“We have got a lot of time to finish this work!”, said AK.

AK is all excited as he has recently been promoted to the next role and this is the first time he has been given the opportunity to lead a small project with limited supervision. When AK started his career about 6 years ago, GK was his manager and mentor. AK wanted to meet GK for a quick coffee and share his excitement.

GK: “Congratulations on your new role! What’s the duration? And how many members?”
AK: “Thank you. Its 3 months duration and 12 members team, which is more than sufficient”

GK: “Do you know the complexity, requirements, and technology?”
AK: “I just received it from the previous manager. I don’t know the details. Pretty sure, I can get it done in 3 months.”

GK understood the situation and wanted to help AK get to the ground reality, although he knew it might impact AK’s excitement.

GK: “3 months. That’s good”. “Let me ask you some specifics that might help you get a better picture. Guess that’s okay.”
AK: “Definitely.”

GK: “How many days?”
AK: “92 days total”

GK: “Hmm.. Not calendar days. How many working days?”
AK: “Oh. 66 days”, slowly.

GK: “Take out public holidays!”
AK: “61” with a low voice.

GK: “How many leaves are allowed per month for employees as per policy? Consider a reasonable number.”
AK: “I understand. Then 58 days”.

GK: “What if someone is sick? Consider the least number.”
AK: “57 days” with unease in his voice.

GK: “You are too optimistic, by not considering planned sick leaves 🙂 that leads to long weekends.”

GK wanted to push the envelope a bit more and see.

GK: “You know, studies suggest that 4-6 hours of productive work within an 8-hour working day. Consider 6, What’s the number now?”
AK: “Close to 43 working days” sounded panic.

GK: “Multiplied by the number of members in that team”. “I hope your previous manager would have estimated well by accommodating all these factors, other risks, delays, and waiting.”
AK: “Now, I must pray”

GK: “I know you are frightened a bit. I wanted to help you gain a deeper understanding of the situation about estimations and mitigate risk”

GK: “Do you think our discussion helped you?”
AK: “In fact, it did a lot! As always!! I have a better perspective now!!!”

GK: “By the way! Have you worked with those team members earlier?”
AK: “I am new to this team”.

GK: “Then there is a lot more to talk about team dynamics, let’s do that during our next coffee meeting”.

Like AK, many new leaders initially face the challenge of balancing enthusiasm with accurate project assessment.

Dear Leaders! What advice would you give to AK in this scenario?

Image: Pixabay