Initiative and 'Finishiative'
As I review more than 30 years of management consulting, some executives and their practices stand out in bold relief. A chief executive I met in the early 1960’s and continue to meet now and then gets things done in record time. The fact that he is the Number One man in the organisation helps makes this possible for him. However, there are many others who are heads of their organisations, some of them sole proprietors, who have not accomplished even a small percentage of what he has done. It is not the fact of being Number One that makes for unusual accomplishment; it is the approach one takes to life and work.
In most performance appraisal forms I find a key item and that is the word “initiative’. The person who has demonstrated initiative on the job is considered good, and it is believed that such people should be given encouragement.
Initiative is not a common virtue, but the question is… Is initiative enough? A Sanskrit phrase, Aaramba Sooratva –literally meaning ‘tidal’ strength, but only in starting” – suggests the answer. The reality in life is that it is not what you start that matters; it is what you finish, what you take to its logical conclusion. It is the finished product, the finished sale, and the finished collection that matters in the final analysis.
The chief executive I mentioned is noted for his capacity to take a thing to its logical end. In his case the gap between the start and finish of an item is the minimum possible. If something can be done in two days he will not take two and a half days. If anything can be done before the end of the day, he will not allow it to go beyond. His strength is what I would describe as “finiative” or ‘finishiative’-o one to rhyme with “initiative”, the other to extend the root word “finish’.
Once the executive makes a decision, he seeks to energise all the people concerned. He gets commitment from them of the time it would take to do their part, and he offers them the required support. He closely monitors what is happening and if necessary – sometimes gently, sometimes roughly – prods them to appropriate and timely action. To him, it is the finished job that matters.
This is seemingly pressuring his juniors. Do they resent it? On the contrary. They take the time target and the end-result target as challenges; and they seem to enjoy meeting these challenges. The secret? They too enjoy the joy of getting things completed. The pressure is temporary: the joy lasting.
Inertia is a law of life. Energy is a human phenomenon. “Finishiative” call for executive energy – physical and psychic – in extra measure. Where it is not present, inertia takes over with all that it implies. “Finishiative” is easy to understand. But it is neither easy to achieve nor common. If we realise that it is the very essence of accomplishment. In many work situations, we will give it its proper place in selecting, promoting, compensating and managing people generally. Let’s add the word ‘finishiatve” to our work dictionary.
The above article by Dr N.H. Atthreya – educator and author of several books was first published in 1989 in ‘The Rotarian’. |
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