Hi Simon.

Stopping Execution In Its Tracks

It is a fact that some people will duck accountability... and a few will do it at any cost.

Not surprisingly these people will thrive in the type of environment where it’s difficult to get 100% clarity on what the organisation expects from them and whether its actually being accomplished.

2 things that will stop effective Execution in its tracks:

• Organisations that make life complicated.
• Managers who manage everything except performance.

Complicating work

Any organisation that has a full (and changing) agenda of systems, processes, initiatives and reports, makes it easy for anyone to appear busy and even successful without actually accomplishing much.

It is an unfortunate fact that the larger an organisation becomes the more complicated things become. Instead of pursuing an agenda to counter this most organisations seem intent on making life even more difficult than it needs to be. Here are some examples:

• Delivering the annual Strategy with no guidance on how to Execute.
• Introducing new processes without ever taking any away.
• Allowing teams to operate without knowing their primary objective.
• Tying up people with unnecessary procedures or meetings.
• Demanding reports that nobody reads.
• Keeping failed initiatives in place.

Solving this starts with the CEO. However there is one group of people who can influence execution and therefore performance more than anyone else: Managers.

Managing everything except performance

The challenge is that some Managers find a way to manage absolutely everything, except the one thing that matters most: Results.

We have been fortunate to have worked with managers who despite the complex world created for them have remained focused and continued to deliver performance improvements and embraced the accountability that goes with their position. They have done so because they understand the sole purpose of management is to deliver a result!

...manage v., 1. to bring about; succeed in accomplishing.

It is true managers do other things. Build teams, coach people, provide direction and yes take care of their administrative duties but the purpose remains the same... deliver a result.

Ask just two questions

If you are at the senior levels of a company or a manager at the front line and want to keep your team focused on results, answer two questions as concisely as possible:

• How will you measure success at the end of 2008?
• What can you remove that has absolutely no bearing on achieving this?

Enjoy Your Week.
Mark Bragg & Martin West

XGAP Website

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