Back in 2025, I saw an opening to get something that I really wanted.

I had my eyes on it for years, but it always eluded me.

In the lead-up to launching our website the year before, I had to make some project decisions and broke off a chunk of content work to be a phase 2 implementation. None of it was mission-critical to the launch: program handbooks, legalese pages, forms, charts.

But when the site was launched, the urgency to tackle the that pile of work evaporated. I struggled to get traction from my colleagues to commit to start, let alone complete it.

Zero movement.

Enter the 2026 website accessibility deadline.

Not one to let a good crisis go to waste, I would commandeer the mandate to get this thing done once and for all!

So I reconvened the team. I told divisional leadership to empower them with decision-making authority. I then set to work inventorying all the content that needed updated, along with a slew of non-compliant PDFs. I outlined everything in a very colorful, detailed spreadsheet complete with owners, status boxes, and assignments. We met for 30 minutes every other week for quick task team updates. Easy-peasy.

Nope.

Each meeting was another shoe gazing Zoom session where we’d just rearrange the furniture: go over the document again and talk about the non-existent movement. I’d ask people to work on it and we’ll meet again in two weeks.

Months would go by with nary a bit of progress. It didn’t help that we were a bunch of accessibility novices trying to make sense of and do the work on top of our already full day job.

We. Were. Going. Nowhere. Fast.

When the deadline extension was handed down in March, any semblance of momentum we had evaporated.

We didn’t deserve the extension. We should have been done months before.

Looking back at it, the reason things weren’t getting done wasn’t the team. It was me. I was being too polite. I knew what I wanted but didn’t exactly know how to get it. I didn’t set firm deadlines and expectations. I let people treat it as optional work. Hell, I treated it like optional work.

That’s when I finally owned the project. I had a mandate. I had a to-do list. What I didn’t have was clarity and a spine.

I just hoped people would do the right thing, we would figure it out, and I wouldn’t have to hold them (and therefore myself) accountable.

Shit or get off the pot

Many marcomms leaders find ourselves in the authority gap. We’re tasked with the responsibility to do the work but don’t necessarily have the express authority to make sure it gets done.

This was my authority gap. Only this time, I actually had standing to make the ask. I chose not to claim it.

Here’s what I needed to do:

• Form a clear plan: Define the end result and steps to get there.
• Make a clean ask: Review and update the content.
• Set specific tasks: Fix the PDFs. Get official signoffs.
• Specify deadlines: Submit by the end of the month.
• Then stop talking.

As the leader of a project, my job was to lead. Not just coordinate. Not just facilitate. Not just collaborate. Lead.

So if you struggle with cross-functional projects, do yourself a favor: make the call. Be clear. Require agreement and understanding. And most of all, follow through.

Here’s what I did to build some serious delegation muscle.

Four moves to level up your leadership game

1. Audit your last three asks.

Go back to your recent emails or conversations where you requested something from a non-direct report. Did you give them a task and a date, or did you give them a soft invitation to “help if convenient?” Count the hedges. That’s your baseline. You’ll probably wince. Do it anyway.

2. Separate the ask from the relationship maintenance.

The clean ask doesn’t end the relationship. A follow-up “thanks, this helped” does the relational work. You don’t have to bake the gratitude into the request itself. Split those two things and both get better.

3. Practice on low-stakes asks first.

Pick a request this week where the relationship risk feels minimal. Strip it down. Task, date, one line of context. Notice what happens. Most people respond better to clarity than you expect. A clear ask is a kind ask.

4. Name the deadline out loud, even when it feels uncomfortable.

“I need this by Thursday” is not a demand. It’s information. Vague asks produce vague results, and then you end up doing the work yourself. The deadline is a service to them, not pressure on them.

Apply my SEE/SHIFT/SUSTAIN framework.

SEE the hedge when it shows up. “If you have time” is the signal.

SHIFT to the direct version before you hit send.

SUSTAIN it by tracking whether clean asks get better results than hedged ones. They will. That feedback loop builds the muscle.

Being accommodating and not making waves when making an ask is like writing “Tell me no. I won’t push back” with a black sharpie on your forehead. You’re not managing the project. The project is managing you.

Believe me, it’s not a good look.

As for my accessibility project? I’m reframing my role, shedding my decision fatigue, and shifting the decisions to the people closest to the work.

I empowered two people on the team to map the process and pick up the work that fell off from non-engaged members, I broke a technical logjam with our CMS provider, and I’ve been specific with my asks and timelines. Basically, I got out of my own way and tasked people to just get it done.

It’s working and we’re moving. And next April can’t get here soon enough.

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