The illusion of time

You have a brilliant business plan and you’re uniquely positioned in the market to seize the enormous opportunity in front of you. No one can catch you now. You’ve got plenty of time to spare. Well, think again. Interestingly enough, when you have a brilliant idea, especially one that’s seems like its ahead of its time, you may have a tendency to overestimate your window of opportunity. If you don’t feel like you’re in the fast lane, then there’s probably something wrong. In fact, you may have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way to building your business. It’s highly unusual for a good business idea to be unnoticed by potential competitors. There are two possibilities: you’re pursuing a lame plan; or you have your head in the sand and you’re about ready to be trounced by the competition.

Light a fire under your team

Here’s the more typical scenario. You understand the need to go full speed ahead, but the rest of your team seems to be content on the proverbial slow boat to China. It’s up to you to get them on the fast track. What do you do? Set an example. If you display a sense of urgency, they’ll get the message. Their priorities will be yours, as long as you make it clear that there is no time to waste and let them know why they have to keep moving faster. However, it’s hard to get people moving once complacency has set in. Bad habits are hard to break. Once you let anyone on your team slip into slug mode, you’ll have your work cut out for you. So keep up the pace--always.

Make sure it’s the real thing

Of course, just keeping people busy isn’t going to do you any good. Avoid make-work at all costs. If your team doesn’t feel driven by the real mission to grow the business, all meaningful work will grind to a halt. Managing your team to use up work “cycles” is probably the worst thing you can do. Let people find their own way based on goals that you’ve set. If they are guided by a strategic plan, they will be more productive and accelerate actions on their own.

Avoid the “hurry up and wait” syndrome

One of the biggest contributors to team burnout is inconsistency. They can take the hard work. They can take the stress. But don’t jerk them around. You’ll damage morale and waste a lot of energy by surging production for illusive goals or deadlines. You want to keep the sense of urgency high, but you’ll lose credibility if you cry wolf too often. If you want your team to make it to the finish line, make sure that you have a solid plan that keeps your company ahead of the current competition and keeps your team in great shape to run the race against future threats.