Confessions from a Natural-Born Starter About Follow-Through

I am one of those folks who has lots of energy and focus when starting things but who tends to quickly lose interest. I am a world class starter - but not a natural finisher. I bet many of you share this trait, too. I can count many accomplishments that I have brought to fruition, but MANY more projects that were abandoned mid-stream. Some of these efforts deserved better from me.

I have a belief that I share with many who participate in my management classes:

The difference between good or poor managers and great managers is that great managers do what others don't or won't.

One of the "things" that great managers tend to do more and more effectively is follow-through. This may seem like common sense and nothing novel enough to warrant being blogged about, but stick with me. Here's the "page 2" of this idea.

Managers who have great follow-through usually use management structures to ensure it. Every manager INTENDS to follow-through, but only those who have structured their time and work to ensure it are consistently successful.

I have been doing, studying, writing about, and training others on the art and science of management for nearly three decades and I have never been more convinced of this idea: If you want to be a great manager - become an ace at designing and using management structure (not to be confused with org. structure). Management structure includes:

• Practices
• Methods
• Habits
• Measures
• Roles
• Communicate vehicles
• How communication vehicles are designed
• Planning tools
• Management information

Intent is not enough. Don't count on motivation that invariably will be high some days and dismal on others (usually due to competing demands). I was facilitating an off site leadership team planning retreat. It was obvious to me that the group was comprised of smart and hard working professionals. They had several well done strategic plans - some short-term, some longer-term, but still reported that they lacked a cohesive plan. Each of these plans was owned and kept by different leaders and communicated to different groups at different times of the year and they were never brought together. They did not lack vision. They did not lack planning skills. In fact, their planning habits were somewhat duplicative. What they lacked was an integrated set of management structures to bring together and make use of their planning efforts.

I have seem similar situations play out with other managers. You see that you lack cohesive direction and clarity, so you get into a room and ask the same strategic questions as you did the last time. And people come to the table with similar responses and this all sounds good. But the ideas never become a part of how you manage, how you make decisions, how you communicate a clear and united plan for your organization.

What if you spent MORE planning time creating the right management structures and then filling in the plans with your great ideas? It is rarely the good ideas that are lacking - it is the structure needed to facilitate follow-through.

Management structures are the tools you have to manifest intentions. And yet we spend so little time working on this. We spend little or no time training managers how to create and use management structure.

As a natural born starter, creating and using structure is not an automatic thing for me and I have learned this slowly and kicking and screaming because I find it more fun to start things. I have to make myself think through and down the life of a project and create the structures that will keep implementation on path when my mind and energy starts to wander, get bored, or lose some of the clarity and passion that accompanies the first sparks of innovation and discovery.

How can you use management structure to produce better results? Is there a project or program that is underperforming? Imagine that I was coaching you and asked the following questions:

• What habits and practices do you have in place that will ensure your project stays on track?
• How should how you communicate - to whom, when, how - change to get results back on track?
• If you were going to create a cheat sheet designed to help you focus on what needs to be done, what would this cheat sheet look like?
• The way you have chosen to work has allowed this current level of unsatisfactory performance. The problem is not intent, not talent, not effort. What are the practices and processes that are not adequately serving your goals?

Comments

[Rajesh Setty]

Great advice here Lisa.

I realized a while ago that I can't do it alone. So everytime I take on a project, I make sure that I have "excess" help for me to draw upon. At least that's what I think when I start the project.

As the project progresses, I realize that there was no "excess" help and I still need "extra" help.

Long story short - I continue to keep learning.

Best
Rajesh

[CV Harquail]

Lisa, this reminds me of the Byron quote "Execution is the chariot of genius".

I really like the idea of focusing on systems that fill the space between 'personal' time management and organizational/department structure. Although some might say that this is really just 'project management' linking it to leadership habits adds a certain leverage.

Also, I love the idea of a cheat sheet. How to make it all very, very simple?! And thus, more doable.

[lisa haneberg]

Raj - I need to do that more! Plan for extra help knowing that even more will be needed.

CV - yes, I can see some parallel between good project mgt and what I am talking about. That said, the reason many project fail is that the leader and team fails to use good management structure to ensure things keep on track. Sometimes something so simple as redesigning how team meetings are conducted will make a big difference. It is not enough to say that you will use team meetings, but how will they be structured to support the desired outcomes.

Yes, simple is wonderful and often hard.

Thanks for your input!

[Rob Tucker]

Dear Lisa,
Great post! I heard a client I was working with describe this recently as "finishing skills," which I thought was well phrased. On the subjects of a checklist, it reminds me of Atul Gawande's most recent book. Really neat parralels.

[lisa haneberg]

Rob - YES, the Gawande book is fascinating. I like the term finishing skills but I also like the term "management." Really, what we are talking about is the practices, systems, methods we use to structure each day to produce the best result. It's a "journey" focus that ends up being very results oriented. Starters, like me, focus on the beginning and the end, less on the daily journey.

[Ivan J. Naranjo]

Excellent article! Thank you for posting it as it offers a clear perspective which I personally found very insightful, most objective, and of great value. I've been a Project Manager for nearly 15 years and could relate very well with all the points made in the article. Thanks again!

[mba india]

I was looking for such post.I would like to read more about this topic.

[ריהוט משרדי]

I bet many of you share this characteristic, too. I can count the number of results that I put into practice, but many other projects that were abandoned mid term.