Why it’s important to finish strong?
It’s the last quarter and automatically the momentum of the business shifts to ensure that the last quarter is the best performing quarter in terms of business. As much as it’s important from a business perspective to have the best performance, even from a personal front it’s important that you target to perform at your best in the last quarter to ‘Finish Strong’.
Imagine you are running 4 laps race; you’ve been in the lead around for the 3 laps that you’ve ran so far. Being in the lead for the first 3 laps surely gives you an edge to finish at the top however it doesn’t guarantee that you would finish on top. So here are a few pointers that would ensure your ‘Finish Strong’.
DON’T BECOME COMPLACENT
I am sure all of us remember the Hare and Tortoise story. So just like the hare in the story who got complacent and over-confident about his lead / achievement before finishing the race lead to him losing the race to the tortoise. Each one of us will feel that I have done enough hardwork throughout the year to perform well and think that the last 3 quarter performances is good enough and one can afford to become complacent or take things lightly. This would often result in getting defocused and thereby a dip in the performance. Once you’ve set a performance benchmark, it’s important to maintain it and not let the performance go below that. During appraisals and promotions we often talk to managers about ‘Recency Effect’ which should not be considered. However, in reality the most recent performances often creates the lens through which the manager evaluates the performance. So instead of depending on the manager to have the right lens to evaluate the performance, it’s always advisable to ensure that the existing performance standards are met or best taken to a higher level in the last phase. So, in the last phase to finish strong; set higher goals for yourself, infact higher than what you had in the last 3 quarters and put whole-hearted efforts to achieve them. So instead of going easy on self, push yourself to take your performance to a different level.
EVALUATE YOUR POSITION
Evaluate your position in these three ways: a. Lead Position b. Follower Position c. Bottom Position a. Lead Position: If in a lead position, do everything to ensure you maintain it till finish. Continue doing things that have kept you in the lead. Stay focused on your activities and ensure you maintain the momentum of your work. It’s important that this is maintained so that all the hardwork done in the last 3 quarters is not diluted or lost because of losing out on the lead in the last phase
b. Follower Position: If in a fol- lower position, you need to clearly chalk out a plan of what will take you to the lead position. What goals and targets would you need to set for self to achieve it? Be prepared to push yourself to go the extra mile to achieve the lead position.
Also push yourself from doing something different to achieve a different result. While the objective will be to reach the lead position, the additional and different efforts shall surely be noticed and recognised by the manager and others around. This would also have an impact in showcasi ng your ef f orts t o ‘ Finish Strong’.
c. Bottom Position: In this position, it’s all about aligning with expectations that your manager expects. You definitely need to live-up to the expectations and perform the set of activities as needed by your manager. Irrespective of the reasons and situations of the past, it’s important that you align your activities with the manager expectation and showcase that you are living them to the fullest. The degree on non-adherence or non – performance on them is negligible and you have to ensure that you do not disappoint your manager on the same. If you are able to successfully live upto the expectations by the end of the year, you need to have a pragmatic approach for performance consideration. Be realistic to evaluate that last phase performance is not the entire years performance and surely it should display belief and confidence about the skills you possess.
REMEMBER, TO FINISH FIRST, YOU FIRST NEED TO FINISH
Finishing First before Finishing First / Strong will remain as the most important element in all situations. Thus it’s important that your focus, efforts and energy are preserved to ensure that you finish first and not exhaust or burn yourself out before you finish. Because irrespective of the position you’ve held throughout, if you don’t finish it will hold no value. While it’s important that you give your best, you don’t want to exert yourself for not being ready for next year. Remember your next race, begins as soon as this ends. So it’s important to maintain yourself and keep yourself going. It’s important that you align with your manager and set his expectations right so that he/ she wears the right lens to evaluate your working and performance in the final phase. So don’t misunderstand this as becoming complacent or asking manager to be ok with non-performance; this would be all about maintaining your position and finishing strong.
Like it’s said, both the ‘Start’ and ‘ Finish’ are important aspects. As an individual it’s our responsibility to ‘Finish Strong’ of what we started a year ago. All efforts, hardwork and perseverance needs to get it’s due credit and thus stay focused to ‘Finish Strong’.