This article is based on the following book:
Execution:
The Discipline of Getting Things Done
By Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Crown Publishing Group
ISBN 0609610570
278 pages
You’ve got the bright ideas and the smart people, and the
market is just ready for you. But why hasn’t your business
taken off as you predicted? Maybe the problem is in your
execution. What does it really take to get a business
going? You need the right people combined with realistic
strategies to create effective operating procedures. Let
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan tell you how.
A business leader’s most important job is the execution of
plans, the “detail work,” making sure that the staff is
getting results. This is the sort of responsibility that
cannot be delegated. It is the leader’s primary duty to see
that every member of the team is carrying out his part
of the big plan to ensure the whole company’s success.
There are no excuses for failure: the market will always
be tough. What spells the difference between successes and
failures is the ability to execute plans.
Too often, too much intellectualizing and philosophy occurs
at the planning level. The leaders are busy with their
dreams and plans for success but there is little focus on
implementation, thus the promised result is not delivered.
The emphasis on execution as an integral part of the
business process has not received enough attention in terms
of accumulated knowledge and literature.
The Building Blocks of Execution
The Leader’s Seven Essential Behaviors
1. Know Your People and Your Business.
2. Insist on Realism.
3. Set Clear Goals and Priorities.
4. Follow Through.
5. Reward the Doers.
6. Expand People’s Capabilities through Coaching.
7. Know Yourself.
Creating the Framework for Cultural Change
You can’t just institute changes for the sake of shaking
things up at your company. Your changes must be geared
towards getting results. Be specific: what sort of
behavior is acceptable in your company? What’s
unacceptable? Change must begin at the top-level, to
set an example down the line. Don’t just expect it to
happen either. Reward successful implementation of your
plans to instigate change.
The Job No Leader Should Delegate—Having the Right People
in the Right Jobs
Hiring the right people is as important as planning
ahead; you need people who are not only capable, but
also full of potential for growth as your business
expands. Take time to focus on your staff, because
in effect your business is in their hands. Take time
to develop your staff’s leadership capabilities so that
they can bring results to your plans and visions.
Assess individual capabilities and determine if you can
further develop your employee through training, coaching
and exposure, or if he’s better off elsewhere. If you
can properly develop your people, you should be able
to fill top administrative posts from within. Hire a
talented person and she will hire a talented person.
The Processes of Execution
A. Linking People to Strategy and Operations
Break your strategy down into manageable near-, medium-
and long-term goals. Determine kinds of skills you need
for the upcoming goals and start laying the foundations
early. Then design an action plan for each step of your
big plan.
B. Developing the Leadership Pipeline Through Continuous
Improvement, Succession Depth and Reducing Retention
Risk
Meeting your goals depends on the quality of the people
you have. Assess today those who can be leaders in the
future through the following: The Leadership Assessment
Summary, The Continuous Improvement Summary, Succession
Depth, and Reducing Retention Risk Analysis.
C. Dealing with Non-performers
Non-performers are people who aren’t meeting their
established goals. This does not mean that they’re
unqualified or incapable. It just means they aren’t
performing at the level required for your company’s
success. Sometimes you just need to coach a person to
get them better acquainted with a job. Sometimes they
just need to be transferred to another division or
responsibility that’s better suited to their
capabilities. Other times there’s no choice but to
let him go. However, do so in a manner that allows the
person to keep his dignity.
D. Linking HR to Business Results
The role of the HR department in a company is different
now. The HR function must set out to fill the positions
that are and will be important as projects and plans
progress over the upcoming months—even years. Use the
HR division to keep track of your company’s top people
across the whole organization, to see who can be groomed,
or even promoted already, for key positions. HR should
not only be able to assess people in their current jobs
but also the people below them—if one person is to be
promoted, someone should be adequately qualified to
fill the upcoming void.
Examine all your strategies and determine the sorts of
skills you need for these plans. If you can’t develop
the right people in time, determine if you need to hire
from outside. Identify which jobs are critical, and which
ones will be critical down the line. Are they filled with
the right people? Monitor also the top positions in the
company and spell out criteria for filling them. If
there is a sudden vacancy, is there someone you haven’t
considered who might be more than qualified? If you know
your people and their capabilities, filling the vacancy
should be a small problem, especially if you’ve done your
job in developing them for leadership.
The Importance of Hows
Even brilliant strategies are bound to fail if not
grounded in realities—regarding the competition, the
capabilities of the company’s own people, the market,
the product offerings. When creating strategies, consider
not only the current realities of all relevant factors,
but also unexpected—if unlikely—turns of events. There
must always be backup plans, or at least people who can
quickly think up alternative plans to make the best of
a botched situation. Adaptability to change should
always be a consideration: constantly review your plan
to see if it is being executed properly, if current and
future steps are still feasible, and if the people in
charge are still getting results.
Building the Operating Plan
1. Set the targets: Keep your targets realistic. Base
them on track records and histories.
2. Develop action and contingency plans: Study the
possible outcomes that might leave the company most
vulnerable and base your contingency plan on that. In
other words, plan for the worst.
3. Get agreement and closure from all participants:
Communicate agreed-upon goals to the people concerned
after the meeting, to reiterate your expectations and
what they promised to deliver.
Outcomes of the Operations Process
Think carefully: what does your business want to
achieve? Think of this vis-à-vis what your company is
likely to achieve. Watch how the operations affect your
company, especially for the need to reallocate
resources. Conduct quarterly reviews to see if you’re
still on track, who’s keeping you there, and if you
should even be there in the first place.
By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla
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Wisdom In A Nutshell
About the Author
Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.