Yikes, the report is due Monday and it’s Thursday already!

Does your organization have a plan to meet tight deadlines? How would your team pull together the information and resources to meet your organization’s goals?

First reactions to a situation like this would say a lot about how the team understands its mandate. What people say reflects their beliefs. The range can be interesting:

“It’ll never get done.”

“They always push us on the deadlines.”

“I blame the Research and Development group.”

So we hear: it is not possible, it shouldn’t be like this, and it’s not our fault. Each is an expression of fear. Nothing changes the fact that everyone is approaching a Terror Barrier; this is the wall that’s standing between you and a major opportunity for growth. It helps a lot if someone on the team recognizes this fact.

To smash through the Terror Barrier, you may not think it is helpful to express this fear, but it can be quite healthy at first. Anxiety that is not expressed is internalized and turns into depression and anger. You do need to understand that the origin of this fear is ignorance. The team is acknowledging that no one knows how to get the job done in the time provided.

The opposite of ignorance is knowledge and understanding. You need to let go of the fear. The team can start by stating the opposite of the first reactions: “It will get done, and we can do it if we pool our resources.” Other signs of impending success are statements such as:

“I’ll get the figures from Finance.”

“Here is last year’s report. We can start by updating the information.”

“I’ll call Research and see what they have for us.”

This team has pushed through the Terror Barrier and has found power and growth. Their results are about to be enhanced by momentum, too. Help your team by being an agent of growth and success and make the switch from fear and ignorance to understanding and knowledge.

Photo credit: Time by Alan Cleaver via Photo pin as cc