Picture this: I’m leaving a meeting, and as I slide back into the seat of my truck, my phone buzzes. I pull it out of my back pocket and find a text from one of my managers.
Late. Again.
“Come on,” I muttered.
We can’t afford another late shipment to those guys, that account is on a knife’s edge as it is, what with the big guy up the street trying to undercut me by a nickel. And, if we can’t win on service—we’re sunk—we’re going to lose it altogether.
Relax, Kev. No need to SPIRAL.
So, I hightail it back to the plant to see what’s going on.
As I hit the door, I’m met by Charles, the guy who sent me the text.
“Hey man,” I said casually. “How’s your afternoon?”
But I couldn’t do the small talk. I blurted out, “What’s the deal, dude?!? We’re late again?!?”
Charles is a great guy and a very capable manager. But what happened next really took the wind out of my sails. It was just the same old story—supply issues, a couple of people called in sick—yada, yada.
I went into my office and closed the door - demoralized.
Alright. Now I have to call this customer and tell them that their shipment is going to be late. They’re going to want to know why and, frankly, all I have are the same excuses I got from Charles.
Well… time to put my firefighter’s hat on and run headlong into the inferno.
Looking up, I saw something that made me pauseؙ—a drawing I’d put on my whiteboard a few months back: an equilateral triangle, split in two by a line drawn about two-thirds of the way up.
The top third was labeled: Fixing things that go wrong. The bottom two-thirds: Helping things go right.
I sat motionless, staring.
Imagine—actually spending the majority of my time helping things go right instead of fixing things when they went wrong.
Maybe I’d finally be able to hang up that hat.
I mean, if I wasn’t spending so much time on that endless hamster wheel—lost in the weeds of the day-to-day, and playing whack-a-mole with problems—maybe we could finish strong, hit our goals, and keep growing the way we’ve always dreamed.
But that would take an entirely different way of thinking…
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
-- Albert Einstein
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Quitting never built anything worth remembering.
It can be tough not to get sucked away by the current—not becoming a slave to the status quo. But as leaders, we must be resolute in our commitment to helping everything and everyone get better.
Leaders don’t get to flinch. We have to finish strong—and being a finisher requires a certain mindset.
Here are a few tips that I’ve learned along the way:
Start with the end.
Create long-term goals, short-term strategies, and tactical rhythms to get to where you want to be.
Take regular clarity breaks.
Celebrate every win—even small ones.
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What about you?
Are you working on the business or working in the business?
The Finisher's Mindset
40 WESTERN PALLET