Getting the job done or achieving results can have the same challenges as baking a cake – if you don’t have the right ingredients and you don’t follow the recipe, chances are you won’t be getting that smile on your face after your first bite.
In the next two minutes we’re going to talk about the foundational principles your business needs for a world class strategy execution standard. Each episode after this this will address another element for implementing a strategy execution framework to give your business the best chance of producing the results you want.
There are five essential elements for turning hard work into business results. This is true regardless of the industry or business you operate in.
If you master these five things, you will be on your way to success. Let me give you quick overview each one.
1) Direction and Clarity – It will be almost impossible to know what’s required to meet your goals if you don’t establish clear direction.
2) Alignment - If you’ve ever owned a car, you’ll know if the wheels become unbalanced or out of alignment, your steering wheel shakes when you’re driving. If your staff are not aligned to the goals in your business, steering your business becomes just as difficult.
3) Scoreboards –You must have scoreboards for anything critical to your success or failure and they must be simple enough for you to tell, at a glance, if you’re winning or losing against your goals.
4) Engagement – Engagement is ensuring all employees are contributing and that both managers and employees are communicating effectively, both up and down the chain.
5) Accountability – Accountability simply means holding your staff accountable for the work you need done to the standard you expect. Accountability for managers could mean providing sufficient support to assist employees in delivering the desired results. It’s also important for managers to understand that consequences should be used as a tool for modifying unwanted human behaviour.
In summary, the five elements of a world class strategy execution framework are:
1. Direction and clarity
2. Alignment
3. Scoreboards
4. Engagement
5. Accountability
You’ll want to write each of these five principles down because over the next few episodes we will discuss each one in more detail. You will be able to adopt these principles into your own business with the ultimate objective of helping you achieve your business vision, mission and goals.