The 4 Keys to Effective Strategy Execution

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Do you know that, what makes mastery isn’t ideas? What makes mastery is execution on the ideas. So, no idea works unless you are willing to roll up your sleeves, do the practice, invest the time, put in the effort and do the work.

I know you know somebody who loves reading books, loves attending trainings however, nothing ever changes about them. They say, “I don’t know why my life never changes, why my thinking doesn’t change and why my performance doesn’t change.”

Well, it’s because ideas don’t work if you don’t execute on them. Look at the great business builders. Look at the great performers. One thing that makes them great is their hunger to practice. Guess what I’ll be sharing today… Execution, execution. Yes…I’ll be sharing with you the 4 keys to strategy execution.

Talent resource

As a leader, ask yourself this question, “Do I have the right people in place that are going to help me execute this particular strategy? Do I have the right talent that is going to help me execute?”

Your job as a leader is to attract and build talent. Attract the right people, build a great resource/team that is going to be able to execute the how.

  • You’ve got to challenge them.
  • You’ve got to make sure that they are clear with what their mission is with you. That’s why you’ve got to get the right people in to do the right job.
  • Choose wisely. At times, you have to do whatever it takes to employ people who are not exactly like you. People who are going to compliment you or the team that you are putting together.
  • You must listen to the talent you’re bringing. Always ask yourself this question, “Am I challenging my team as well as I should?” When people are not challenged and growing, they are dying.

You’ve got to ask your team, “Are you challenged enough and are you growing?” If you are a leader, it’s your role to make sure that you are challenging your people and making sure they are growing.

  • You must ensure that there’s focus on attracting people who will fit in the kind of culture that you want within your workplace. If you employ the wrong people, they’ll not fit in the culture, they won’t have the right vision and passion. They’ll just be there for the money and they’ll become a problem for you going forward.

Clarity and alignment

As a leader, ask yourself this question; “Is everybody on my team moving in the same direction?  Do we all on the team understand the goal? Are we doing what we have to do to make sure there no distraction?”

If you want to execute a strategy effectively, you must make sure you’ve gotten your alignment and clarity with everybody sorted out and then, ask these 2 questions to your team;

  • Why should they care? Your team needs to answer that question because, they need to know why this is important to them. Why is it important for them to be in the organization, to execute and to do what they have to do?
  • How do we get there? Everybody must be aligned to know that, this is how we are going to get to the promised land, these are the steps we are going to take and, this is how we are going to get where we want to go. With these questions, there’s not much you could do except these;
  • You must tell them all the time
  • You must teach them all the time
  • You must train them all the time because they are human beings who forget and get distracted.

Environment and culture

It doesn’t matter how great a strategy you have; culture will always eat strategy for breakfast. It’s your job as a leader to fiercely work on creating a culture and environment that supports people getting out and doing what they have to do. Your role is;

  • Create the environment. It actually makes your work much easier if you create an environment with certain principles that will ensure that you execute.
  • Create an environment that supports and loves learning cause, a learning organization is a growing organization.
  • Create an environment of accountability where everybody holds each other accountable. However, you’ve got to go to the next level where you don’t need to hold each other accountable anymore. It’s just part of what you do and everybody does what they have to do. As a leader, you must demand this from the rest of the team and from yourself also.
  • Create an environment that only attracts high performing individuals. Where people do what they ought to do and always go beyond. They always go beyond what is requested and you’ve got to create a culture that demands that.
  • Create an action-oriented environment.
  • Break the silos and processes because they slow progress.
  • Create an environment that has instant execution. If it’s a great idea and everybody is happy with it, go ahead and execute immediately because that’s the only way you’ll get things done.
  • There must be consistence in holding your values. That’s your number one role as a leader. Be consistent everyday about holding values, cultures and making a difference.

Agility and flexibility

Do you have leaders and managers in place who are agile enough to change according to what is happening out there? If something goes down, how do we bounce back.

Do you have the sensory acuity to see that the environment is changing this way, the customer is thinking this way and what are we doing or what are we changing? The most flexible, responsive and agile companies will always be the winner in their particular industry.

Departments with teams that are responsive, ones that are flexible enough. Whatever they throw at them, they deal with it. The more flexible you are, the more you’re going to rule. What is your job when it comes to this? Enhance agility and flexibility by enforcing and living it. Turn your departments and yourself into an agile and flexible unit.

  • Remove time wasting. Any activity that’s a time waster remove it. Don’t go for meetings that don’t add anything to you. Demand that the meetings become much more productive and much more in response to what needs to happen. They should be about celebrating great success or dealing with whatever challenges you might have.
  • Remove all obstacles that prevent your team from executing with agility and flexibility.
  • Eliminate myopia. Become much more a person who works for long term situations. Get rid of the short-term way of doing things. Have a team that always plans for the future and gets results long term.
  • Communicate effectively across. Don’t leave anybody not sure of what your communication is about.
  • Improve focus in an obsessive way. Be obsessed with focus. Get your team to focus on one thing, first clear it before moving to the next one because, you move faster that way than having your team doing 10 things.
  • Nourish yours and your team’s brain. This helps you to remain flexible. It means taking time out to put in some of what you take out. Take time out to rejuvenate yourself and to do things that take you out of the mundane way of doing things.
  • Use the advantage of how fast technology is moving.

Above all, Please Remember ... " Ideas are Good, Execution is Everything."