Execution is What Drives Results

Key Takeaways

• Maximizing your resources where they will have the greatest impact
• Importance of focusing on the basic elements

Have you ever walked out of an annual operations meeting, after just having been handed a multimillion-dollar quota that has a significant growth component?  If you are like most managers, the initial sticker shock of what the company is asking for can be the cause of more than one sleepless night. Focusing on the overwhelming number in front of you cannot only be hazardous to your health, it can also be detrimental to you actually delivering the much-needed number.

Let’s take a close look and see how the most successful managers approach this situation that we are all faced with at one time or another:

Most people will start by looking at the total number itself. This will very often lead them down the path of questioning how and when they will deliver such a monumental performance. Their heart is in the right place, and it certainly makes sense to know what is expected of us, when it must be delivered and in what quantities. The trap here, though, is that as you are looking at the total number, it becomes so very easy to be overwhelmed with the enormity of the task at hand.

The most successful managers – the ones who always deliver the numbers year in and year out – tend to approach this from the other end of the spectrum. They don’t focus their time and effort on analyzing the total number.  They spend their time, effort and resources focusing on the most basic of the day-to-day operations that will ultimately deliver the number. It is by improving on the actual execution of the plan at the most basic components of your system that will always deliver the greatest improvements in productivity.

The level of execution at the most basic elements of your business will ultimately determine if you hit, exceed or miss your number. This is where your time and resources must be focused.

Take the time to analyze the department and determine what roles, at the most basic level, are the real drivers of your specific number. If you are in charge of manufacturing, it is likely your machine operators or your engineers. If you are in charge of sales, it is most likely the reps in the field. The key here is to synthesize your work to ensure that every single person at this most basic level of your business is operating as efficiently and as profitably as possible. Get the basics of your business humming like a finely tuned machine and that million-dollar quota will take care of itself.

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