Successfully executing and implementing your plan:
Achieving the end goal, or executing the implementation plan, is what the leader is reaching for, why they put so many hours, resources, and hard work into a business. However, there’s more to reaching your target than just having an implementation plan in place. Success comes from effectively and successfully executing the implementation plan. It must be more than a “vision.” What some leaders lack, and the key ingredient in what differentiates effective leaders from the pack – is the ability to execute.
Often, it demands an outside coach or trusted advisor to help accomplish the plan, since business owners are usually caught up in wearing so many different hats they can’t stay focused on just one target or goal.
If the plan can’t be properly executed, you won’t have momentum, and certainly won’t hit the target. Unless these plans include direct action, with specific steps, achieving the goal won’t happen. The best plans and the best people are pointless if there is no direction with a clearly defined path.
Every week, I talk with contractor owners who have brilliant plans, intentions, and goals – only to learn later they failed because they had no execution strategy. Many times, owners “allow” their staff to convince them the goal or target can’t be reached! This alone usually leads to failure, or at a minimum – great delays and considerable wasted money.
Lack of execution causes disappointment and a weak culture, sometimes even causing good people to leave the organization! Superb execution is the engine that propels successful organizations and often requires an outside coach to help make this happen. Without focused, targeted guidance, no business or star employee or leader, for that matter, is going anywhere.
Execution requires considerable discipline. It requires systematically asking the tough questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? It involves holding people accountable. It requires self-reflection and analysis of the business operations. Execution is not about tactics; it’s about understanding every angle of a situation so a process can be created that assures hitting the goal with a quality product or service.
So, the simple question about execution is: How do you do it? The answer begins by breaking down execution into three steps – addressing Who, Where, and How. Who in your organization will execute the process or strategy? Where do you want to go as an organization – What’s the strategy? How will you get there; what operational processes are necessary to achieve the goal – within what timetable? In addition, it often involves an outside coach to “look at the big picture” and spot the stumbling blocks that may not be obvious to the upper management on their own. Rather like “not seeing the forest – because of the trees in the way.”
Poor execution will cost you talent and a competitive edge. But by tuning in to our business process – how we get things done – and digging in to analyze whether execution is effective in our organizations, we can address weaknesses and improve. After all, life and business are about constant improvement – reflection, analysis, strategy, and the hard work of getting it done.
When execution involves a specific sales goal, having the right salesperson tasked with the goal is crucial. Having the wrong salesperson just delays success, and usually causes great damage along the way.
Dick Wagner, Coach, Consultant, and trusted advisor.
Copyright 2019-2022
