Beginning with the end in mind has become part of popular business speak thanks to Steven Covey’s best selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. What does this oft used phrase really mean? Well, you can call it goal planning or even seeing the big picture. It basically means that before you create something, you must imagine it. Just like great dishes are born from recipes and buildings follow blueprints, so do many parts of your personal and professional lives. The ability to use your imagination to see in your mind what you cannot yet see with your eyes is an important part of planning for your future.
Beginning with the end in mind is no new concept, but it is something I have to often remind myself of before conquering new goals or diving into projects that have no clear end. Here at Stathakis, we often assign Supervisors to projects that need help and find that these high performing supervisors are much more effective when we establish an expectation and set goals before they get involved. On that same note, when we enter a new area or go after a particular set of accounts we know could benefit from our services, we do far better when we first picture what we as a company really want and how we can achieve it.
By setting up expectations and milestones, everyone is on the same page as to what we are doing it, how it should happen and when we are done. If we fail to set an expectation, how do we measure success? It is very important to break large goals into smaller “bite-sized” pieces and celebrate those small wins as they happen. This can create fantastic momentum as small victories are motivating to get to the larger or longer-term goals.
I chuckle a little bit when I hear people talk about how so and so is successful because of luck. Certainly there is an element of luck and timing in many things, but I have found that luck favors the prepared. If you can use beginning with the end in mind to first imagine and then create, luck is sure to follow.
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