Finish Strong…or Fail

Leadership Coaching Notes: July 2011

I seldom use sports examples, but recent finishes are too dramatic and instructive to pass by.

At the Masters Golf Tournament, sensation Rory McIlroy completely dominated the first 3 days of play only to falter so badly in the final holes of the last round that he failed to make the top 10. Painful to watch and I’m sure excruciating to experience.

At the Indianapolis 500, after 499 miles and within sight of the checkered flag, the driver of the leading car, rookie J. R. Hildebrand, decided to lap a slower car that was no threat, got caught in the loose marbles along the edge of the track, and crashed into the wall. It cost him a sure win.

By contrast, the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the NBA playoffs were 15 points behind the dominating Miami Heat with 6 minutes to play. They won. It wasn’t so much that the Heat lost as that the Mavericks went into overdrive to stage one of the greatest comebacks we’ve seen. They did it again in Game 4.

In business today, how we finish defines our standings and futures, too. How we finish shapes our reputations and our profits. It defines our clients’ loyalty and willingness to refer us to others. If you doubt it, just remember the contractor you couldn’t get back to your home to finish your remodeling project.

The Temptations:

The temptations to lose focus and discipline and get sloppy are many:

The creative start up phase is over. Endings are often a slog across the finish line. It’s harder to sustain top form.

You are tired after a demanding project and so, if it’s gone well, you might be seduced into coasting to the finish line.

These days, you doubtlessly juggle multiple projects vying for your attention and perhaps new ones waiting to start. If your project takes longer than you thought, you’re way overbooked and finishing gets complicated.

The reality is that your client, your sales pipeline and your development plan don’t care if you’re bored, tired or overbooked, but they still define your success and future.

What Works:

Don’t Finish ’til You Finish: Professionalism requires that you know your goal line exactly, sustain your attention, and give it your 100% best until you cross it. No excuses. No bending the standards to suit your own comfort and convenience. No passing it off to others so you can make it easier for yourself. Finish and your clients will win, as will your self-confidence, resilience, pride and credibility.

Pause and Breathe: At the finish, there’s no time for a vacation or even a weekend, but there are times for periodic pauses long enough to re-center, refocus and choose again. These moments are particularly critical if you are tired, losing your nerve or starting to tell yourself stories of either certain victory or hopeless defeat. These reset moments are familiar to every exhausted and worried parent with a sick child. Use them frequently and finish strong.

Mobilize and Support Others to Contribute: Leaders sometimes get heroic and grandiose about their ability to score at the end, alone. They ignore others as resources or in a mistaken effort to be “kind,” they let others move on to a new project and avoid the hard times. (How will they learn the discipline of finishing strong?)

If you’ve chosen to consistently invest in building your team, they will want to be part of the close. You and they will cheer each other on and play to each other’s strengths. You won’t let each other quit. If finishing strong requires going into overdrive like the Mavericks did, do it. You’ll know you’ve built a great team when they pull together for the final defining minutes. Regardless of the outcome, everyone will be stronger for it.

What’s Next?

Everyone remembers strong finishes…sports fans, staff, peers and clients. If you, your team or those you are developing as leaders are struggling to finish strong, call me. There are mindsets, practices and organization systems that can help to make you and your team proud of your finishes and win more often in the future. I enjoy exploring your situation and how I can help you learn to use them and teach to others to use them successfully. Your first call is always free.

If you have other ideas about finishing strong, share them with me at mkimbell@corporateadventure and I’ll pass them along.

All the best,

Meredith Kimbell
Executive Advisor,
Strategy Consultant Corporate Adventure

Leadership Coaching Notes uses real or composite client examples drawn from 25 years of coaching and consulting with leaders committed to solving their toughest personal, interpersonal and organizational issues.
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is copyrighted by Meredith Kimbell © 2011. All rights reserved. You may reprint any or all of this material if you include the following:
“Leadership Coaching Notes © 2011 Meredith Kimbell, Corporate Adventure, Reston, VA. Used with permission.”