Here is a copy of a recent note I sent to a CEO I am coaching.\u00a0 He is a fantastic guy, really, really smart and does a superior job with his company.\u00a0 He knows all of the things in this memo well (as you likely do too!) it is simply that he needed to be reminded of it \u2013 and more importantly, pushed hard to do a better job of executing these key ideas in a consistent way throughout his organization.<\/p>\n
Here is a re-cap of what we discussed today: Execution<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. FOCUS<\/strong> — get your top managers focused on the 1 or 2 absolutely key items they must deliver.\u00a0 What we have called the “no excuse” issues. These are the things they simply MUST achieve.\u00a0 Also, help them get their “to do” lists shorter. What is not important? What can you say “no” to — in order to keep them clearly focused on consistently delivering on the top issues? Make sure they clearly understand what is expected of them \u2013 and that they have all of the support and resources necessary to meet their obligations.<\/p>\n 2. Run superb meetings.<\/strong> Short, focused, with a specific agenda, clear outcomes, written goals and commitments.\u00a0 Do NOT waste any time — focus on the key things, discuss what is important, assign tasks, gain clear commitment, write it all down — and them hold people 100% accountable for disciplined execution and delivery of promised results.<\/p>\n 3. As part of holding people accountable<\/strong>: delegate away some responsibility for putting on the pressure.\u00a0 It cannot be only the leader that is hammering for results.\u00a0 It needs to be the entire management team ALL holding each other accountable.\u00a0 At this stage it might not be realistic for you to get 100% support from all of your team, but at least you can build up a core group of people who support you and will step forward in the meetings to assist you in strongly holding people accountable for missing their numbers, not delivering on their promises. The pressure needs to be strong and from numerous directions.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Celebration \/ Punishment.<\/strong> After you have gained commitment on clear and specific outcomes \u2013 and ensured that people have all of the support \/ help \/ resources necessary to meet their goals \u2013 when they do make the goal you need to lead the way in celebrating their success.\u00a0 A public word of praise, going out for a team dinner or a few beers, a small monetary bonus or other valued reward.\u00a0 If they work really hard and deliver stellar results \u2013 they deserve to get a big pat on the back and your sincere gratitude.\u00a0 On the other hand, there must also be ramifications for consistently NOT achieving their goals.\u00a0 Everyone misses or makes a mistake from time-to-time, but if someone is consistently not delivering on what they promise\u2014there must be some sort of punishment. Otherwise, you are sending a signal that you are not serious, that people can miss deadlines, not achieve goals, not deliver on their promise\u2026 and nothing bad will happen.<\/p>\n 5. Have a Plan B<\/strong>.\u00a0 If there are people on the team that are consistently not delivering results, who cause problems and who are not helping the team move toward success, then you need to have a clear plan for how you will deal with that.\u00a0 Step one is always to first look in the mirror and examine what role you are playing in them not succeeding. Have you given them all of the help, support, training, resources, information, assistance and guidance you possibly can?\u00a0 Have you made it totally clear to them that they are NOT meeting expectations, specifically what they need to do to improve and what the ramifications will be if they cannot improve \u2013 or the rewards if they do? If you feel like you have done everything you can and they are just NOT making any progress, you need to spend some serious time finding the highest quality replacement you possibly can. If you do have to terminate the non-performing employee (especially a key manager) it is incredibly critical that you be able to replace them immediately with a truly superb new person. This might be an internal person or someone from the outside, but the key point is that they need to come in very quickly, hit the ground running, and clearly demonstrate to everyone that they will do a super job and really help the team. If you can make it a smooth and positive transition it will be very good reflection on your leadership.<\/p>\n The key word for this discussion was: PATIENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n You said it better than I could have, if you are going to be in this business for another 20 or 25 years, you need to work hard at taking a longer-term approach and not rushing some things.\u00a0 With a clear plan for the future and a solid grasp of your business and professional priorities, it is much easier to sit back and realize that everything does not have to get done in the next 3 to 6 months.\u00a0 There are certain things you absolutely MUST focus on in the short term, numbers you have to deliver, projects that have to be completed, things that cannot wait and do deserve a strong sense of urgency.<\/p>\n However, there are also numerous important issues that would be better handled with a great deal more patience. Holding back a little, choosing not to bring it up in \u201cthis\u201d meeting, not the right things to discuss at \u201cthis\u201d time \u2013 or with \u201cthis\u201d particular person. This does not mean you give them up, or have to wait for years and years — only for a few months or possibly a year \u2013 which is the blink of an eye compared in a 25 year career. Be prudent, be clever, be politically savvy, be patient. All things in time.<\/p>\n Which brought us to our final topic of what must you do to position yourself over the long-run as the perfect candidate for taking on more and more responsibility and power in the organization?\u00a0 Together we developed the following list:<\/p>\n Here is a copy of a recent note I sent to a CEO I am coaching.\u00a0 He is a fantastic guy, really, really smart and does a superior job with his company.\u00a0 He knows all of the things in this memo well (as you likely do too!) it is simply that he needed to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teamgroup-excellence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.excellenceuniversity.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n