Taking Your Goals from Paper to Performance: Execution

Goal-setting is exciting. It can be done at a nice restaurant over a bottle of wine, or in the conference room with everyone comfortably seated. It doesn't cost any money, few are judged and nobody fails. Then it's over. It's done. The sun sets, then rises, and you're all back at work again. At too many companies, that's the last you hear of any goals. And that's where the winners get separated from the also-rans.

Yes, great companies are great at planning but they're also great at executing. That is, they make achievable plans and do the work necessary to turn them into accomplishments. Planning and executing are part of what they are. It's a part of their culture. It's how they do things each and every day.

If you want your company to grow and succeed, you must build a culture of execution.

According to Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, authors of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing the hows and whats, and tenaciously following through and ensuring accountability. It starts with the leader. The leader sets an organization's effectiveness in executing.

Bossidy and Charan explain that an organization can execute only if the leader's heart and soul are immersed in the company. That's because execution requires a comprehensive understanding of the business, people and competitive landscape. The leader is the only person in a position to achieve that understanding. And only the leader can make execution happen, through his or her deep personal involvement in the substance and details of execution.

The leader controls the three keys to getting things done:

1.    Culture: establishing the intra-company environment of how business is conducted.

2.    People: picking the right people and getting them in the right positions.

3.    Strategy: establishing how strategic direction of the company is set and reviewed.

According to Bossidy and Charan, number 1 above is key. A culture of execution is necessary if results are to be achieved. A culture of execution is one that includes:

• Truth: All employees in the organization seek out truth -- truth in the competitive position of products and services, competitors, changes in the marketplace, resources, capabilities of persons and the organization, etc.
• Courage: All people have the courage to acknowledge truth (reality) and the resulting implications.
• Trust: All employees trust that they are safe to honestly and factually express their feelings, beliefs, opinions and suggestions.
• Participation: All employees participate in discussions of what the realities are and what strategies make the most sense for the company.
• Personal Responsibility: All employees are willing to accept individual responsibility for their piece of the overall plan.
• Reward the Achievers: All employees know that execution is what is needed from everyone, and those who execute skillfully will be rewarded.

The leader sets the tone by asking tough questions that everyone needs to answer. Then the leader manages discussions, debates and decision-making. Dialogue is the core of culture and the basic unit of work. How people talk to one another absolutely determines how well the organization functions. Is the dialogue stilted, politicized, fragmented or defensive? Or is it candid and real?

Through robust, open and honest dialogue, the organization can set realistic goals. The group also must ask what human, technical, production and financial resources are needed to execute the strategy. Can the strategy be broken down into doable initiatives? Has everybody agreed to what can be done, who will do what, and how successes and failures will be shared?

Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break all the Rules and The One Thing You Need to Know, agrees. He says the key to accomplishing goals is to:

1.    Select good people.

2.    Set clear expectations. Make sure each employee knows what is expected. Discuss it regularly.

3.    Bring out the best in people. Find incremental improvement and reward it.

4.    Show people you care about them. Tell them. And listen to them.

Exactly how you go about turning goals into accomplishments is up to you. Different organizations do it different ways. But the essential elements are proven and described herein. It's not easy, but it'll get easier once you make achievement of your goals part of your company culture.