3-2-1 Execute!

Many seminars and promotions have appeared recently offering to teach participants how to execute on strategy with the underlying message that boards and leaders either do not execute well, or find it difficult to execute.

What strikes me is that this conundrum is not at all new. Centuries ago the ever omnipresent Sun Tzu wrote:

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”

He kinda said it all right there.

On a slightly more recent note – but still 12 years ago – the Danish leadership advisor, Tune Hein wrote an article stating that leadership, at its core, is all about enabling the ability to execute on strategy – or simply just to execute on strategy! The article claim was based on an INSEAD-run test case concluding that without leadership’s ability to execute on strategy there shall be no results. It is the most important leadership capability. With reference to my opening statement the subject appears still to be very relevant. And for the record, I too tend to agree with the statement that Tune Hein put forward 12 years ago.

So why are leaders, 2500 years after Sun Tzu, still fumbling the ball when executing on strategy? I recognize that the the phrase “ensure execution of strategy” gives some people associations of a stern, one-dimensional leadership approach. Well, think again. Your strategy could be to drive a significant improvement of your employee EXperience.

Execution of a strategy can always be negatively influenced by several unforeseen factors (can you spell “COVID-19”?), and as Mike Tyson also famously stated: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. If so, the outline below will hopefully inspire you to progress in a structured manner.

My fast track approach on how to execute successfully relies only a few basic, attainable leadership related elements only:

All on board?

It requires the leadership team responsible for the overall execution to present itself to the organization as coherent, unified, and united on the strategy. The behavior of this team sets the tone, as it always does, for the entire company culture and therefore also enables, or disables, the overall ability to execute on strategy. No hidden agendas. No backdoor favors undermining everyone else’s efforts.

Over the past 30 years I have experienced how carefully formulated and even well communicated strategies that included very specific incremental targets and end goals have ended in quicksand due to either self-inflicted inability to progress due to disjointed business goals, plain and simple unwillingness to execute on common goals for personal reasons, or lack of ownership.

As I have alluded to in another post, my recommendation is to build your strategy bottom up but execute it top down. Let me say that again: Build bottom up and execute top down. As a leader you are the organizational enabler responsible for bringing out the full potential of people, process, and technology.

Where are we?

With tactical activities in support of the strategy defined and propagated throughout the organization, progression must be tied to business objectives for teams and to operational targets at all hierarchical levels.

A coherent leadership team focused on a common strategy should ensure that corresponding “dashboards” are created to display and communicate overall progression. Preferably provided as a single, common go-to source that allows data views related to individual levels of the organization.

I am a strong believer in giving authority with responsibility, but I’m also a believer in measuring progression. Granted, not all data can be collected electronically and thus auto populated into an on-demand dashboard. But there are other ways – even down to a flip-over in the lobby if necessary. As a minimum, expectations on what should be reported, how, and how often should be set clearly at all levels. The data gathered should be unambiguously sourced in the reasons why you built the strategy in the first place: increased market share, increased turnover, decreased cost, improved CX, improved EX, or all of the above.

Tracking measurements will help you and everyone involved to adjust direction, focus, and level of effort as you move forward.

Collaborative ownership

Getting naturally related departments on board with the program is rarely a leadership challenge. If the strategy requires collaborative efforts between business functions with relatively different business focus or culture – e.g. a collaborative effort between your engineer-driven highly technical Innovation Lab, and Finance – it requires an extra convincing leadership effort but it always starts with the leaders responsible for the respective business functions to propagate a common theme and consistent correlated objectives.

Establish a sense of common ownership e.g. by ensuring that the respective leaders’ are communicating in unison what is required for the two departments to succeed collectively – and then delegate responsibility and authority. This nurtures an environment of interest in progression, openness, transparency, and motivation.

At the C-level, be servant and visibly engaged in removing the boulders in front of the leaders you hold accountable for tactical progress.

If you are executing across countries, regions or globally it obviously adds additional complexity, but never insurmountable complexity.

Commit by telling everyone

There is tremendous power in communicating committed targets openly and in writing. If you get up on a Monday morning and think to yourself “I’m going to start my day with a 5 km walk every day of this week”, it’s really easy to postpone the Tuesday walk because of <enter your favorite procrastination>. But if you, on your preferred SoMe page, tell all your friends about what you have planned to accomplish this week and put in a little table where you tick off the daily walks and write two lines about how good it was, you are far more likely to get it done.

If the incremental tactical goals and objectives are not communicated clearly and measured, how will the organization know if they are working on the right stuff?

If it is not explained how the involved stakeholders’ targets fit into the strategy, how will you establish a sense of ownership?

Communicate accomplishments and don’t be afraid to fail forward if that’s the case. Use the power in communicating milestones reached and milestones changed to revitalize engagement.

My tools will do it for me!

Isn’t there anything to be said about introducing process tool, approaches, and methodologies to ensure engagement and progression?

Yes, there obviously is. It can help drive collaboration and give you tactical overview and grip. But please don’t forget – it neither leads nor spearheads for you and in my experience there are most often human beings involved who are bringing along a kaleidoscope of perceptions, opinions, and often uncertainty. Remember that most successful historic large scale military strategies combined tactics and diplomacy.

My claim is that unless leaders recognize their responsibility for enabling execution by e.g. practicing the four elements above, your processing tool is a lot less likely to solve the execution conundrum for you – regardless of the tool.

To rewrite Sun Tzu in layman’s terms:

If you define your direction but not the incremental steps and targets, or define all kinds of steps and targets without a common direction

you have simply lost your ability to execute.

Now, go Lead with Propriety – and execute.