If you’re like most other leaders, you’ve had a busy start to the year, calibrating where you and your team would like to be by the end of the year and what you’re hoping to accomplish in your first quarter. Developers are well-known for poor estimates, but they are not alone. It’s a human condition where we optimistically plan and neglect to plan for surprises. And there are always some! 😅

Even with contingency plans in place, you might find looking back at a past quarter, that your team worked on very different things than what you planned at the start. This might be good if you delivered value and what you wanted to deliver, but can be bad if you’ve been distracted from your overall goals.

Practice setting boundaries with others by saying no, so you and your team won’t be distracted from your number one priority for the year. Don’t have a number one priority? Go back and establish a list of priorities for your team, and ensure your peers, partners and others you might work with have good visibility and agree on these priorities.

A lot of conflict in organisations can be avoided by first aligning goals. But where there are conflicting goals, you will need to set boundaries on how much you can help by practising how to say no. Find an opportunity this week to practise.

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