WHERE 90% OF ALL LEADERS FAIL

General George Armstrong Custer

Economic events and major shifts in the competitive marketplace caused many companies (including whole industries) to completely rethink their business models and strategic plans. To their peril, many businesses let their strategic planning efforts lapse into a meaningless exercise in goal setting, or worse yet budgeting, only to discover that the underlying assumptions they were operating their business are no longer valid or are obsolete.

Today, it is crucial to use a disciplined process to assess how economic and industry dynamics are likely to play out, and then create an effective strategic plan to confront these realities.  It is now important to make strategic planning an ongoing quarterly process, not an annual event.

Business leaders routinely acknowledge that they need to make changes to their company’s strategy, however some become incredibly frustrated when they share their vision for the future with their employees, only to find that the implementation breaks down or the plan never gets any traction.   Remember just one thing . . . Execution is the primary job of the Business Leader.

Suppose that a company has gone through a Strategic Planning Process.  They have involved all the key managers and team members in the process and obtained their complete commitment.  Then, they carefully craft an effective strategic plan to properly position the business for the future success in their industry.   So what happens next, or better yet what doesn’t happen next?  Often, the plan simply fades away when managers go back to being “busy” in the business with routine day-to-day demands.

Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan, say, “90% of strategies fail due to poor execution”.  But how do successful companies align their daily activities to achieve their long term strategic priorities?  What is interesting is that . . . . 

- Only 27% of employees have access to the company’s strategic plan. 

- Only 5% of employees fully understand and embrace the company strategy.

- And, 92% of organizations do not measure Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).

Don't focus here, Business Leaders still need to oversee the day-to-day operations, make certain products/services are sold and delivered, satisfy customer’s needs and fighting fires.  But that is simply known as “just doing the job”.  Effective leadership is the ability to simultaneously devote sufficient time and attention to implementing the key action priorities identified in the strategic plan.

Just Three Things:
Business leaders need the ability to clearly articulate the top 3 things strategies in the strategic plan and the ‘rocks’ that need to be work on.  Therefore, everyone in the company should know:

1-  What are the top 3 strategic moves the company needs to make over the next 3-5 years in order to properly position the company for the future success in the industry?

2- What are the top 3 actions the company must execute in the current quarter?

3- What are the top 3 actions each key person must personally implement in the next quarter?

The priority here is that business leaders need to clearly communicate strategic action priorities and then align key persons to the achievement of this plan.  This action is considered a major accomplishment and a critical first step for execution of the plan.  The next step is for individual managers to ensure these actions are carried out on a quarter, weekly and daily basis, by consistent management of KPI’s.  Business Execution Professionals, reveal that one or more additional success habits (see below) drive the execution of the strategic plan.

Weekly Action Priorities
Strategic leaders ask their direct reports every week, “What is the #1 thing you are going to do this week that will contribute toward your strategic action priorities for the quarter?”  The intention is for staff to publicly articulate, commit and reaffirm their #1 strategic action priority on a regular basis.

Business Execution Software
Simple software solutions are available that communicates strategic plans that team members can understand.  The software breaks down strategic plans down into quarterly and weekly action priorities and individual staff accountability.  Some software drive the execution via email reminders, SMS texts and outlook synchronization.  This empowers management to have better control and drive the focus and effectiveness of the teams.

External Accountability
External parties, like Coaches and Mentors, are better at challenging the leader’s assumptions, holding the key members accountable, facilitating the accountability of KPI’s, providing alternative options and giving an impartial 10,000 foot perspective that cannot be obtained from colleagues and subordinates. By using external sources, leaders get a vital perspective on the objectives and implications of the strategic decisions.