Execution is tough
Proper execution is firm and tough. Often company leaders shy away from being persistent and demanding as it seems controlling and unfriendly.
We urge you to evaluate your approach to getting results. You need an instututionalised manner and system for ensuring that you get results.
Ask the right questions
An owner/CEO has to ask penetrating questions. In meetings with your managers drill-down concerning each objective:
- What is your precise objective?
- What are you going to do to achieve it?
- What will be the results, the outcome?
- What will be the other (perhaps not intended) consequences of your actions?
- What are your assumptions on which your opinions are based?
- Do you have the right resources in place?
- What are your start and end dates? Is your objective achievable within this time frame?
This questioning approach does not denote trust or an absence of trust.
Its aim is to install and use a thorough process. Everyone has to learn to be thorough. All have to know that it is the owner's/MD's right and obligation to become involved and ask tough questions. Each individual has to ensure s/he is able to provide answers. If an individual cannot provide the answer others should not keep quiet. Do not hesitate to jump in, to assist and provide answers.
Execution - a definition
"Execution is a specific set of behaviours and techniques that companies need to master in order to have competitive advantage. It is a discipline on its own. You can't craft a worthwhile strategy if you don't at the same time make sure your organization has or can get what's required to execute it, including the right resources and the right people." (Bossidy and Charan.)
The reason why between 60% and 80% of all organisations fail in achieving the desired rate of success with their strategies is because thorough, dependable execution does not become part of the daily routine. People at all levels of the organisation often do not hold themselves accountable and are not held accountable by the leader/manager.
The leader has to create a discipline of execution. The difference between a successful company and an unsuccessful company often lies only in the capacity to execute.
Time spent on strategic objectives
How often do you hold a day-long meeting focussed on only one to three strategic objectives? Many MDs find it difficult to allocated more than a few hours to strategic planning workshops.
Apparently CEOs/MDs spend, on average, about only one hour per month in intentionally pursuing strategic objectives. The development of a plan is usually an interesting exercise but thereafter back to the usual busy (familiar, comfortable) routine of dealing with urgent issues. Few leaders allocate a few hours each week in their calendars to executing on important objectives.
The way in which you choose to spend your time and resources, your actual "doing", indicates what you value. And your employees copy your doing, your "walk".
Owners/MDs who want to move ahead with speed know that they need a process and discipline of planning and especially of execution. Ensure that everyone is involved in planning and understands what is expected. And management has to lead by example when it comes to execution.
Successful companies have an institutionalized schedule for developing their strategic and operational plans, including marketing and HR plans, and budgets; for the execution thereof and for review and adjustment.
Closed-loop management system of planning and execution
Kaplan and Norton in 2008 devised a staged planning and execution system which they call a closed-loop management system. The process should be part of any company's annual cycle and calendar.
The stages of their strategy are described under the heading "Linking strategy to operations" on the page strategic plan of this Web site.
Contact ABPLAN to faciltate the installation of this approach.
Next find out how to institutionalize a process of effective execution.
Read meetings - great? as running great meetings is a precondition to achieving results.
Visit the much neglected topic of performance measures. Can you execute without measures?
Consider visiting the related topic of emotional intelligence.
For details on "Execution - The Discipline of Getting Things Done" by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan and "The 8th Habit" by Stephen Covey, who for years relied on the Charan approach to execution before developing his own approach, please visit worth reading.
Last modified: 11-07-2010