Execution

“Execution is the job of the business leader.

When assessing candidates, the first thing I look for are energy and enthusiasm for execution. 

Does she talk about the thrill of getting things done, or does she keep wandering back to strategy or philosophy?

Does she detail the obstacles that she had to overcome?

Does she explain the roles played by the people assigned to her?” – Larry Bossidy, former CEO of Honeywell

Execution – Can your team do it?

“Strategy is a commodity.  Execution is an art.” – Peter Drucker

Mostly, I see businesspeople looking for the next great idea.  But mostly, what we really need is to execute on the great ideas we have already had, which involve basics.

Those basics need to be carried out by our team members and front-line leaders every day.  Basics aren’t sexy so they get devalued, not talked about, uncelebrated, and largely ignored.

Can your team execute?  Yes. They can.

Are you the leader who will inspire and empower them to do so?

Building Trust with Your Team

Everything you do will either build trust with your teammates or chip away at it.

It’s a big deal and will determine if your team will follow you.

Does your team trust you?

If you want more/different/better, you must change

“Your process is working great for the outcomes you are getting, and those outcomes are not the outcomes you are wanting.” – Brian Cain

In my School of Entrepreneurship (thesoe.com) we talk about this.  

Your organization is a big experiment.  And everything is set up and perfectly designed and running to produce the results you are getting now.  You can see the results.  You can look at the “machine” and see how those results are produced.  It’s not a random accident or luck or misfortune.  It’s simply cause and effect.

If you want different results, you have to change the inputs – the causes of those results.

Do it – and see how it works.  Learn fast and change it again. 

Some of those changes are easy and can be tweaked in minutes.  Some changes are made by taking something away and not replacing it – making it simpler.  Some are more difficult and will take time such as a complete redesign or trying to change a culture by swapping out a few people and leading the rest to better performance.

Like it or not, your business is getting the results it deserves from the public. 

Make it deserve what you want.

Commit first. Figure it out second.

Commit first.  Then figure it out.  

By taking action you can learn how to do it – what works and what doesn’t.

The unsuccessful try to figure it all out first, to eliminate risk.  But their plans are the riskiest of all because they are full of false assumptions and guesses.  They never feel confident and most of their plans are abandoned because they don’t have confidence in them or they perceive too much risk and think it will fail.  But they really don’t know.

By taking action you can learn and figure it out.

You can’t figure it out from your chair/couch/office/meeting room.

You get a complaint, and the problem is…

When a customer complains to anyone in your company, it doesn’t matter what the problem is, who caused it, if the allegations are true or not, or even if it’s valid or not.

The problem is you have a complaint, that’s what the problem is.

Complaints get memorialized online, and they hurt forever.

Act FAST!

Listen, sincerely apologize, and fix it. 

Then give feedback to your teams and/or make changes so you can avoid it happening again.

Productivity and profit

Personal productivity is the building block of all business profit.  

A business can’t have unproductive people and magically make a profit.

Find a way to bring out the best in people and make them operate at the higher levels of their productivity potential by –

Being a leader they want to follow and do good for.

Making work fun.

Eliminating gossip and office politics.

Appreciation and gratitude – especially in public.

Removing the troublemakers they have to work with.

Incentives.

Creating nice clean safe place to work (together).

Asking for their help.

Creating a family environment.

…a thousand other ways!

Willpower has no endurance

We can all use willpower to get something done that we do not want to do or feel uncomfortable doing.  But willpower fades away soon, and when it does, we tend to fall back on our default behavior.  (Remember how long that New Year’s resolution lasted?)

If we are to be successful, we need to make some new decisions about what is important; to readjust what is important and meaningful and why.  Then we need to make the right thing to do as easy as possible, by setting up our environment so the right thing to do is easy and the wrong thing to do is more difficult.

Then we need to do the right thing long enough until it becomes easy in our mind – not a bother; not a sacrifice.  It’s just how we live – a habit or an automatic discipline.

Our habits and discipline will accumulate and new long-term results will come from them.

What old habit in your life needs to be replaced by a new one?

Saying "no"

“To think is to say no.” – Alain

“The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes.” – 

“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.” – Warren Buffett

“Focus is about saying no.  And you’ve got to say ‘no, no, no'” – Steve Jobs

Have you said yes to something you should have said no to?

A Winning Schedule

Time is a non-renewable resource.  You cannot manage it.  It will pass whether you do something good or waste it.

Time management is about managing yourself inside the time you have.  Take control.  Don;t let others or whim or circumstances steal all your time.  You must decide what to do and when.

Generally, here’s a framework for good time management for a leader – 

Plan it out ahead of time and write it down.

Do the most important things each day first.  The highest-value activities will have a lasting positive effect into the future.  Creative work and focused thinking in the morning for most people is best.

Plan to meet with the key people who report to you at a certain time in the day or week so they aren;t coming to you with questions at all random times and interrupting you.  If they know they meet with you on Tues and Thurs at 2 pm, then they will save up their questions and you’ll have more predictable time blocks without interruption.

Leave white space each day for things that come up and conversations, phone calls, etc.  If you plan every minute it gets messed up every day when life happens and you feel frustrated and behind all the time.  Afternoons are probably the best time for white space (unplanned time).

Habits are destiny.  Make a habit of using your time well.