Starters and Finishers

There are lots of ways we use to categorize people in our world. We consider gender, age, size, ethnicity, ability and a host of others, yet there is a category that is not often verbalized. That category is the Starters and the Finishers.

What are Starters and Finishers? Well, this is a way of looking at people with the view of helping you to make the best choices for a project team and /or any other task group.

Starters are also know as visionaries,- big picture thinkers – you know, they are the ones who think of the new thing to do and are off and running. Finishers are the people who actually put the legs to the project and make it happen.

Starters can be fun to be with and they often don’t get into the detail needed to finish anything before they are on to the next new project. Finishers get it done and can get bogged down in the process. Teams and groups need both to actually move forward and to complete the project. And each carries qualities of the other.

I tend to more of a Starter than a Finisher. I have good ideas and enjoy sharing them and getting them started. Somewhere into the nitty gritty I get a bit bored bacause I have another great new idea. Over the years I have learned that working with people requires me to use both skill sets. It was a huge challenge in the beginning and I am much better at it now. After all, you can hardly run your own business if you are not willing to have more than just an idea.

So, which are you? And how well do you use the other skill set?

PS: If you read last week’s blog you know I set myself the task of doing my blog early rather than the day it was due for posting. Well, I did it and now I want to see if I can move it back another day. And PPS, I had it done and for reasons known only to the computer gods it didn’t publish.