A leader today needs both ability to plan strategy and the skills to execute it. The challenge is that our generation of leaders has been taught how to plan not how to implement.
According to a global survey across a variety of industries, only 8% of company leaders were said to excel at both strategy and execution.
The biggest hurdles to overcome to achieve successful strategy implementation are designing the plan, managing performance and outcomes, and using a feedback loop for continuous improvement.
“How is always more important than what.”
A formal performance-management (PM) process is one approach for minimizing these strategy-to-execution risks. Here are four (4) building blocks to help your organization plan and execute its strategy:
Mobilizing/Defining the Work
During this stage, it is essential to educate the stakeholders who will be impacted during this process. Explaining the process, the benefits, and expectations up front minimize disruptions and improve buy-in.
Defining Performance Indicators
Define and refine the metrics to ensure they are correctly identified and will have a direct impact on the desired outcomes. Incorporating these data into a structured format (e.g., table, scorecard) will help in presenting the data during feedback sessions with multiple stakeholders.
Prioritizing Performance Indicators
This activity is best done by a small team or task force composed of various perspectives. Specific actions will have more impact than others. Focus on less to achieve more. Take time to prioritize those indicators that will have the most significant impact on the desired outcomes.
Collecting Data
Create a transparent data-collection process that includes frequency, timing, and data source. Depending on the maturity level of the organization, standardized templates and user-friendly tools or systems can be beneficial.
Finally, communication via a feedback loop is critically important. Throughout the PM process, there will be new learnings, and plans may need to be modified, and ongoing communication is critical to keeping all stakeholders abreast of the progress being made.
Getting these four areas right allows leaders to make a big step forward toward closing the gap between strategy and execution.