Flawless strategy execution. A great strategy is only as good as its execution, but far too often, many brilliant strategies end up locked away in a drawer somewhere, instead of being seen and actioned every day.
Stay out of this common strategy execution trap by doing these 4 things:
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Get your priorities straight
Your business needs to set the right priorities to drive short and long-term success. Think clearly about what the Top 5 90-day priorities are for your business, as well as what your Top 5 annual priorities are. Remember – the trick to prioritizing is to keep your list of priorities as small as possible.
Get everyone in your team aligned to the goals and priorities of the business, and get them to pull in that direction.
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Track the progress against your business goals and priorities
There are 2 types of metrics that are equally important, when tracking progress:
Lag metrics (looking backward), for example an income statement and sales report.
Lead metrics (looking forward), for example the number of sales meetings your staff are having per month. This lets you know if you will hit your sales targets. A good lead measure is predictive and adaptable. You can influence it to ensure that it allows you to hit your targets.
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Have a scoreboard on display
Once you have clearly identified your goals and are measuring progress against those goals, your business will need a scoreboard that displays the numbers/metrics your business is tracking against. The reason for this is that people “play” differently when they know the score. There is significantly more urgency, attention and focus applied if people know whether they are winning or losing.
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Create a rhythm of accountability
Drive accountability through holding meetings regularly. There’s a growing belief that meetings are a waste of time but quite the opposite is true. Meetings are necessary for strategy execution if done right. They are the heartbeat of execution – they set the speed at which the business executes. This is because at every well-run meeting, everyone in the business will know if they are doing the right things in the right way, at the right pace.
Set a routine of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual meetings that create the space and time for teams to report on progress, share ideas, debate and make important decisions for driving the scaling up of the organization.
The world-renowned book Scaling Up explains these concepts in more detail. Have a read through it and see how you can apply it to your business.
By James Hughes
Business Coach and Strategy Advisor
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