A Leader’s Deadline: The 3 BIG Deadlines that Enhance Your Leadership & Work/Life Harmony and Your People!
Dec 04, 2025
As a Leader within organizations or an entrepreneur who Leads a Team, what would be the point of all those ideas and projects if none of them have deadlines? Deadlines are among the most important tools a Leader can sharpen and keep in their professional toolbox. Without deadlines, later becomes NEVER… and that’s not Leadership! So, what are the 3 BIG Deadlines to utilize as a Leader, how do you use them, and what do you need to know about yourself to allow your People better Leadership Skills and Work/Life Harmony?
The 3 BIG Deadlines are:
- The deadlines you’re given
- The deadlines you impose
- The deadlines your People propose
Deadlines You’re Given
First, there are deadlines set by a higher authority than you, given to you, for you and your Team to fulfill… sound familiar? You sat in a meeting and either battled for or against the idea, or couldn't care less. Or, in some cases, you arrive at work and receive an email that this is the new project, direction, and deadline. In either case, your Team has work to do to ensure plans come to fruition and are successful.
As a Leader, when this is the case, it’s vital to first request clarification as to:
- Why is this project (or new way) important and helpful to the organization and our customers/clients; allowing me to best explain and properly sell it to my Team?
- How is this good for my Staff and Employees; allowing me further understanding to best sell it to my Team?
- What’s my authority span regarding strict adherence to the plan or possible deviation?
- What’s my deadline for completing the task?
- How do you prefer to be kept in the loop: email, text, calls, formal meeting/s? What information is essential for you to know? (Their Professional Blueprint)
- Lastly, how can they best reach you and communicate with you: your preferred method of professional communication, the first sentence they can say to get your attention, and any other information you’d benefit from knowing?
After collecting this information, you’re now ready to share the news with your Team! Some may welcome the news, some may loathe it, while others couldn’t care less. The fact is, it’s your job as Leader to reveal it with enthusiasm and a challenge to do elite work. I’m not asking you to be fake or ignore burnout when that’s festering within your Team. Rather, I’m encouraging you to follow my Can’t Control Formula… the way a Leader shares new tasks and changes that are out of their control:
- Be transparent and share the new task, project, or change.
- Share how helpful it’s for THEM (your Staff and Employees), then customers/clients, and finally the organization overall.
- Ask, “What’s on your/our current list and what is it going to take to pull this off? The answer may be easy and seamless. Or, it may take some grit or reprioritization… Be Mindful!
- Assess whether your Team or specific Team Members need further education or training to move forward successfully and complete tasks efficiently and in an elite manner. Just because the task was given, doesn’t mean your people know how to do it good, great, or at all!
- Inform and provide any necessary assistance.
- Share the Deadline… it may help to share a buffer deadline; allowing the project to be due before it’s actually due to fine-tune any issues.
Deadlines You Propose
As a Visionary Leader with ADHD, all I have are ideas and a lack of patience to get them out of my head and into reality as soon as possible. Although speed has its perks, when not done like a Leader… speed can kill!
Therefore, when it’s YOU as a Leader that has control of the idea, a project, or change it’s not only important how you institute it within your Team/s it’s also monumentally important to provide deadlines… or your People’s busy will beat them, deadlines will be missed, and the pattern will quickly become the norm; as your company culture is simply how things are done daily… and I’m sure you don’t want missed deadlines to be a part of that, right?
When it’s your idea:
- Brainstorm Ideas
- Collaborate with your Team or trusted Right-Hand Person
- Decide what to do and DEADLINES for completion
- Implement
- Collaborate to evaluate success
- Fine-Tune – Continue It, Improve It, or Scrap It?
- Repeat the process!
Deadlines Your People Propose
This Deadline is my favorite because it’s not imposed on a Leader, it’s not derived by the Leader, rather it’s a partnership being led as a Team:
- Share an idea, task, or new project with your Direct Report or Team?
- Ask, “What is it going to take for us to pull off the impossible?”
- What are you/The Team working on and what’s their bandwidth?
- When is a reasonable deadline?
At this point, you have two choices and it comes down to knowing your People, the goal, and current circumstances. There have been times the project was extremely important and whatever deadline was thrown out; I countered with, “That’s great, what would it take for us to get it one month sooner, a quarter sooner, etc,?”. The impossible Goal can be achieved; as long as Leaders are willing to best Communicate, Connect, and Care for their People during the process, and they know there’s an end to the craziness ahead!
Option two: it’s your job to protect the Inspired & Motivated Employees from themselves by pushing back on their proposed deadline, allowing them a more realistic timeframe to not only complete the task but also breathe as they do it, lol! It’s also our job to protect “The Grouches” from themselves by pushing up their proposed deadline date. This may be done through increased recognition awards and incentives, or by setting a new standard of expectations as the company scales to new heights.
In closing, here’s a Leadership Truth… just because you said it, doesn’t mean they got it! Just because you had the meeting, set the deadline, and saw everyone’s heads nod in affirmation… doesn’t mean success is automatic.
The truth is, as soon as the meeting adjourns, everyone’s “BUSY” slaps them in the face and back they go to their daily tasks, putting out fires, and attending meeting after meeting! So, what to do to ensure deadlines are honored:
- MMCI – Monday Morning Check-Ins! Every Monday, I reach out to my Team via group email and ask, "What’s everyone working on this week?" What will your WIN/S be this week? Is there anything you need from me? Is there anything you need from anyone on the Team this week? You can close with what YOU are working on this week as well. Their responses will tell you whether your Team is on track and will certainly help maintain traction on goals and meet deadlines.
- Team Meetings – Schedule a routine review of project deadlines. It doesn’t have to be long and tasks can be evaluated by color: Green = Great, Yellow = Hold Up and Need, Red = Crisis and Action Required NOW. There’s amazing project management software that allows this as well… as long as it’s in your schedule to review it, in their schedule to enter the information, and policies are in place to ensure this act is a standard operating procedure… Be Mindful! You’d hate to make assumptions and decisions based on ill-documented information.
- Self-Awareness – Great Leaders know themselves and what they need in order not to micro-manage their People. For example, I’m a “Looper”. I like to be kept in the loop regarding projects and when my Team can beat me to the punch to share… I love it! Yes, the MMCI and Team Meeting help. However, when a project is new, intensive, or requires a lot of remote conversation… keeping me in the loop informally reduces my stress, allows me to focus, and the Team to work steadily. Know yourself, what you need, share it, and let the great People you hired be GREAT at what they do! Again, this is a fantastic place for 1-on-1 Meetings, Team Meetings, the software I mentioned, Slack (Professional Texting, etc.).
- Celebrate – Be sure to properly celebrate your People for consistently showing up and for pulling off the impossible. There are levels to success; therefore, there must be levels to your celebration… Be Mindful!
- Difficult Conversations – Last, but not least… There will be Employees who struggle to adhere to deadlines, change, or the new way of things… and whose output or attitude has proven they’re struggling professionally or personally… or may no longer be a fit for how the organization is changing. Leadership isn’t for the weak and it may be time to have a difficult conversation: Thanking them for their past efforts, sharing your recent observations, asking what they think may be going on, how they think they can best address it, fine-tuning their suggested solution if necessary, evaluating progress, and when it improves… GREAT! When it doesn’t, it may be time to let them become an asset elsewhere and create a void for you to fill with someone who’s a better fit for the organization’s new standards and culture!
You now know the 3 BIG Deadlines! What was your BIGGEST Takeaway? What homework will you give yourself moving forward to enhance not only your Leadership & Work/Life Harmony, but also that of those you're Leading?
“ It’s monumentally important to provide deadlines… or your People’s busy will beat them, deadlines will be missed, and the pattern will quickly become the norm … Be Mindful!”– Andre Young
Written by: Andre Young
