There are a handful of times when I can remember asking a team to do the impossible. Once, it was asking a team to do more work than they had ever done in a few months. Another time, I was asking to solve a particularly hard performance problem that was impacting customers. In these cases, it makes sense that you may need to ask your team to step up and do the seemingly impossible. How can you best manage the risk?

Assess the goal itself. Are you asking the team to do something they have never done before? How different is the ask? Are you asking for 10% more production or 1,000%? Are you asking to solve a slightly harder problem, or a completely new problem? The first step is figuring out how hard what you are asking is for the team to accomplish. Determine where it falls anywhere between a stretch goal and a herculean effort. Get real with yourself about what you’re asking, and know if you are asking the impossible.

Consider the alternatives. Much of the time you’re asking a team to do the impossible because there is no other choice. If you had a better alternative, you’d exercise it. So the alternative to asking for the impossible is not trying, which is slightly worse than trying and failing. So maybe you can ask for the impossible knowing the worst case is where you stand today.

Find out what your team thinks. I have never had success asking a team to step up and accomplish the impossible when they think they cannot deliver. A team that doubts their ability to succeed will not. You can do some amount of selling and cheerleading to encourage a team to see their ability. When a team does not see their own success as possible, I will reconsider whether it makes sense to make the ask.

Understand the consequences. Asking your team to do something impossible will always have consequences. You may have a team that needs a break once they have completed the goal. You may not get the quality you want out of the effort. You may create significant work for other parts of the firm when the team ignores everything but the big goal. Once you have your arms around the consequences, be willing to accept them as the leader who asked for the impossible.

I remember a time when we asked to finish four times the implementations than we had ever completed before. We set the goal and the team pushed hard to complete the work. We didn’t fully appreciate the consequences. In particular, the implementation were done at the expense of quality. We also didn’t account for the increased workload of so many clients hitting support at once. By not accounting for the consequences, we achieved one goal and created bigger problems in other departments.

Be with the team. You may not be able to put hands on the keyboard and get the work done any faster. Your moral support being with the team during their big effort will go a long way to recognizing the effort. If the team is working late or weekends, be there with them. If you are counting every hour or minute, bring them food or coffee. If possible, sit with the team and make yourself available to clear roadblocks or help in whatever way you can. Be with the team physically and mentally to provide support through the effort.

Consider if you ask for the impossible on a regular basis. Do you make a “big ask” too frequently? If you have a hard time knowing, ask a trusted member on your team how often it happens. When you ask for a big push on a regular basis the “special circumstances” seem less special, and you run the risk of losing the motivation and buy-in from your team.