We need to up our game. How do I improve execution and keep the team inspired?

I want to improve execution and increase accountability. How do I do that and keep people feeling inspired?

-CEO of a private company?

Dear CEO,

I was once in the same situation you are finding yourself in. One of my mentors used to say, “You can't expect what you don't inspect” and I took his advice to heart. I became known for demanding high expectations that resulted in delivering quality on tough deadlines. It was good for people’s career growth, but I’m not sure I was an inspiring manager. In fact, I was accused of being a micro manager.

As my career evolved, I needed to implement practices and a culture that ensured execution without my direct involvement on every piece. Over time, I learned how to do that—and I saw the results. Here are tools that I use to help drive an execution culture:

Align everyone on the vision and calibrate teams on what great looks like. This is not what you think great looks like, but what the world thinks is great. Too often we celebrate greatness as getting better instead of being great on the world stage. If you are not vectored towards greatness, it will just be ok—but not phenomenal. (You want phenomenal.)?

Set high standards about what you’re trying to achieve.?I made it clear we were after excellent performance and that we wanted to set aggressive goals. I didn't expect us to meet every goal, so I would give 100% credit for 80% of key goals made.?Make sure to clearly articulate and gain alignment on the definition of success.

Articulate clear ownership for every major task. Ensure that the biggest tasks are appropriately resourced. One practice I follow is to ask people what they can achieve in 90 days and in 9 months. I’ve often found that if you ask people what they can achieve in 90 days they can be wishy-washy, but if you ask what they can do in nine months they often over-commit. This is a tool I use to keep everyone aligned and moving forward.

Implement forcing functions (1:1s, project reviews, and weekly status updates) to ensure that things stay on track. These are agreements on what you are going to do by when. Schedule “deep dives” to check they are being done at the level you need. ?

Make sure everyone knows that problems are good things, and that issues get resolved quickly. I set a standard that any big issue had to get owned and on a path to resolution quickly, ideally within 24 hours. I held high standards for my own response time so I would never to be the cause of a bottleneck on critical path items.

Have teams and leaders grade outcomes in a transparent fashion. One of the best ways to set a culture of excellence is to have your teams become tougher graders on themselves than you are. If every significant effort is realistically graded against the original goals with full transparency, good things happen. When things don’t go well, explore why with an air of wonder and a commitment to improve.

I wish you well. When you build a high-performance team that executes well everybody is rewarded and happier.

Every week I respond to a new question. Ask me your question in the comments section.

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