Deadlines are not suggestions

Deadlines Are Not Suggestions

At night I wear a bluetooth sleep mask that blocks out light and allows me to listen to audiobooks. If I wake up at 2.30am (most nights), rather than ruminate about current issues, my goto strategy is to set a timer for 20 minutes and listen to an audio book with a pleasant narrator. This usually lulls me back to sleep. 

Lately, I’ve been listening to “The 33 Strategies of War” by Robert Greene. You may chuckle, but yes, I’m currently listening to a book about war to cure my insomnia. The (real human) narrator has a lovely warm vocal tone. I’ve listened to this book more than 10 times over the last few months. It contains powerful leadership lessons which have seared themselves into my dozing brain.

In one chapter, Greene writes about the heavy losses suffered by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Türkiye during World War One under the command of British leadership. 

Greene contrasts the leadership style of the British commander, Ian Hamilton, with the leadership style of the Turkish commander, Mustafa Kemal, who later became known as Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk” the founding father and first president of the Republic of Türkiye.

Here are 2 key leadership lessons I took from Greene’s account of the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915:

1. Stuck behind the desk.

The British commander Ian Hamilton remained on a ship anchored off shore, and tried to direct the beach landings of his troops far from the front lines. As a result, communications to and from his command post were delayed, often inaccurate, and lost in translation. 

Unlike Hamilton, the Turkish commander Mustafa Kemal was on the ground and in the trenches with his men, able to issue orders and respond in real time.

Lesson: Leaders need to “go and see” what is happening on the front line. 

Never just rely on written reports or what your subordinates tell you. Go and verify for yourself that instructions are being carried out. Get first hand feedback on the effectiveness of your strategy from the frontlines, and make course corrections in real time.    

2. Vague orders & loose deadlines.

The British commander Ian Hamilton rightly understood that seizing the high ground of the Anafarta Hills was the crucial strategic move for a successful amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. 

However, Hamilton was very polite and gentlemanly by nature and did not want cause offence by forcefully ordering his junior officers what to do. As a result, his junior officers viewed his strategic decisions and deadlines as “polite suggestions” rather than “firm directives”.  

It was estimated that the British Allies had a window of roughly 24 to 48 hours to seize the undefended high ground before the Turkish military could respond. But when the soldiers landed on the beach unopposed by enemy gunfire they immediately relaxed. They set about unloading their equipment, building campfires, making tea, and some soldiers even went swimming in the Aegean Sea while they waited to receive updated orders from General Hamilton back on his ship. 

Mustafa Kemal, when he learned of the British invasion, also realized the strategic importance of seizing the Anafarta Hills. He did not wait for permission from his superiors to act, and immediately force-marched the Turkish soldiers to the point of collapse to reach the hills first, get dug in, and set up machine gun emplacements.

Unlike Hamilton, the Turkish commander Kemal was not polite and gentlemanly. He also removed the option of retreat by famously instructing his troops, “I do not order you to fight, I order you to die.”   

When the ANZACs finally got off the beach and marched toward the hills they walked straight into a fortified and motivated Turkish army and never regained the initiative. They suffered approximately 36,000 casualties over 8 months of bitter fighting before the Allies gave up and evacuated the peninsula. 

At the time, in 1915, Winston Churchill was the First Lord of the Admiralty (the head of the British Navy). The Gallipoli invasion was his brainchild. When it failed, he was scapegoated and stripped of his position. Decades later, in 1940, Churchill was called upon to become Britain’s Prime Minister during World War Two.  

The tragic Gallipoli Campaign is commemorated every year with a public holiday (ANZAC day) in both Australia and New Zealand on April 25th (the date of the initial beach landing).     

Lesson: Deadlines are not suggestions. 

Whilst business leadership is not a matter of life or death, leaders must set clear strategic priorities so there is no ambiguity. Describe what a successful outcome looks like, and set firm deadlines for each task.

When it comes to deadlines, I recommend you set clear “ground rules” for your team that fit your culture and values. 

My Ground Rules: “A due date is a commitment. By all means get it done sooner, but due dates are ‘commits’ not ‘hopes’, so let’s agree on a realistic due date that we can all count on. Between now and the due date, it’s OK to ask for help, or renegotiate your due date commitment if something happens outside of your control. But, it is totally unacceptable to show up on the due date with the task not done. No surprises. No excuses. It’s too late for excuses at that point. You have let the team down. You have let yourself down.”

These are just my ground rules. I encourage you to negotiate your own set of rules with your team. Write them down. Keep them visible in your meeting room. And you give everyone on your team permission to challenge each other directly if anyone contravenes your rules, including the boss.  

There must be consequences for poor performance, or a culture of mediocrity can develop. You call each other out. You make an example of people who miss due dates for tasks. That’s what high performing teams do.

Don’t make the mistake the British commander Ian Hamilton made, where strategic priorities and task deadlines were seen as “polite suggestions” rather than “firm directives”.  

***

Until next time…
Stephen