EXECUTION:
DELIVERING EXCELLENCE
© 2013 Mike Hawkins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
The SCOPE of Leadership Book Series
A Guide to Coaching Leaders to Lead as Coaches
Execution: Delivering Excellence
Brown Books Publishing Group
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ABOUT THIS SERIES
Welcome to the SCOPE of Leadership book series. The six books in this series are designed to build your knowledge of the thirty-eight competencies of great leaders who lead as coaches. These books provide the insights and principles great leaders as coaches use to practice great leadership—the ability to achieve a desired result through the influence of people who follow and perform by choice.
By reading the SCOPE of Leadership book series, you will learn how to set the example you expect others to follow. You will learn how to coach and develop others, build trust and high-performance teams, and foster collaboration and innovation. You will understand what it takes to motivate and inspire others and discover how to impart ownership and stimulate engagement. You will learn how to develop engaging presentations and speak with confidence. You will understand how to craft win-win partnerships and manage conflict. Most importantly, you will learn how to shape organizational culture, operate with excellence, and deliver exceptional results.
The SCOPE of Leadership is for anyone who aspires to be a great leader. It is for business professionals who want to advance in their career as well as community leaders who want to make a positive impact on society. It is for parents and grandparents who want to be better examples to their children and raise them to be great leaders. It is for athletic coaches who want to help athletes become their best. It is for teachers, principals, church leaders, and others in positions of influence who aspire to influence people positively in order to reach a desired result.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Competency 32: Focusing on Value
Competency 33: Fostering a Climate of Innovation
Competency 34: Enabling Speed and Quality
Competency 35: Making Great Decisions
Competency 36: Shaping the Culture
Competency 37: Taking Action
Competency 38: Making the Sacrifice
Appendix:
The SCOPE of Leadership Scorecard for Book 6
About the Author
Books by Mike Hawkins
The SCOPE of Leadership Certificate
FIGURES
Figure 6.1: Business Maturity Model
Figure 6.2: Thinking Outside the Box (of Practicality)
Figure 6.3: Process Flowchart Example
Figure 6.4: Value Versus Feasibility Matrix
Figure 6.5: Decision-Making Confidence
Figure 6.6: Increasing Expressions of Frustration
TABLES
Table 6.1: Strategy—Attributes and Responsibilities
Table 6.2: Time Allocation Assessment
Table 6.3: Meeting Best Practices
Table 6.4: Organizational Scorecard Measurements
Table 6.5: Inhibitors to Innovation
Table 6.6: Questions that Stimulate Innovation
Table 6.7: Organizational Assets Frequently Underutilized
Table 6.8: Critical Organizational Processes
Table 6.9: Example of Process Flowchart Supporting Data
Table 6.10: Elements Impacting Operational Efficiency and Profitability
Table 6.11: Conditions for Involving Others in Decision Making
Table 6.12: Common Biases Impacting Decision Making
Table 6.13: Decision-Making Example Using Weighted Criteria
Table 6.14: Elements of Great Decision Making
Table 6.15: Critical Factors for Successful M&A Integration
Table 6.16: Product Adoption Groups
Table 6.17: Steps to Overcoming Procrastination
Table 6.18: The SCOPE of Leadership Scorecard for Book 6
INTRODUCTION
Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.
—Peter Drucker
Delivering Excellence: Achieving exceptional results and sustaining the organization’s intended operational outcomes.
There are two overarching themes embedded in the SCOPE of Leadership’s definition of great leadership:
Great leadership is the ability to achieve a desired result through the influence of people who follow and perform by choice.
The first theme is the ability to influence people. This has been the primary focus of the previous books in this series. The second theme is the ability to achieve desired results, which is the focus of this final book of the series. Leadership is about producing results. Results are the primary measure of great leadership. The ultimate reason great leaders strive to lead by example, communicate effectively, develop others, and leverage teamwork is to deliver results.
People are the channel through which results are achieved and therefore the primary focus of great leaders, but people are not a leader’s only focus. Great leaders who produce great results also focus on strategy and operational execution. They improve, align, and lead all the elements of their organizational ecosystem as were described in the section on the big picture in competency 8 of book 2 of this series.
From a strategic standpoint, great leaders are strategists who possess strategic attributes and focus on strategic activities such as those listed in Table 6.1. In their role as an organization’s strategist, they see the big picture and spot trends. They make the most out of their markets as well as develop new ones. They focus their operations on the needs of their customers and foster ongoing innovation that maintains their competitive advantage.
TABLE 6.1: STRATEGY—ATTRIBUTES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategic Leadership Attributes:
• Thinking strategically (book 2)
• Fostering innovation (book 6)
• Making great decisions (book 6)
• Having an external perspective (book 5)
• Seeing opportunities (book 6)
Strategic Leadership Responsibilities:
• Setting and articulating a compelling vision, strategy, and roadmap (book 2)
• Understanding, developing, and targeting customer needs (book 6)
• Assessing and influencing markets, competitors, and industries (books 5 and 6)
• Spotting and leveraging political, economic, social, and technological trends (books 2, 5, and 6)
• Building partnerships and leveraging acquisitions (book 5)
• Evaluating routes to market and utilizing varied channels (books 5 and 6)
• Aligning and improving the elements of the organizational ecosystem (book 2)
• Establishing and leading by principles (books 1 and 2)
From a tactical perspective, a leader’s job is to turn the organization’s strategy into results. It is to focus on operational execution and deliver excellence. It is to develop, produce, distribute, sell, and service the organization’s offerings, and receive compensation for doing so. It is to increase revenue, control costs, and limit risk. It is to execute the strategy and make progress toward the organization’s vision.
Leadership is not for the fainthearted for one overarching reason—it is not a spectator sport. Leadership isn’t just about casting a vision or conceiving new strategies. Strategies are important but only to the extent they are executed and deliver results. Organizations that are respected by analysts, stockholders, customers, and other stakeholders are lauded because they produce and sustain results. Organizational success and longevity are dependent on great execution.
Great execution depends on operational excellence. It requires maintaining quality and efficiency. It includes optimizing routes to market and delighting customers—whether internal or external. It involves not only leading people but also refining processes, implementing systems, and solving operational problems.
Operational execution and delivering excellent results are the focus of this final level of the SCOPE of Leadership. This level is akin to closing a sale. As with all the activities a salesperson performs leading up to a sale, the leadership competencies in the prior levels of the SCOPE of Leadership were provided for one purpose—to set the foundation for delivering operational results. If you have done well at learning and building the competencies in the previous books of this series, you will easily learn and develop the competencies in this final book and top level of the SCOPE of Leadership pyramid.
As you now turn your attention to delivering operational results, you will develop seven additional competencies that build on the competencies of setting the example, communicating effectively, developing others, and leveraging teamwork.
Great leaders who deliver excellence and exceptional results
1. Focus on value.
2. Foster a climate of innovation.
3. Enable speed and quality.
4. Make great decisions.
5. Shape the culture.
6. Take action.
7. Make the sacrifice.
These competencies enable not just results but sustainable results. They are not about short-term actions that any manager can take to achieve the coming quarter’s objectives. Great leaders don’t achieve consistent results by stuffing finished goods into the distribution channel, temporarily eliminating people from the payroll, or selling assets. They don’t cut research and development, reduce training budgets, and slash discretionary expenses just to make their short-term numbers look good. They don’t operate a yo-yo organization with results that constantly go up and down. They embed practices and philosophies that deliver positive results quarter after quarter and year after year. They run an operation that executes with excellence. They build great organizations that deliver results on a sustainable basis.
EXECUTION:
DELIVERING EXCELLENCE
Competency 32: Focusing on Value
Competency 33: Fostering a Climate of Innovation
Competency 34: Enabling Speed and Quality
Competency 35: Making Great Decisions
Competency 36: Shaping the Culture
Competency 37: Taking Action
Competency 38: Making the Sacrifice