building trust. They create space for honesty and collaboration, reminding the team member that they’re supported, not singled out. Of course, empathy isn’t enough on its own. I’ve also had to set clear expectations and follow through. Whether it’s reassessing workloads, pairing them with a mentor, or helping them break tasks into smaller milestones, the goal is always the same: to empower, not punish. Leadership isn’t about perfection; it’s about being present in the messy, human moments. When we approach challenges like missed deadlines with strategy and care, we don’t just fix problems—we build stronger, more resilient teams. So here’s my question for you: How do you handle underperformance in your team? What strategies have worked for you? Let’s share and grow together. #Leadership #AgileMindset #ScrumMaster

Adding a simple project timetable could increase your chances of landing your next long-form content project opportunity. Ever noticed how contractors handle home improvement projects? They give you an estimated start date based on their current schedule, which can change depending on when you decide to move forward. As homeowners, we understand and accept this flexibility. It makes sense that changes in scope or decisions can affect the timeline. So why not operate this way with clients on complex projects like white papers or ebooks? These projects involve multiple steps: kickoff calls, SME interviews, research, outlines, revisions and more. Not to mention the critical milestone of getting the signed contract and deposit. So, what happens when you promise a deadline without detailing key project milestones? You risk derailing the project. If the client takes longer than expected to return the signed agreement or feedback, you're suddenly racing against time to meet your quoted deadline. The solution? Include a simple project timeline table with your fee agreement. Nothing crazy or super-detailed. But it should highlight: 1. Key milestones 2. Due dates to the client 3. Due dates back to you And don't forget to list when the signed agreement and deposit are due. Without these, you can't even start! So next time you're quoting a complex project, consider this approach. Make the client aware of the table upfront. While it won't prevent every hiccup, it'll significantly reduce the risk of your project going off the rails -- and of you having to taking the blame. Remember, just like remodeling contractors, writers need to set realistic expectations and account for the ebb and flow of client interactions. Your project timetable could be the tool that keeps everything on track and everyone happy.

5 Ways to Build a Culture of Accountability Accountability isn’t about blame. It’s about ownership. Here’s how to create a culture where everyone steps up. 1. Set clear expectations.  ➜ Ambiguity kills accountability.  ➜ Example: Define goals with deadlines like, “This project is due by Friday at noon.”  ➜ When everyone knows what’s expected, they’re more likely to deliver. 2. Lead by example.  ➜ Accountability starts at the top.  ➜ Example: Admit mistakes openly with, “That was my error, here’s how I’ll fix it.”  ➜ When leaders own their actions, teams follow. 3. Provide regular feedback.  ➜ Accountability thrives on communication.  ➜ Example: Use weekly check-ins to review progress and offer support.  ➜ Feedback turns effort into improvement. 4. Recognize and reward ownership.  ➜ Celebrate those who step up.  ➜ Example: Highlight a team member who went above and beyond in a group meeting.  ➜ Recognition reinforces the behavior you want to see. 5. Address issues promptly.  ➜ Don’t let problems linger.  ➜ Example: Have a candid conversation when commitments aren’t met, starting with, “Let’s talk about what happened.”  ➜ Immediate action prevents small issues from growing. Accountability isn’t about pressure. It’s about trust. When people own their work, they own the outcomes. ❓ Which of these strategies will you use today? ♻️ Repost to your network. ➕ Follow Nathan Crockett, PhD for daily insights.