Whether you are an entrepreneur or a working professional, everyone has deadlines that need to be met. These are promises we have made with ourselves or our clients/colleagues/investors, about certain tasks or projects that we may be working on. Failure to reach these deadlines has disastrous repercussions and can result in terminated contracts, getting fired, broken friendships and many other such scenarios. However, time and time again, deadlines are missed and lessons unfortunately not learned. I have been guilty of missing such deadlines on several occasions, it has invariably placed me in a very awkward situations. Listed below are some guidelines I have set for myself as far as deadlines are concerned:

1. Understanding the Requirement: Without thorough knowledge about what a project or task entails, we will not be able to set realistic deadlines. Before setting any deadlines, it is essential that the project/task is broken down into manageable chunks and evaluated. How many resources will be required? What sort of buffer is going to be needed? What information needs to be exchanged before beginning? What is the required deliverable? What are measurement metrics? Gather as comprehensive an understanding as possible before you make a commitment. This is a step that is often skipped, even though it seems the be the most natural first step to take.

2. Be Clear: When setting deadlines we have to be as specific as possible. What is expectedto be delivered, and at what date? Who is going to be responsible for delivering the final project/task? What is the expected time frame for delivery. Without a clear understanding of what is required to be delivered at deadline time opens up a lot of room for ambiguity. For instance if you agree to deliver a project proposal by Noon 18th of May to a potential client, be very specific about what the proposal will contain and what it will not. Many a time when things have been left open, clients have taken advantage of the opportunity to ask for more than what is required.

3. Open Communication Channels: The last thing you want to be doing is working on a project/task and ending up completing it in a manner that is not acceptable to your client. I am an advocate of using all communication mediums available to us such as email, IM, basecamp etc, to keep communication lines open throughout the entire developmental process, to ensure that the client is aware of the developments. This not only makes us more accountable along the way, it provides a level of comfort to both parties knowing that the project is moving as planned.

4. Do Not Over Commit: Entrepreneurs are notorious for biting off more than they can chew. If you are a new startup without an established level of credibility this is a bad idea. Commit to a few projects and do them exceptionally well. If you have over committed, the last thing your client wants is excuses. Apologize and reschedule the deadline. If you make a habit of this, you will most likely find yourself out of work. Stay within your limits and focus on excellence rather than quantity.

5. Reward Yourself/Team Members: When you or your team reaches set deadlines they need to be rewarded. This is a critical step as it builds confidence and motivation to reach future deadlines. It is always a strong motivational force to know when you are currently carrying out the task/project, that you will be rewarded when it is completed. I have fbeen following this advice for some time now and think that without an appropriate rewarding strategy deadlines have a significantly lower probability of being met.

If you are not currently meeting your deadlines I would recommend assessing yourself on the pointers in this post. Sometimes when we get caught up in the moment we overlook the simple things. I would like to hear from readers about strategies they have in place to ensure they reach their deadlines. Look forward to hearing from you all.

If there is one trait that is common in most entrepreneurs, it is an intense desire to win! We live and breathe to take that #1 spot. The concept of winning in the larger context is a lot more abstract. Winning is essentially a way to keep score. However, treating just about everything in life as a competition we must win, makes things seem very different to their actual reality. Do not get me wrong, I am an extremely competitive individual and keeping score is something that I take seriously. However, I know people who take this concept of winning at everything a little too far. They become detached from the reality of the situation, and get blindsided by the unique dynamics of that particular situation. I strongly believe that all of us have to set ourselves stretched goals, and then go out there to achieve them. At the same time however,we have to remember that there are times when we do not have to win at whatever we set out to achieve. If we remain totally fixated on our goals, and disregard the journey we take to get to them, is supposed to make one wonder if the win will be as satisfying? After speaking to a lot of individuals who have been through life with such blinders, there is a unanimous agreement that it is definitely not as satisfying.

This concept may seem simple enough to understand on the face of it . However, being entrepreneurs, it is true that although we may hear this aspect of the argument, we often revert back to our original thought process that usually is “It is all or nothing”. I must admit I still have difficulty grasping the entire concept that enjoying the journey rather than the win will be more satisfying. I used to believe that you should aim to win as fast as possible, and that you can derive all the satisfaction you want at a later stage in life. After reading many biographies and talking to seasoned business owners and professionals, it appears it is quite the opposite. As someone put it “Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans”. It all comes down to balancing our priorities and being able to see the forest for the trees. Easier said than done I know, but that seems to be the path to take to help a person realize a greater sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

In the end we all set different finishing lines for ourselves. What one individual may consider a victory may not be considered one by another. Instead of just focusing on the end goal, we need to be able to look around, even though it may cost us a few points on the leader board. This is not a concept that sinks in after just thinking about it briefly. Writing this post has given me greater clarity on the concept in its entirety but it is still not as simple to adopt it as a life philosophy. What is important is that we begin thinking about these things early, as we can then get a better understanding on how we chose to live our lives.

What do you think? Is winning everything? If not why isn’t it? Look forward to hearing your comments and feedback.

I was having dinner with a friend who manages a large team of 20 people at a very reputable software development company. The conversation drifted to troubles he was having with a couple of his team members who were not pulling their weight. This is a common scenario and one that every manager has to deal with. At larger organizations, ineffective members of teams are able to stay below the radar. They are either rotated from one department to another or given some menial task that requires very little intellectual input. At smaller organizations, and more so in smaller teams with strong leaders  there is very little room for one of these individuals to hide. For instance, an early stage startup team may comprise of anywhere from 3 – 10 individuals. Even if one individuals is not pulling his weight, that comprises of 10% of the entire strength of the organization. This is unacceptable, and needs to be dealt with as early as possible to ensure the survival of your startup.

I have seen first hand how ineffective team members can drive an entire team insane. Fractions are created, people begin talking behind closed doors, and sometimes even sabotage is a possibility. Ineffective team members are kryptonite to your excellent team members. Excellent members of the team who have a strong work ethic and believe in giving their best, will be driven away from your team if they believe the leader tolerates such individuals and sub-par work. It is hence pretty clear that some action needs to be taken towards individuals who are evidently weak links in your team:

1. Briefing: I prefer having the entire team present at the first briefing with the person or persons who are clearly not meeting their targets. Candid discussions can be uncomfortable, but if done in a controlled manner and with the assistance of some 360 degree evaluation tools they can be most effective. The manager or leader needs to sit down with the individual and discuss their performance. If it has been severely lacking, I usually give them another 30 or 60 days to reach certain targets and monitor changes in their behavior.

2. Decision: Monitoring the performance of your team is the responsibility of every manager or leader. Thorough performance appraisals and feedback systems should be put into place as early as possible. If the weak links do not change their outlook within the stipulated period of the briefing, I believe there is only one option left and that is to let them go.

I do not like letting people go, I think that is a fairly universal feeling (other than Donald Trump who seems to enjoy it!). However, tough decisions need to be made to ensure that your startup can reach its target goals. It will require sacrifices to be made along the way. Sometimes, freeing your team from the burden of a member who is pulling everyone down can have an amazing impact on overall productivity and motivation. Look within your own team and evaluate whether you have any weak links. If you do, addressing this concern should be of the utmost importance.

I would really like to hear from readers how they deal with weak links on their teams. What strategies have you used that have shown results and which ones have not. Look forward to hearing from you.

The world we live in today is moving at an extremely fast pace. One day something is hot, and the next, people have moved on to something else. What this means for entrepreneurs is that we have to become more agile and flexible to adapt to the changing times. Working on plans that will take years to roll out have become riskier and we have to switch to getting our products or services in front of the customer as soon as we can. This is where rapid prototyping comes in. This is the process of taking an idea or concept and executing it by using as few resources and as little time as possible. For instance, if you want to start a restaurant that serves a few specific dishes you should initially set up a small delivery service to get feedback, or you may want to create a web service to help entrepreneurs manage their personal finances; you could also start off with a couple of seminars where you share information about what your service does and get feedback.

A successful prototype will mimic the core functionality of the product/service without spending months and a lot of money developing the actual product/service. This means taking all the fancy trimmings off and just focusing on building a very functional working model. Rapid prototyping is not restricted to just coming up with new product/services. One can use it to test out new marketing strategies, sales pitches, new meeting formats or just about anything that can use some tweaking. It may appear really straight forward when reading this post that rapid prototyping makes sense and specially so in the world today. However, most entrepreneurs are perfectionists in some way or other, I know I fall squarely in this category, and I was quite apprehensive about rapid prototyping for many years. I wanted to get it just right from the start. Let me tell you that it cost me a lot of time and money with less than the stellar results that I had expected.

Flash forward to today and I am all for doing pilot tests and testing the waters before I devote a lot of time or resources into a particular project. Not only has this made things a lot easier to make decisions regarding the development of the product/service, it has also enabled me to get feedback faster. If you are planning on launching a new business, I strongly suggest that you begin rapid prototyping your concept first. Strip it to it’s core and showcase it to your customers. Get their feedback, ask them whether they will pay for it, and if they would, how much. Once you have all this information, you will find yourself in a much better place to make a decision to move forward or not.

At some point or other most of us have heard the phrase “Our people are our most important asset”. There is a lot of truth to that statement. Having worked in the human resource industry for over 5 years, I have seen first hand the difference right people in the right place actually make. Building up the right team is one of the most challenging aspects of business. As compared to larger organizations, start ups have greater difficulty attracting quality talent due to the large risk element associated with them. Apart from the risk element, start ups need to attract a particular type of person. I think there are people in this world who have an entrepreneurial spirit within them, and those who do not. There is really no middle ground here because the life of an entrepreneur is one of extremes, of focus and an insatiable hunger to win. There is no space for people stuck in the middle. As a result, the first thing I look for in talent for a start up, is the specific characteristic of knowing exactly what he/she wants.

The next thing you need to look for is a unique skill set. The relevant person needs to be extremely gifted at some primary function that the start up requires. This could be one of many things such as programming, designing, marketing, leading or sales. The person must also constantly strive to build on their domain expertise. It should be almost akin to an obsession, where living, breathing and eating is an extension of the focus on this skill set! Not everyone is born knowing what this particular skill set is. In fact most of us have to find this out the hard way on our journey in life through trial and error. Over the years I have attempted doing sales, marketing, accounting, negotiations and leading groups. The area where I have had the best results have come from leading groups. I now manage multiple teams on a daily basis and assist each one of my team members to excel at what they do best. My background in human resources has helped me greatly and given me the ability to connect with colleagues, associates, investors and clients a whole lot better.

The last point I want to make in this post is to be able to identify just how passionate the person actually is about what they do. Without this last component, he/she may know exactly what they want and have the skill sets to get there, but if they lack passion, you will in all likely hood find them falling short. I believe passion is having that “never give up” spirit. Your work needs to inspire the sort of emotions that keep you awake in the middle of night when you are stuck, make you want to wake up at an unearthly hour every morning just because you can’t wait to get started, it must literally be the driving force for who you are, and your purpose in life. Passion is what will get you through the tough times, and believe me, there will be many of them along the entrepreneurial path. Times when you feel like giving up, when you think you may be wasting your life or may have been wrong all along about what you wanted. These are testing and defining crossroads and will determine whether you have what it takes to be part of a start up team.

To summarize, this is the quick mental checklist I go through when looking for that specific person to join a start up:

1. Does this person know what he/she wants?
2. Have they discovered a skill set that they excel at and want to be the best there is in it?
3. Is the level of passion apparent when they talk about their project, skill set or life?

Even though this is a relatively simplistic checklist it has helped me make some critical decisions as far as team building for my start ups is concerned. Once they have passed this first filter, I have another specific list that I will share with all of you in the near future.

How did you go about building your start up team? I look forward to your comments and feedback.