A Strategy Is Not Enough

It’s January and many of us are rolling out our strategies for the New Year. The sad truth is, despite the countless hours we put in, many times our strategies fail to deliver the results we hope for. The problem seldom lies with the plan. More often it lies in the execution. There are three common challenges professionals face when implementing their strategies:

? Focus

? Process

? Support

Too often our plans have more initiatives than we can focus on and execute effectively. To paraphrase a former boss, our plans spread the peanut butter too thinly. And even if we do trim down our lists, often things still fail to click. Something goes wrong in the execution, or we get hit by an unanticipated event and we don’t respond effectively. This can happen when we lack the proper process and/or support to drive effective execution. While there is no surefire way to ensure success, there are a few simple things we can do to address these challenges and improve our chances of delivering good results.

Focus

In their excellent book “The Four Disciplines of Execution” Chris McChesney and his co-authors layout the pitfalls of setting too many priorities and the value of focusing on the top two or three. Simply put when you focus on two to three priorities you get them done. You go beyond that, and things start to fall apart. The question is, how do you decide what to focus on? There are two simple steps to making this decision.

1. Examine your priority list and identify the items that are most important to those who evaluate your performance. Value is in the eye of the beholder and your boss, and their boss, are paying you to get certain things done. Knowing what their priorities are and delivering on them is key to your success. So, the first thing to do is to determine what do they care most about and why. The answer to these questions will help you rank (better yet, weight rank) the items on your list. From there you focus on the ones that are most important. If you are rigorous in your assessment and look at the world through your boss’s eyes, this generally comes out to two to four items that are 75-80% of the weight ranking, and that’s where you should focus.

2. Determine how to address the items that do not make the cut. Even if you focus on the top two to four items, you still have to determine what to do with the other things on the list. Simple answer: Delegate, reassign, defer, or ignore them. One easy way to do this is to organize your “to do” list into a four “priority” categories:

? Urgent & Important: Priority 1 Items

? Not Urgent & Important: Priority 2 Items

? Urgent & Not Important: Priority 3 Items

? Not Urgent & Not Important: Priority 4 Items

It is a good idea to input and buy-in from others, especially your manager and maybe even their manager as you set your priorities. Your perspectives may not align with theirs and at the end of the day, their opinion impacts you more. In essence, Priority 1 items need your attention. In the rare situation they are not part of how you will be evaluated, but are a top priority for your boss, you need to get clarity on the role you are expected to play. Priority 2 items should also get your attention but can be delegated if they are not going to be major factors in your performance evaluation. Priority 3 items should be delegated, reassigned, or deferred. Priority 4 items can be ignored or deferred.

One word of caution. When discussing your approach of focusing on the most important items and delegating, deferring, or ignoring the others with your boss it is best to frame your message in context of how you will get things done versus saying what you will ignore. That approach will likely be better received. In other words, present your plan with a focus on the positive.

Process

When you have determined your priorities, you need to focus on developing your execution plan that will better ensure things click with the new, more focused approach. There are five main steps here:

1. First, determine who is going to do what, by when and with who’s help. This approach will allow you to determine the people you need to engage and get buy-in from, and the help you need to ask for. It will also serve to identify problems early, enabling you to act in a timely manner.

2. Second, develop and implement a progress tracker or scoreboard against each of these items. This will not only enable you to keep track of things, but it will help diagnose problems, and develop alternative course of action when stymied.

3. Third, determine how you will communicate progress, beginning with determining who needs to know, how much detail do they need and how frequently do they need to be updated. Likewise, you need to establish a similar cadence with those to whom you have delegated tasks. The balance between over-communicating and micro-managing versus under-communicating and being too hands off will depend on you and those around you. It is not a one-size fits all. It should be mutually agreed and revisited periodically to make sure it’s working for all.

4. Fourth, plan to do periodic progress assessments and course corrections. Sometimes, things need to be tried repeatedly before they succeed, but other times a different course of action is needed. Leverage your expertise and knowledge of the situation to determine a course of action. Sometimes, external events intrude, throwing off your execution plan. If these events are of a crisis nature, you need to respond promptly and do your part to address the issue. In both cases, however, you must determine the impact on your initiatives and do a reassessment of your goals and strategies. Where possible, this should be done in partnership with your boss.

5. Fifth, find ways to celebrate success and those who helped achieve it, as well as to commend those who identified problems early and sought assistance. Success breeds success as long as it is recognized. Celebrations re-energize the team and instill a sense of pride. Just as important though, is celebrating people who identified problems that they needed help solving. In business and other things, success is team driven, and while we expect everyone to do their jobs well, sometimes additional help is needed. Getting that in a timely manner helps the team win so it is important to recognize those who raise a red flag appropriately.

We have all heard that success depends on having the right team and leading them effectively. The part we don’t often hear about is how to deal with under-performers or disruptive colleagues. In these situations, I believe in the three strikes approach. We all make mistakes and have bad days. And they should be addressed appropriately – acknowledging the issue and committing to improvement, performing damage control where needed, and then focusing on the future. Repeated problems indicate a more fundamental issue and demand more attention. The third time an issue arises, it is time for action. Here is where leaders need courage. On the third strike you need to be clear, decisive and in accordance with your organization’s policies and practices. For that reason, after the second strike, you need to document events, communicate with your manager and HR Business Partner and other relevant parties right. It not only provides back up for decisive action should there be a third strike, but it also shows that you have your hands firmly on the wheel. Whatever actions you take, always act professionally and humanely. Focus on making sure people maintain their dignity. But do not equivocate. Act when action is needed.

Finally, as you go about your business, remember it is important to have fun and make things fun. Most people enjoy solving problems and executing well. They enjoy talking about their jobs and they enjoy learning new things that can help them. Find ways to help your team do this and make sharing and learning a part of their culture. This will enable everyone to have a feeling of growth and development, making the work more valuable to them.

A good execution plan is an important component to success. The best plans are simple, intuitive, developed quickly and refined over time. You don’t need to – and you should not – spend a huge amount of time preparing large documents for your execution plan. The best plans are on one to two pages and 90% of the content is in your head. The plan’s value comes from the clarity and insight the process of preparing it delivers, and the support it offers as the year progresses.

Support

Now here’s the irony. An Execution Plan is still a Plan. How do you execute the Execution Plan? This is where your management process comes in. You need to set up processes with key players to review progress – outcomes and lessons learned – regularly to ensure you stay focused. In other words, a support network to help you drive execution. These players include your teammates, appropriate peers, and your boss. This is also one of those areas that having an Executive Coach can be of great value. In my practice, I frequently coach leaders on strategy execution and talk through difficult issues with them that involve people, process, vendor, personal and manager issues. Having a trusted partner who can help you see things clearly, connect the dots and push you to candor when needed, can be a game changer for many. It enables you to show up better every day as a leader and deliver better results.

No one owes us success or can guarantee it 100%. Having a good plan helps, but having a strong execution discipline is just as critical. As Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get hit”. By focusing on execution, you can withstand that hit and deliver results. In that light the old saying “Execution trumps strategy” makes a lot of sense.