CLOSURE - the secret of moving ahead successfully

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Any experienced CEO, or corporate executive knows the value of "closure". It is deemed to be one of the finest qualities of a leader, manager, MBA or supervisor.

Closure. The beautiful art of putting a FULL-STOP on a transaction. A successful full-stop. A final end to a transaction, or an activity, or a process. Closure is a sign that some process that needed to be finished has been finished, and we are now ready for the next thing.

Any manager who has a high capability of doing "closures" successfully, has these in ample measure - confidence, skills, an achiever's mindset, and authority. Someone who does not, is a champion of procrastination. Of course, if he/she is smart enough, a cool cover of philosophical analysis can always be draped around the delays!

One of the finest minds in management, the late Dr Sumantra Ghoshal had said "only 10% of managers in a company have the right mix of focus & energy that helps them make meaningful decisions, and gives the company its edge in the marketplace".

I fully second this thought of Dr Ghoshal, as I have painfully experienced the losses that accrue to my organisation when decisions are delayed, or when execution on decisions is delayed, or when things just go on and on, without an end. The sticky grease of delay slows down the entire machinery of the organisation.

Being tentative is not a good idea, and especially so when you are running a business, or a part of it. Every second counts! Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE had said "one of the finest qualities in a manager is the capability of saying YES or NO, and not MAYBE". Isn't that beautiful? Yes, or No, and not Maybe!

The losses for an organisation due to improper closures are :

• tasks and to-do's just remain hanging in air, they do not end
• a sense of uncertaintly starts getting built up in the minds of those on the receiving end (is something wrong?)
• the manager's work diary starts getting cluttered
• it may lead to slowly diminishing sense of self-worth in the manager's mind
• the big decisions which depend on a lot of small ones get clogged
• the organisation loses out on time, money and opportunities

Managers will do well to remember the golden words of the big daddy of modern management Dr Peter F Drucker - "Efforts alone are of little use, results must follow".

How to identify someone who is delaying decisions, and not "closing" :

• always ready with some philosophical explanation of why the world is not turning the way it ought to be
• always offering reasons related to external environments and changes therein
• promising to do it "just by tomorrow", and again tripping on it
• sounding tentative - a typical "ho raha hai" rather that "ho gaya"
• accepting the limitations, and offering excuses continuously

So how can one start improving on her/his capability to achieve high rates of "closures" on a day-to-day basis? Here are some suggestions :

1. Always be results-oriented, not efforts or task oriented. Remember what Dr Drucker said.
2. Never take pride in the amount of hard-work you have put in. Associate pride with final results you obtained in a situation/task.
3. Create a personal weekly benchmark of closing at least 80% of matters pending at your desk.
4. Try seeing the big picture. Your decisions add up.
5. Avoid taking decisions in haste. Avoid closing in a hurry. Let everyone important in a situation have their play to the fullest.

Being successful demands mental agility and constant involvement. "Closures" are one of the best tools to judge whether one possesses this raw matter to be successful. It is every manager's responsibility to ensure that her organisation does not suffer due to small stupidites that aggregate over time.

And let me close this post by sharing with you a golden gem I came across recently. I think this is one of the best examples of non-sensical corporate jargon being vomitted on hapless victims. I was sitting with this rather smart gentleman with years of corporate experience, discussing a delicate problem. After a long pause, he says - "the peculiarity of the situation demands that holistically a solution has to be found in unison without creating disjoint pieces!"   Aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh
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