Leaders need two plans

For Team Leads and SDM that needs to balance short term and long term goals

"Tommy you look stressed out. How are you managing everything?"

Tommy sighed: "I have spent most of my week patching hosts to meet the FedRAMP compliance. Then the production database ran out of disk. I want to focus on our long-term goals to address the database scalability problems, but I never seem to have the time. It is always one damned thing after another."

"Absolutely. You're in a unique position, having ownership over critical components. But you are not alone. For most technical leaders, there are always more things to do than the time you have to do them. It's important to find balance, prioritize and delegate. Have you considered a dual planning approach?"

Tommy: "Dual planning? Could you elaborate?"

"Of course. It involves having two plans in place: a short-term sprint plan for urgent tasks and a long-term roadmap plan for important tasks. The short-term plan is flexible and adaptable, while the long-term plan provides a roadmap for our strategic goals."

Tommy: "I see. The challenge lies in maintaining the balance. The urgent tasks demand immediate attention, while the important ones need consistent focus."

"That's exactly right. Prioritizing tasks based on their impact on our operations and goals is crucial. The key is not to get caught in a cycle of only addressing urgent issues. We must also address root causes and not just the surface-level problems. And remember to grow your team members, delegate whenever it makes sense."

Tommy: "I get it. It's about shifting from a reactive approach to a more proactive one. But how can I balance the urgent needs with long term important goals? Last time when I preposed a 18 month plan to migrate our database with 4 engineers our leadership shot it down due to headcount constraints…"

"Great question. When you show people a multi-year grand plan they often get doubtful. It is a high risk investment. One strategy is to use incremental delivery. You break down the long-term tasks into smaller, manageable ones, each with individual value to stakeholders. That way, you can steadily work towards larger goals while still managing urgent issues. For example instead of migrating the database, migrating one table at a time. It is an important feedback loop for you to listen to stakeholders and adjust your plan."

Tommy: "That sounds like a more sustainable approach. It would also give me room to coach junior engineers and foster a sense of co-ownership among them."

"Precisely. As a leader, you're not only responsible for managing tasks but also for leading the team towards our long-term objectives."

Tommy laughed: “It is easier saying it. Long term goals are hard!”

Well, as JFK famously said, “But why the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? We choose to go to the moon … and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”