What do you do if your team is struggling to prioritize and meet deadlines?

1 Assess the situation

The first thing you need to do is to understand why your team is having trouble with prioritization and deadlines. Is it because of unrealistic expectations, unclear goals, poor communication, lack of resources, competing demands, or something else? Talk to your team members and stakeholders, review your project plans and progress, and identify the root causes of the problem. This will help you to address the issues and prevent them from recurring.

2 Communicate clearly and often

One of the most common reasons for prioritization and deadline issues is poor communication. If your team doesn't know what is expected of them, what is the most important task, what is the deadline, and how their work affects others, they will struggle to prioritize and meet deadlines. To avoid this, you need to communicate clearly and often with your team and stakeholders. Use simple and specific language, share relevant information, set clear expectations and boundaries, provide feedback and recognition, and encourage questions and collaboration.

3 Use a prioritization framework

A prioritization framework is a tool that helps you to rank your tasks based on their urgency and importance. There are many prioritization frameworks you can use, such as the Eisenhower matrix, the MoSCoW method, the RICE score, or the Kano model. Choose one that suits your project and team, and use it to evaluate and prioritize your tasks. This will help you to focus on the most valuable and impactful tasks, and avoid wasting time and resources on low-priority tasks.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?