Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan

Chief executives have five primary responsibilities. They set goals, define the scope, ensure capabilities, establish the processes and initiate the execution. Goals support the mission of the company and provide direction. The scope delineates the organization’s parameters of operations. Capabilities are the skills and proficiencies the company has or needs to acquire to accomplish the objectives. The processes are those internal mechanism and procedures required to function in an efficient manner. And lastly, execution is the course of action that ensures the successful accomplishment of the first four.

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In the book titled, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, the authors state that senior leadership spends too much time and places too much emphasis on “high-level” strategizing, intellectualizing and philosophizing on goals, scope, and capabilities and not enough on implementation. Execution is the most important function of a chief executive, yet it is the one they pay the least attention to - delegating it to lower level staff, trusting they will get the job done. The action of execution cannot be seen as separate from “high-level strategy” it has to be part of it. It must be seen as the top priority of the chief executive, an integral part of his/her strategy, a discipline that must become a core element of their persona and organization’s culture.

The intellectual challenge of execution is in getting to the heart of an issue through persistent and constructive probing. How people talk to each other determines how well the organizations will function. If its dialogue is stilted, politicized, fragmented, and self-serving reality will never come to the surface. If it’s candid, raising the right questions, debating them, and finding realistic solutions it is reality-based. Execution activities cannot succeed without dynamic dialogue -- one that brings reality to the surface through openness, candor, and informality.

Openness encourages robust dialogue, candor helps wipe out the silent lies and pocket vetoes, as well as prevents the “stalled initiatives,” and informality provides a relaxed atmosphere and reduces the defiant attitude. Chief executives set the tone of the dialogue in the organization. If they want reality-based discussions they must set the example, along with their management team and forcefully ensuring its implementation throughout the organization.

Leaders cannot just sign off on the “plans” and accomplish this reality-based dialogue. The chief executive must insist on explanations, and be willing to “drill down” until the answers and explanations are clear. The senior executive must ensure that everyone involved in the plan’s design and those that are responsible for implementing it are engaged in the dialogue, bringing their viewpoints out into the open and assessing the degree and nature of buy-in. The chief executive’s responsibility doesn’t end here - he/she must continue to ensure “rigorous” discussions on the how’s and what’s of the execution. The leader must frequently raise questions throughout the course of the execution, persistently keeping informed, and clearly communicating who is responsible. This effort results in getting agreement and closure from all the participants, establishing follow-through measures to make sure people are meeting their commitments or to work out corrective steps if they aren’t.

Follow-through is the cornerstone of execution, and every leader who’s good at executing follows through religiously. Following through ensures that people are doing the things they committed to do, according to the agreed timetable. It assists in breaking down long-term goals into short-term targets. Meeting those here-and-now targets forces decisions to be made and integrated across the organization, both initially and in response to changes in business conditions. Follow-through exposes any disconnects between ideas and actions, and if circumstances change and the plan can’t be executed follow-through ensures swift and creative action with the new conditions.

Another critical aspect of execution is leadership. One of the realities of being a senior executive is to pick other leaders. Chief executives cannot delegate this responsibility regardless of the size of the organization. Every organization has jobs filled with the wrong people often times because the leader is comfortable with them. If the non-performer is high enough in the organization he/she can destroy it. Chief executives must insist and ensure that the right people are in the right positions and that the wrong people are dealt with in an equitable way. The chief executive must also look at whether there are high-potential people in the wrong jobs and whether key people will be lost if a job is not unblocked for them.

Even the best people process doesn’t always get the right people in the right jobs, and it can’t make everybody into a good performer. Some managers have been promoted beyond their capabilities and need to be put in lesser jobs. Others just have to be moved out. The final test of a people process is how well it distinguishes between these two types, and how well leaders handle the painful actions they have to take. “Preserving the dignity of people who leave jobs is an important part of reinforcing the positive nature of the performance culture.”

Bossidy and Charan point out that just because it is the primary responsibility of the leader to ensure the execution it does not mean micromanaging the process. Such action impacts negatively on the employees. It diminishes their self-confidence, saps their initiatives, and stifles their ability to think for themselves. It’s also a formula for disappointing results - micromanagers rarely know as much about what needs to be done as the people they’re disturbing - the ones who actually do the work. The authors go on to state, “it’s not about micromanaging, it is about macromanaging.” The book talks about the value of quarterly reviews which help keeps the leader informed, the plan up to date and reinforce synchronization. They also give the leader a good idea about which people are on top of their business, which ones aren’t, and what the latter need to do.

The book goes into seven essential behaviors a leader must have to ensure successful execution. They are:

1. Know your people and your business. Make a personal connection, have an open mind and positive demeanor, be informal and have a sense of humor. Be aware of the natural resistance your employees have to new ideas (one more time-consuming project that will become another idea of the month) and overcome it by your personal involvement to make sure everyone takes it seriously.



2. Insist on the facts even if they are very uncomfortable and contrary to your desires. Realism is the heart of execution - embrace it. Know your organizations strengths as well as its weaknesses, what your competitors are doing and measure your progress by what’s happening in the external environment not your internal environment.



3. Set only three or four clear and concise goals. (Focusing on just a few will get the best results.) Prioritize them so that everyone knows the direction.



4. Follow through. Make sure people are identified to follow through and that everyone knows who is accountable for the results.



5. Reward the doers. Distinguish between those who achieve results and those who don’t and show that differential in salary, bonus, promotion, etc.



6. Expand people’s capabilities through coaching. The most effective way to coach is to observe a person in action and then provide specific useful feedback. Ask penetrating questions, force people to think, to discover, to search. Every successful leader must recognize their role as teacher.



7. Know yourself. Develop emotional fortitude and be honest with yourself. Good leaders learn their specific personal strengths and weaknesses, especially in dealing with other people, then build on the strengths and correct the weaknesses. Without emotional fortitude, chief executives have a hard time hiring the best people. Emotional weak leaders will surround themselves with people who can be counted on to be “loyal” and exclude those that challenge him/her with new thinking.

The book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done explains that execution is a specific, yet simple set of behaviors and techniques that chief executives need to understand and implement in order to ensure the successful obtainment of their goals. When senior management fails to understand their responsibility or ignores their role in execution, the results are a lack of clear understanding as to who has responsibility and for what and what happens next. Failure to execute successfully drains the energy from the organization and repeated failure destroys it.

This monograph only shares a small portion of the book’s plainspoken truths on how simple actions by chief executives can ensure successful execution. As Bossidy and Charan stated, execution is the difference between establishing goals and accomplishing them. Execution offers the reader a great road map on how to ensure a successful execution process within an organization. Its’ message is clear, never launch an initiative unless you’re personally committed to it and prepared to see it through until it is embedded in the DNA of an organization.

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Presented by Three Dimensional, LLC.
For more information contact Walt Tomenga or Terry Myers at info@3-dllc.com or 515-240-1510