I think the key, as it is in most cases, is the "why". Sometimes there really are urgent deadlines that you really need to hit. Imagine you're building an app

I think the key, as it is in most cases, is the "why". Sometimes there really are urgent deadlines that you really need to hit. Imagine you're building an app for the Super Bowl - if you miss that date then the entire thing is a waste. Other times the deadlines are made up or self-inflicted. Understanding the difference and communicating which is which are one of the things that make a good manager/exec. If you're constantly telling the team "this feature needs to be done yesterday" you'll lose their trust very quickly. If you're good about saying "this thing is important and we can forget the rest" or "I know we don't do this much but this date is really important for <good reason X>" then you really build trust with the team. Most engineers are smart enough to understand when dates are bullshit and when they aren't. If you push a lot of bullshit dates then you won't get the good effort when you really need it. If you don't trust the team to work hard without bullshit dates then you should find a new team.