I have seen this again and again. You promised to deliver a project on a specific date without really listening to your team. The deadline is approaching and your level of anxiety is going up. So instead of the standard schedule of weekly reports, you have increased those to every morning. This is your first mistake. Your anxiety is slowing down the project. Now the team that (if you hired them properly) is trying to save you cannot focus on getting the project done, they have also to become your therapists once daily. In addition, some of the team members that are working better at night and recovering in the morning are losing sleep and becoming less efficient.

Now there is only a few days left and your anxiety has reached levels that make it impossible for you to sleep: it is time for you to totally sabotage your project. You stay with your team 24/7 so that they can be your therapists 24/7 and since you cannot sleep why should they. You wake them up in the middle of the night, call them back to work. Now you are killing your team: they are your therapist 24/7, they lose all efficiency and you are very likely to miss your deadline, to deliver a very faulty project and to lose the respect of your team.

Trust your team, don’t let your anxiety kill your project. If it gets too much, please go for a walk, go to the gym, stay home. Don’t ask your team to be your therapists.

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