ONCE ALIGNED ON STRATEGY EXECUTE LIKE LIFE DEPENDS ON IT

January 10th, 49 B.C, General Julius Caesar, until then a celebrated Roman military leader serving as the Governor of Gaul, is at the banks of the river Rubicon with his troops. The river marks the border between Italy and the province of Gaul (which was controlled by Rome and her allies). As he stares into its waters only one thought occupies his mind, “To cross, or not to cross?” ‘Not to cross’ meant that he would continue to live a life of subservience, a life where he would forever answer to another power, in this case the current Consul of the Roman Republic. ‘To cross’ however would be a declaration of war against the current regime, for at the time it was against the law to cross into Italy with an army. On the bright side though, the resulting war could lead to his eventual take over of the throne, making him the most powerful man in the Republic, in so doing avoiding having to answer ‘undesirable’ questions about his Governorship in Gaul.

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It was a heavy decision to make. Not one too heavy however for a man like Caesar. He was an ambitious man who had until then proven his worth in the many wars he had fought for Rome. He was confident that he would triumph in the potential rebellion he would cause by the illegal crossing. For this he was willing to take the risk of disobeying a direct order from his superiors to abandon his troops and report to Rome now that his term of Governorship had come to an end. Its no wonder therefore that after a bit more thought he raised his arm in signal, strode forward on his horse, and, his troops in tow, made the crossing. Once on dry land on the other side he knew he had crossed into a ‘point of no return’ and acknowledged this by shouting the now famous words, “The die is cast”, and thus begun the war that changed Rome forever and that paved the way for Caesar to pronounce himself Rome’s leader and dictator for life.

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At many points as we execute our business leadership roles with respect to executing business strategy, we will find ourselves at the edge of the leadership ‘Rubicon’. You have deliberated the strategy over a long time and involved all the stakeholders. You finally have a strategy that should work, and the next step is to execute it. Executing it though will change the business direction fundamentally. You catch yourself debating whether going ahead with it is the right thing to do.?Contextually speaking every ‘Rubicon’ will be different from the last, some may be wider, wilder, or faster flowing than those you have crossed before and therefore each will pose a different ‘crossing’ challenge. This said though, I believe that the process one should go through before, during and after any ‘crossing’ should be the same irrespective of the nature of the ‘Rubicon’.

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Firstly, your confidence in the strategy will be the key determinant in how decisively you take that first step into the waters of the ‘Rubicon’ in question. Your personal role in crafting the strategy will go a long way in ensuring your belief in it. More than being personally involved one should ensure that the strategic thoughts are socialized and tested among stakeholders, and scenarios on potential outcomes tested out with mitigating actions against those outcomes spelled out and documented. Aligning on scenarios to test will be heavily reliant on how well you listen to discerning views. The leader who locks out views other than his own will be left with fewer options to test than he who does not.

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Secondly, one must not take for granted the need for preparation for execution. Remember that a bad strategy well executed is many times better than a good strategy badly executed. For that reason, one must ensure that you have all the resources necessary for the execution before hand, and that those resources are well aligned, briefed, and trained on their role in the execution. If necessary, and depending on the nature of the strategy, you could even run ‘dry runs’ on the execution so that when the time comes to delve into it everyone is aware of their role in it.

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When the time comes to take the plunge one must do so with utmost conviction. It will not help anyone’s cause to keep looking back at what could have been once the execution starts. Jump full in and do it with the fullest conviction that what you are doing is right, and as you do so take everyone else with you. Remember that procrastination is the thief of progress, so any self doubt should be dealt with decisively. Having said that, you need to measure your executional progress against set milestones and where you find that you are lagging, or that previous assumptions no longer hold, you need to be agile and flexible enough to ‘fix’ things on the go. This means that although the ‘North star’ of the strategy should not change, you need to be willing to shift operational gears depending on the circumstances, and as the execution goes along. This will sometimes take the form of stopping to think and regroup but should in no way be seen as an excuse to slow down.

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And finally, once the mission is complete it is necessary to take the time to sit back and take stock of where you are. This is a necessary step of the process because it affords one the time to take in learnings that will be applied during the next ‘crossing’. As you do this ensure that you celebrate the moment with your teams. Both successes and failures should be assessed and celebrated. Unfortunately for Caesar though, he did not have the opportunity to go through this phase because shortly after his victory he was assassinated by a rebel group of Senators. ?