The Art and Science of Execution

When it comes to being successful in many avenues of our lives, we know what we should do and what we need to do, but often those things are hard to do day in and day out. The more I study top performers, it becomes clear that consistency in execution is key.

I am probably telling you something you already know. Again, most people know  what they should do. I am telling you that if you want to be successful, you need to execute on your plans consistently. Thanks for nothing.

The reason many people struggle to explain how to do something is that it is different for everyone. I can explain to you what I did and how I did it, but you will still need to figure out how to do it for yourself. I am not you. Otherwise the how would just be to let me do it for you. The only thing I can do (at least at this point) is to tell you what I do to stay consistent in execution and help you understand how I stay consistent doing that. (If you haven't checked out Dr. Fogg's work on Human Behavior, I highly recommend reading it and internalizing it before doing anything else in your life. Everything will make more sense and you will have a great foundation for the How!)

What to do to Increase your Chances of Execution

Focus on the things that you can control that will lead to the results you want. In the book 4 Disciplines of Leadership which was written by consultants from the Franklin Covey Institute, the second discipline focuses on measuring lead indicators. Lead indicators are the things you can control and influence that have a direct impact on the lagging measures (your results and outcomes). If you are in sales, this might mean making more calls, sourcing more leads, improving your sales pitch. All of these things are in your control, and will most likely affect your lag measures.

Lead measures are usually related to your attitude, effort, focus, and actions. If you want to find the lead measures for your company, it is time to ask how can we measure the attitude of our teams? How can we measure effort? How can we measure focus? How can we measure actions?

What would it look like if all of our teams had a great attitude day in and day out? (Don't fall into the temptation of saying we would make more sales, what actions would your teams be taking) We can control our actions, but we can't control the results of our actions. We can control learning from the results of our actions to inform our next set of actions.

We can control our actions, but we can't control the results of our actions.

If you can find a way to measure these things in your organization, then you can begin to train and improve. The old adage is "What gets measured gets managed".

Finally, keep the measures simple and very clear. If your teams don't know exactly what they mean, execution will suffer

The irony of this approach is that measuring the things your teams can control and grading them on that is highly motivating because they can influence those metrics. They can win every day even if the results don't match up for that day.

For example, as a sales person, I know that if I call 100 people and I have a close rate of 5%, I will close 5 people on average. But statistics and real life don't work that way. If I close 5%, that might mean I call 100 people and close 0 then call 100 and close 10. I am not a failure in the first round and I am not a thrilling success in the second round. I am only a failure if I call less than 100 people no matter what the outcome is because that is 100% in my control and gives me the best chance to win and move the results metrics.

I thought this was about HOW?!?!

So to reiterate the how (which is actually a more detailed what that can guide you to building your own how). You get results by focusing your team on the things that are in their control. You do this by asking how to measure attitude, effort, focus, and actions. You do this by asking what it would look like to have employees that have a great attitude, giving maximum effort, are focused and engaged, and are taking the actions you have outlined.

If the team can't control it, you run the risk of losing their engagement. It is on you as the leader to make sure they are doing the things that will get the results. It is on the team to execute. If the team doesn't get the results, but executed on what you asked them to do, then you as the leader need to make adjustments, the team didn't fail.

If the team doesn't get the results you were hoping for, but executed on everything you asked them to do, then the leader needs to make adjustments; the team didn't fail.

As the leader, your only job is to come up with the lead measures that your team can control that are aligned with the results your company is looking for. If you can design that into your workflow, you will build a culture of execution in your company.

3 Steps to Execution

1. Create metrics that your employees have 100% control over (related to attitude, effort, focus, and actions)
2. Make the metrics simple and very clear. Everyone needs to know what is expected and whether or not they are meeting expectations.
3. As the leader, it is up to you to align the lead measures and the lag measures. If the team executes the lead measures, they have succeeded even if the lag measures didn't move. It is on you as the leader to make the adjustments.

At Play Present, our corporate branch is all about helping leaders and organizations come up with the lead measures that will impact the bottom line. We know that peak performance is driven by a focus on things we can control not a focus on results and outcomes.

 Andrew is the CEO of Play Present and a Behavioral Researcher in the Stanford Behavior Design Lab. His focus is on creating programs to help people change behaviors and patterns so they can move from surviving to thriving. Through his firm Play Present, he creates programs and products that help people unlock their true potential and reach levels they didn't believe possible. You can find more at www.playpresent.com.