Have you ever been working really hard on building your business or building up any type of a project that needs to get completed immediately, and yet no one else but you seems to be overly concerned about missing the deadline? You may have been working on this special project for a long or even a short time and you may have been working on it with some other people,… but nothing seems to be coming together. Progress is much too slow to suit your plans and purposes. Under these circumstances have you ever felt the pressures and frustrations building up inside of your own mind? Have you ever wondered whether or not anyone else who is involved in the attempted completion is doing anything to really help get the job finished?
All too often many growth oriented leaders face overwhelming odds that cause things to appear that they are not going to finish their work as they originally planned, because it seems like no one else is working except you. Well, don’t get upset and don’t lose heart. This is a very normal situation for any leader of people with a significant project to accomplish or complete.
This sort of problem or situation has existed since mankind has been on the earth. The Bible records story after story of men and women who had to do most of their work alone. It is all part of being a servant leader. Don’t let it get to you. It is all part of leadership and being a leader. Thousands of other people who have gone before you have found themselves in the same predicament.
Here is the way almost all significant projects are preplanned and start out:
1. Decide what it is that you really want to do and when you want to accomplish it.
2. Decide what must be done and completed and what it will cost to finish your desired project.
3. Surround yourself with other successful people who have the knowledge and expertise to help you accomplish your project.
4. Lay out an agreed upon work schedule that will realistically permit the fully completed project. Then simply plan your work and work your plan all the way through to completion.
When everyone involved fully realizes that they are first and foremost part of a team with an overall plan to accomplish a designated commitment, they will be much more eager to choose to commit themselves to their position as a team player. And they will be much more willing to assume their role and their responsibilities once they accept their position as a vital part of a competent team.
When they full well know who they are, what they are part of, what their role is, and how they fit into the overall scheme of things,….it will be much easier for the leader to get the required work done on time…. that permits the project to be completed within the parameters, costs, and time frames laid out before the project was started.
Plan Ahead….if you want to get good results.
Confused team players are always botching things up through missed deadlines or lack of timely performance. This happens because when you don’t know for certain what and when you are supposed do or to perform, it is easy to shirk your individual responsibilities and assume somebody else will pick up your missed contribution.
This is exactly why each team player must fully know what he is supposed to do, when he is supposed to do it, and that no excuses are acceptable for missing his agreed performance. When everyone on the team does his assigned task, i.e….makes his personal contribution to the project… and he does it on time correctly as designated….then all things work together and the project gets completed exactly as agreed and as planned.
All it takes to throw the whole thing off schedule and maybe even secure a failure to complete situation…is for any one of the team players to miss his cue and not make his contribution to the team’s performance in a timely manner.
If you are a team player your responsibility to yourself and to the team is to do your assigned part correctly on time!
When you and every other member of the team does what they are assigned to do at the proper time then everything gets done on schedule and within the planned budget. Everyone Wins!
The leader of this team has the responsibility to properly plan the project. Correctly assign work tasks and schedule them into the overall plan to complete in the correct sequence. Once that is in place, then all that needs to be done is to oversee the whole work ethic and keep the right people in the right place doing the right thing all at the right time. When everything is done RIGHT…the whole project comes together and is successfully completed.
Under these specified conditions, no one has to check on each other to see how things are coming along…that is the leader’s responsibility. All the team players have to do is make certain they are individually performing and completing their personal contribution to the team’s work schedule. Whenever everyone does his fair share at the right time,…the whole project comes together…gets completed as planned….and no one will ever have to ask the question…….
Is anyone else out there besides me doing anything to help get this job done?
Peace and love to all of you………Poppa Bear