[August 14, 2015] During my tenure in the U.S. Army I had the pleasure of meeting and working with people of all stripes; the good and the bad. As a Captain, I worked for one of the smartest people I’ve ever meet. He had the most imaginative, detailed, and well-developed plans I’d seen then and since. But he was a failure at getting things done. Execution is the key to getting things done and he couldn’t make the leap from plans to results.
The man was genius and no one doubted his mental abilities plus he had some wonderful people skills. Why then was he unable to get results? We asked ourselves that frequently and in frustration. Later, as I became more aware of the process to take a plan and make it work. While planning and strategizing is difficult. Even a carefully execution plan does not guarantee success.
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results” – Sir Winston Churchill
Some of the classic obstacles to execution are organizational inertia, company politics, resistance to change, and poorly trained leaders and employees. For example, managers are well trained to plan but not to execute. The fact is, leaders in organizations handle execution poorly. Later, when I figured this out, I’d moved on from that unit and the genius man who was my boss got out of the military.
The problem is that many senior leaders think that execution is only about simple procedures and not something they need to be involved. Execution is “grunt work” (something we call it in the Army); in other words, any simpleton can do it with a little guidance. Thus, execution is not something they want to get their hands dirty doing and is below them.
Here is the simple truth about successful execution:
- Execution requires discipline. It demands passion, intelligence, and focus to roll-up our sleeves and jump into doing what is needed.
- Execution requires involvement of the senior leadership. Everyone, especially the most senior person, must be involved daily to keep the organization on track.
- Execution must be part of the organizational culture. Everyone must possess the skills and the habit to take a plan based upon its strategy and turn it into practical results.
The man I worked for now successfully works as a civilian at a “three-lettered government agency.” Where he works there are dedicated teams that focus exclusively on taking smart ideas and applying them. Most of our organizations don’t have the resources to do that. Yet, these three simple truths about execution remain true. The longer I’ve been in senior leader positions the more I realize how few leaders truly understand the fundamentals of execution.
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