Dear Yogesh,

As a project manager, I frequently meet with my team to ensure that assignments are finished on time, and that project timeframes are not compromised. One team member recently declared he wouldn't make his deadlines. Uncertain about what to do, I debated whether to confront him about his behavior during the meeting because I wanted to avoid doing so in front of everyone. He has done this earlier as well. Any recommendations?

Regards,
Khushi

Dear Khushi,

Managers of people and projects are frequently required to make difficult decisions. Should we spend money on this or that technology? Which candidate should we hire—this one or that one? Which market should we concentrate our efforts on? It makes sense that many managers develop binary thinking and view many decisions as trade-offs because so much of a manager's work is a zero-sum game.

Your question forces you to make a difficult moral decision between two opposing principles: should you be truthful about the missed deadlines or respect your team member by refraining from criticizing him? Respect or honesty? Which one do you pick?

Don't make a decision. Reject the option as the phony and artificial binary that it is. Being respectful and honest in this circumstance and with others is possible. Start by telling yourself that you can. Consider this: one of the most accurate ways to show genuine respect for another person is to be straightforward and honest.

Here's how to get going.

MAKE A TEAM NORM

Describe your plan for handling missed deadlines and why. When beginning a project (or working with new team members), everyone involved should agree that someone will eventually miss deadlines. In the history of projects, nothing has ever gone exactly as expected.

After you've established that it's normal for people to miss deadlines periodically, review your action plan. Let everyone know exactly how you'll manage misses and why starting with your excellent intentions. What might come across as:

We must discuss misses because many other projects rely on this. Everyone is affected when a deadline is missed. In that case, let's address it collectively, provide one another support, work through the issue, and get back on track.

ENSURE SAFETY

Remind team members of shared expectations and team norms as necessary. Reminding the group of how you agreed to handle missed deadlines will help you build psychological safety when someone does so, which will undoubtedly happen. Once safety has been ensured, folks might be called in rather than calling out. It may sound something like this:

"We appreciate you informing us of the slip. These times are good opportunities for us as a team to address difficulties and assist one another, as we all decided at the beginning of this project. Please help us determine the contributing factors.

You could be annoyed with my response at this point. I've already advised you on what you could have done earlier, but the horse has already bolted! Team norms are nice and all, but what can you do now if they aren't previously established?

TAKE IT PRIVATE, PUBLICLY

Holding the chat in private, one-on-one, is the best action plan if you still need to establish the expectation that responsibility will be a team effort. But be sure to let the rest of the team know that these missed deadlines will be dealt with, not just ignored. Hence, let everyone know. It may sound something like this:

"I want to discuss the consequences of missing deadlines. I'll schedule a time for us to speak later so that we can provide the team with an update.

By keeping the conversation private, you protect the person's safety while letting the team know that the discussion will occur. By agreeing to update the team, you also establish the foundation for future responsibility and a new team standard.
I hope that was useful.

Regards
Khushi

Reference Link: The above is an adaptation of a blog written by Emily Gregory, on FEBRUARY 8, 2023, https://cruciallearning.com/blog/should-you-hold-people-accountable-publicly/