5 Tips for Strategic Execution

Last week, I attended a 3 days workshop/training on Leadership for Strategic Execution, a course designed and delivered in collaboration with Stanford Center for Professional Development. This course is part of Advance Project Management certificate program and targeted for (see who should attend ) senior managers and professionals who wants to bring  new dimensions of leadership to project, program and portfolios. So what are these new dimensions, a lot of my friends and colleagues asked, if I can summarize the lessons learnt from this course in one bullet that can be applied to the day job. I thought, I will give them five points and not just one and let them decide which one they liked most and would like to apply at their respective situations. Before we even talk about the 5 tips from this course, we must understand the definition of execution in the context of Leadership. From the famous book Execution The Discipline of getting things done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, Execution is:

• a discipline
• a set of behaviors and techniques
• critical to establishing competitive advantage
• a major responsibility of the leader

Now, here are the 5 tips taken from the workshop:

1. Making Evidence based decisions - This is a critical part of effective decision making. All critical decisions should be made based on past evidences mixed with visionary approach. 
2. Avoiding Illusion of Invulnerability - When critical decisions are made, usually more than one party are involved and Group thinking can take place in an environment where decision makers and others unintentionally create illusion of invulnerability. Experts point out that same thing happened in the pre-launch conference call between NASA and contracting company one day before Challenger take off. Read this story to understand Group based decisions and its impact on challenger disaster.
3. Using framework for strategic execution - You need to break down your strategy logically and get it done. One such proven frame work called SEF (shown in the picture above) is provided in the book by Morgan, Levitt and Malek. Make sure to move your mouse over the ovals in the picture to get description of each section.
4. Treating people the way they like to be treated - if you noticed, this is different from the one our parents taught us. True leader recognizes the personality traits of important people they deal with and treat them the way they like to be treated. There are many ways you can find out the persona based on the human nature and traits; Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and color energy based profiles(more on color energy in a future post)
5. Using Power when necessary - True leaders are expected to use the power they have, to get things done. When, how and how much to use depends on the dynamics of the organization. Many people wonder, how to influence without authority? There are few resources available that can help such as this one.