Quick tip for today...
The success of any change relies upon your champions of change. Who can you rally to the cause, how can they become your biggest supporters? What tools do you need? Here are some quick tips:
1. Envision the end result
2. Know your audience - who they are and what's important to them
3. Tell it as they can hear it - what's important to them
4. Have evidence to back your position
5. Learn, question and synergize - be open to hearing other opinions
Your allies are one of the most vital elements for any change to stick. Where are yours?
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Get It Done
While at a charity dinner last week, I heard several executives discussing how one of the greatest opportunities they face today is managing getting things done. As work piles up, expectations grow despite the decline in available resources. It’s a tough situation with no clear solution. One executive illustrated the dilemma well, telling how when he went to his boss to get help, his boss simply replied, “Get it done.”
Hmmm…. Is this kind of response helpful? Not really. Although we accept the reality of budget cuts, we don’t adjust our expectations accordingly. Instead, demands continue to soar and expectations to meet and exceed organizational goals continue to exist. Bottom line, what do you do in such a situation?
The book “Execution: The Art of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan helps to provide some insight. Although not a new book, the text is still highly relevant and something that should be required reading for every leader who wants to get things done.
The authors explain how to “get it done” by describing execution as a “systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability. It includes making assumptions about the business environment, assessing the organization’s capabilities, linking strategy to operations and the people who are going to implement the strategy, synchronizing those people and their various disciplines, and linking rewards to outcomes.”
I define execution as “getting things done, systematically and with swift action with people.” The key words here are swift and with people. Getting things done is not simply about speed; it’s first and foremost about leveraging your people and including them in the process thoughtfully. After all, they are the ones who will need to execute your plan. Ultimately, execution is about a new way of thinking and acting, which can be accomplished by the following:
1. Connect what is most meaningful to organizational priorities – not everything is important. You must figure out what is and what isn’t. Avoid the tendency to make every new thing the emergency of the day and leave the really important things to the last minute. Plan it, prioritize it and then act on it.
2. Toss out the lingo – jargon gets in the way of getting things done. Every organization has its own unique style of language, and not everyone speaks this unique slang. For example, I had a client who didn’t understand what the words “big picture” meant because everyone around him used the phrase differently. You’ll save time by making sure you define everything clearly and universally from the start.
3. Right people in the right jobs rely on your right words and right actions – it’s not enough to have the right people doing the right jobs. It is your responsibility to align what you say with what you do. It’s challenging to believe someone who does not align their words with their actions.
4. Responsibility first, blame last – take responsibility for everything -- period. Doing so will make you a better leader and, more importantly, a better human being.
5. Advocate, pursue and mobilize change – change can be a dreaded term because people don’t like when the boat is rocked. Go ahead and shake it! The more dynamic the workspace, the more the organization can grow. Stagnancy only hinders the growth and output of people and the organization.
6. Impeccable coordination – as Fred Kofman notes in his book “Conscious Business”, coordinating well and with those inside and outside the company will define you as a leader. The better you coordinate, the stronger your rise to the top in your career will be and the more sound your organization’s output will be.
7. Act quickly with those who don’t perform – not everyone is competent enough to be in their current positions. Although it’s good to offer people opportunities and coaching, if someone is not performing, you must move them out and do so quickly. If you don’t move fast, you only hurt you, your employee and the organization. And if you are afraid to hurt your employee, remember a job someone can thrive in is better than one to just survive in.
8. Link strategy, people and operations – as Charan and Bossidy state eloquently in their book, you cannot have a thriving organization without these three things being critically tied together. Each one functions with the others. Focus on all three with equal measure.
A final thought -- you probably put a lot of time and energy into developing your strategy and operations, and that doesn’t mean that you are putting the same effort into developing your people. Your people are your greatest asset. Unless you leverage, nurture and care for them deeply, with responsibility and accountability, you may lose your strongest competitive leverage point.
Hmmm…. Is this kind of response helpful? Not really. Although we accept the reality of budget cuts, we don’t adjust our expectations accordingly. Instead, demands continue to soar and expectations to meet and exceed organizational goals continue to exist. Bottom line, what do you do in such a situation?
The book “Execution: The Art of Getting Things Done” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan helps to provide some insight. Although not a new book, the text is still highly relevant and something that should be required reading for every leader who wants to get things done.
The authors explain how to “get it done” by describing execution as a “systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability. It includes making assumptions about the business environment, assessing the organization’s capabilities, linking strategy to operations and the people who are going to implement the strategy, synchronizing those people and their various disciplines, and linking rewards to outcomes.”
I define execution as “getting things done, systematically and with swift action with people.” The key words here are swift and with people. Getting things done is not simply about speed; it’s first and foremost about leveraging your people and including them in the process thoughtfully. After all, they are the ones who will need to execute your plan. Ultimately, execution is about a new way of thinking and acting, which can be accomplished by the following:
1. Connect what is most meaningful to organizational priorities – not everything is important. You must figure out what is and what isn’t. Avoid the tendency to make every new thing the emergency of the day and leave the really important things to the last minute. Plan it, prioritize it and then act on it.
2. Toss out the lingo – jargon gets in the way of getting things done. Every organization has its own unique style of language, and not everyone speaks this unique slang. For example, I had a client who didn’t understand what the words “big picture” meant because everyone around him used the phrase differently. You’ll save time by making sure you define everything clearly and universally from the start.
3. Right people in the right jobs rely on your right words and right actions – it’s not enough to have the right people doing the right jobs. It is your responsibility to align what you say with what you do. It’s challenging to believe someone who does not align their words with their actions.
4. Responsibility first, blame last – take responsibility for everything -- period. Doing so will make you a better leader and, more importantly, a better human being.
5. Advocate, pursue and mobilize change – change can be a dreaded term because people don’t like when the boat is rocked. Go ahead and shake it! The more dynamic the workspace, the more the organization can grow. Stagnancy only hinders the growth and output of people and the organization.
6. Impeccable coordination – as Fred Kofman notes in his book “Conscious Business”, coordinating well and with those inside and outside the company will define you as a leader. The better you coordinate, the stronger your rise to the top in your career will be and the more sound your organization’s output will be.
7. Act quickly with those who don’t perform – not everyone is competent enough to be in their current positions. Although it’s good to offer people opportunities and coaching, if someone is not performing, you must move them out and do so quickly. If you don’t move fast, you only hurt you, your employee and the organization. And if you are afraid to hurt your employee, remember a job someone can thrive in is better than one to just survive in.
8. Link strategy, people and operations – as Charan and Bossidy state eloquently in their book, you cannot have a thriving organization without these three things being critically tied together. Each one functions with the others. Focus on all three with equal measure.
A final thought -- you probably put a lot of time and energy into developing your strategy and operations, and that doesn’t mean that you are putting the same effort into developing your people. Your people are your greatest asset. Unless you leverage, nurture and care for them deeply, with responsibility and accountability, you may lose your strongest competitive leverage point.
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