Execution – how to get things done!

I have four recommendations that will minimise the roadblocks to achieving your goals and keep your people on the right track for growth.

1.???? Eradicate Everest Syndrome

2.???? Learn to execute under pressure

3.???? Recruit for temperament and character

4.???? Build resilience!

Let’s tackle them one by one,

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1. Eradicating Everest Syndrome

I often see Everest Syndrome affecting business leaders, particularly those with less experience.

Here’s how it works:

• An individual or a team promises to deliver on a goal of extreme difficulty.
• They get reasonably close to the goal but stop trying to achieve it, either when they become fatigued, or it becomes clear that the goal is not achievable.
• They are “forgiven” by the leader of the business.
• Whether the goal was a SMART goal (see below) was neither considered nor realistically assessed.
• To retain credibility (or perhaps to pander to ego, boost self-worth, or pure bloody-minded determination) - the individual or team concocts another goal, so "Everest Syndrome" begins again.
• This is a massive waste of business resources and talent within the business. Perhaps most critically, it diverts precious resources from maintaining and enhancing market position, competitiveness, and profitability.

I find pockets of Everest Syndrome within my clients’ businesses. There are several root causes,

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Comparative ignorance

When a person or team is relied upon to deliver a level of skill that is ‘irreplaceable’. This usually occurs when their leaders lack the skills or experience, they reputedly have. Consequently, there is no objective way to determine if these ‘irreplaceable skills’ are fact or fiction.

Given that nobody is irreplaceable, then we can make the following assumptions.

• If the skills are not replaceable, the business has a retention and succession issue specific to this person or team.
• If the skills are replaceable, the business has a leadership or management issue relating to this person or team.

The way to address the Everest Syndrome in either of the above cases is to set clear expectations of the person or team and require external validation. By this, I mean a review or audit of their work using a benchmarking analysis. This should measure the gap between their outputs and best practice.

Occasionally, I am engaged to carry out this analysis as a specific project or as part of my ongoing work with clients.

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Lack of agreed expectations, consistency, and transparency

In the absence of comparative ignorance, the cause of Everest Syndrome, in my experience, is usually one of the following,

• Favouritism or nepotism. The drivers here are the presence of bias on behalf of an owner, leader or manager. It is particularly prevalent within family-owned businesses, where individuals are favoured or protected.
• Poor culture, poor leadership or management. This can occur when a business has been sold, and a new owner operates without the necessary skills and experience. Or when a business owner is tired and distracted by adverse market events, health or personal issues.

In both cases, expectation management alone will not solve the issues. Instead, the root causes need to be sensitively teased out and addressed.

The need for remediation is often realised when the owner, leader or manager suffers sufficient economic, financial or personal pain and sees the benefits in a solution.

Everest Syndrome is very costly. Extreme cases can cause a business to close, restructure, or be sold.

How to avoid “Everest Syndrome” in your business

Set clear expectations and manage those of others.

Recruit for attitude first; skills and experience second.

Set SMART KPIs:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time-based

Consistently apply clear KPIs to each person and each team. Cover the hard skills (quantitative) and the soft skills (qualitative) needed to harness the experience of your key team members. You can then turn that experience into both business value and personal growth.

Create a lifelong learning culture within your business, from leadership all along your chain of command.

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2. Executing under pressure

Business leaders face a combination of digital transformation pressures and pressure arising from the inherent conflict between the constantly increasing standards of service clients expect and the demands from their people. Both employees, and to a lesser extent contractors, will press for good pay, set hours, and a work-life balance.

It means business leaders are always looking for ways to do more with the same level of resources, or at least the same, with fewer resources. You don’t need me to tell you how stressful that is.

The ability to cope with pressure and continue to execute as needed is determined by several things:

Level of business experience

• It is critical to manage and balance your team particularly around experience levels.
• Inexperienced people tend to panic under pressure because they have not failed very much, learnt from it, and begun to gain the confidence that comes from overcoming obstacles and failure.

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Level of life experience

• The joys and challenges of life develop all of us. Like stones in a river, some of our rough edges are worn away to reveal the structure and character of the stone within.
• As people pick up life experience, they acquire additional balance and perspective that helps them cope with both failure and success.

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Level of EI (Emotional Intelligence)

There is a “nature or nurture’ argument as to the source of emotional intelligence.

You need to recruit for, train and develop EI in your teams. The simplest way is to screen and recruit for EI as a primary trait in your new people.

This video is an excellent summary of the importance and context of EI.

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Level of resilience

The largest component of my work is improving my clients' resilience and that of their businesses and people. True resilience is, in my experience, a 20-year business journey, which at that point is then continually refined. Dr Sven Hansen founded and now leads the Resilience Institute. His website is an excellent resource in this area:? https://resiliencei.com/our-teams/dr-sven-hansen/

The level of business experience, life experience, and EI all work together, like the strands of a rope, to deliver average, excellent or exceptional levels of resilience.

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What practical steps can I take to cope with the pressure?

The key here is your mental state, improving motivation and learning the delicate art of “micro-breaks”. I work closely with most of my clients in this space, as coping with pressure and still executing as needed is the number one problem presented to me on almost all initial engagements.

There are four key areas to this work:

1. Ensuring communication, accountability, transparency and consistency are up to standard.

2. Recruiting talent for attitude, more so than technical skills.

3. Recruiting talent with emotional intelligence.

4. Addressing any underlying motivational issues within the business.

None of these areas are new or remarkable, but a business that systematically works through them emerges as a sustainably top-performing one.

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3. Fill roles for temperament and character

Matching a person’s temperament and character to their role within a business is a critical success factor.

We are all born with a certain temperament. In my view, it cannot be changed and remains with a person throughout their life.

Attempts to change temperament, usually in formative years, have ruined the potential of many a would-be star. It has led to shorter lives, sometimes in subtle and gradual ways, other times in more dramatic and sudden ways. For the sake of the individual, temperament should not be changed, only worked with.

It is critical to identify each person’s temperament, to learn to live with it, and to use its net advantages to their benefit.

People who do not complete the three steps in the point above are "square pegs in round holes" and suffer greatly for their lack of focus, as do the businesses that either acquired them or incorrectly recruited them.

A person’s character cannot be changed completely; however, it can be developed when sensitively addressed. This takes a great deal of active listening and can only happen when there is trust between the subject and the active listener.

In a business context, a person’s character develops slowly and is often influenced and built by factors external to your business. ?

in my opinion, you should not attempt to do much more with your teams than work with the character of your people. I use specialist analytical tools, my knowledge, and many years of experience and common sense to help business leaders develop their character and that of their key people.

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Useful resources for team development

I often use videos to inspire people. There are many to choose from on YouTube with excellent content on team development. Find one that suits your team members' level of experience. For example, Admiral McRaven's address might work well for entry-level employees.

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4. Driving execution through resilience

As already described, true resilience is built over time and involves many factors.

In my experience, execution can only be consistently delivered at a high level by team members who are:

• Experienced in business
• Experienced in life
• Have reasonable EI
• Have achieved resilience to a reasonable extent.

How do you maximise resilience?

My work with clients often includes assessment, gapping, and recommendations for improvement in resilience at all levels. I look at the business overall, its leadership and sometimes key people and teams.

First, I use gap analysis to gauge the present level of resilience and then define the desired level. The gap between the current level and the desired or required level provides the goal to work towards.

I use my knowledge and experience and tap into my network, to help business owners address this critical area.

'Execution – how to get things done.' is the sixth of the 7 principles used to deliver revenue increases to businesses from $5m to $10m plus.

My next LinkedIn article will explain the seventh principle: Governance and Leadership.

All Rights Reserved ? 2019 Murray Fulton

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