What does it take to Scale Up a Business – Part Three: Driving Flawless Execution

The ability of a company to effectively implement its plans and achieve its goals, without errors or delays is a critical component of success. You can spend hundreds of hours creating and refining an excellent strategy, however, without executing it quickly and efficiently, it’s worthless.

This can be a vicious cycle with strategy development and implementation, where once the momentum from the initial meetings and development sessions dwindle, commitment within the team and organisation can diminish. The leadership team then start to question the strength of the plan, and slowly the strategy is abandoned, without any implementation. 

60–90% of strategic plans never fully launch.

If you have created a strong, differentiated strategy, (see our last blog if you haven’t!) executing it will be much easier.

Below, we take a look at the key areas to focus on to ensure you follow through with your strategic plan, to grow your bottom line for the long term.

Develop a Comprehensive Strategic Plan 

Identify the specific actions and tasks that need to be completed in order to achieve the company’s goals, and establish timelines and resources for each task. By doing this, you can ensure that all of the necessary steps are taken to achieve the company goals, and that the efforts are coordinated and aligned.

In the One Page Strategic Plan developed by Scaling Up, this is broken down into a 90 day plan, outlining the key priorities (called “Rocks”) and the people accountable. 

As a leader, it is also important you are fully committed to the strategy, for your team to believe in it and commit to it themselves. 

Establish Effective Communication and Collaboration

This includes creating channels for communication and collaboration among employees, as well as promoting a culture of transparency and open communication. By doing this, you can ensure that all employees are aware of the company’s goals and plans, and can work together to achieve them.

Your team should be meeting frequently (at least weekly) to understand the priorities, and discuss the progress towards these to keep them at the top of mind. By failing to do so, you will notice they will start working on the urgent over the important, and actions are not being taken to reach your specified goals.

Create a Culture of Accountability

Check that you have the right people doing the right things, and hold them accountable for their actions and performance. This includes holding yourself – as the leader, accountable. Also remember to recognise and reward employees who contribute to the company’s success. 

By creating a culture of accountability, you can ensure that all employees are committed to achieving the company’s goals, and are motivated to perform at their best.

Continuously Monitor and Evaluate Progress

How is your team performing with the identified metrics and tasks? How consistently are they hitting their goals? What percentage of tasks are delivered on time? 

By regularly tracking the company’s performance against its established metrics, as well as collecting employee input on an ongoing basis, you can identify any potential issues, roadblocks and opportunities, and make adjustments as needed to ensure that you stay on track to achieve your goals. 

If you are unsure of where to start, Scaling Up has created a Rockefeller Habits Checklist, a one page tool to help you identify any areas you are falling behind when it comes to executing your strategic plan. You can print a copy here.

TED BONEL, SCALING UP COACH – STRATEGY & EXECUTION BUSINESS ADVISORS

Need assistance to help your team achieve your objectives to grow your business? Contact me at tedb@strategyandexecution.com.au to schedule a free 30-minute discovery meeting.

ABOUT STRATEGY & EXECUTION

We have been providing organisations and their leaders with facilitation support and executive education focused on strategy development and strategy execution for more than 20 years. Using business models such as Scaling Up, Exponential Organizations, E-Myth Mastery, Outthinker etc, we support organisations seeking to create or refine excellent strategies and execute them quickly and effectively.

Our expertise is based on a mixture of wide business experience, effective tools as well as a great deal of consulting and executive education. Our approach to working with clients is as unique as our specialist focus. We always seek to challenge our clients’ thinking – but equally are unafraid to roll up our sleeves and help execute the ideas we help generate. Learn more about us here or view our upcoming workshops and events.

If you are preparing for strategy development and/or a strategy implementation challenge and are committed to creating value for your organisation, we look forward to hearing from you. Contact us now