The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Leadership without the discipline of execution is incomplete and ineffective, plans remain only plans.
While becoming really good at developing a strategy and vision by designing spectacular updated org-charts, presenting messages from white papers and market trend analysis’, delivering fiscal forecasts, and facilitating planning meetings with investors, clients, and internal stakeholder, most organizations habitually fail in the area of execution.
Recently, I finished reading the book, Execution: The discipline of getting things done. Practical in both concept and implementation, the style and approach of the book provoked me to reflect on many of the various go-to-market and product development programs I have personally been a part of; both in businesses where I’ve held a leadership title and with thousands of commercial and enterprise partners my teams and I have personally consulted and provided solutions for.
In my experience, organizations that consistently execute have these two things in common;
1) Strong business leadership
Discipline, experience, and integrity must be woven into the fabric of the entire leadership team. Dedication to partnership and alignment amongst these leaders must outweigh the desires of ladder climbing and personal brand.
Without strong business leadership, an organization can quickly lose effectiveness because of personal interests. In these organizations, preserving the silo will become the priority over the holistic longer-term strategy.
Strong leadership cohesion enables stronger execution because leadership teams that trust and align with each other will address issues, strategies, and other business objectives quickly and from multiple perspectives, enabling the business to make more informed and better decisions.
2) Execution DNA
Execution is the core element of successful company cultures. There is a myth that culture (DNA) can be created by leadership simply saying, “it exists” and “here is what we want it to be.” In practice, execution DNA is a type of business culture that is fostered through habitually translating strategy into results by using communication, learning, and rapidly doing.
Successful Execution DNA comes down to how people plan and work together. This means leaders must come down from atop their mountain and know their people; what their people do, what their people need to do, and how well their people do it.
Leaders must be willing participants in the execution phase. Not to be confused with micro-managing, rather leaders and the teams they support manage by measuring the performance of what the organization has accomplished or should have accomplished within the capabilities of the business.
Execution is not choosing what to do or what not to do. That’s strategy. Strong business leadership and execution DNA are the most important critical elements to an organization that desires to consistently produce measurable results. If an organization doesn’t possess these two attributes, then the discipline of getting things done across the entire business will be unattainable.
