Don’t even start that next big initiative unless you have identified its champion. That champion might be you. That champion might be somebody else. Every project needs a champion. That one person who will see said initiative through until its bitter end.

Imagine any big initiative you undertake as a wide canyon. You are standing on the edge of the canyon. The finish is the other edge of the canyon. In between is, you guessed it, the low canyon-ee part. The champion’s role is to take the initiative down the canyon wall, through the forest, and up the other canyon wall.

The champion is the guide.

The reason we need the champion? The forest is thick and it’s extremely tempting to give up while in its midst. You can’t see where you started, you can’t see the finish. You’re lost!

The middle of any initiative is prime quitting time.

Without a champion–that person tasked to guide the initiative through the morass of the forest–the initiative has a much higher chance of failure.

So do yourself a solid. Appoint project champions. Vest in them the authority and the responsibility to see it through.