One particular trait that all my employers in the past and present like about me is that I’m fast which they equate to efficient. I try to be decisive when there are problems that need to be hurdled as quickly as possible. For a long time I thought that was good enough until I began to experience moments where fast wasn’t such a good thing. Allow me to draw an analogy. Think about driving. Fast is good if you know where you’re going and what route to take to get there. Fast is not good if you’re going to a place you’ve never been and have nothing but a set of quickly scrawled directions that’s barely legible taken over a mobile phone with bad reception. Now transplant that analogy to projects at your job that you have no experience with and vague directions from management and you begin to get a picture of a figurative train wreck.
The only thing to do when you find yourself in a situation like this is to slow down and plan ahead. To bring back the driving analogy, this is equivalent to pulling over, getting out your map, and planning you route. Mangers and supervisors hate this, but sometimes you have to do it. Of course, there’s the possibility that you won’t get there on time, but you’ll get there eventually.