Progress Bars in software exist only to keep us entertained while “something” happens.
In many cases, they are incorrect and based on the best guess of what might be happening at a particular point in time. They are guesstimates of a calculation that looks at the work to be performed, adds in some variance for connection speed and comes up with a timed estimate for when work will be done.
The best project bars keep updating all the time so you know something is being done.
The worst ones never change because they are running on the wrong thread and not being updated while the application is doing something (and then update at the last second).
And the scary ones, those are the ones that lull us into thinking something is being done only for them to get 95% of the way there, error out and rollback to 0 while we cry into our keyboards.
Now equate that to your leadership development and what kind of team you want to be? The one that stagnates and at the last second, pulls out all the stops to show progress? The one that burns out trying to fix a problem and crashes at the end?
Or the one that tries to show smooth progress and growth, maybe a bit slow, but in the end you know it’ll get the job done.
The choice is yours.
