Book on "Execution"

  Book on "Execution"   

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)
 

                           

Related to our topic on " Execution Excellence- Ability to get things done " in a professional environment, introducing the book " Execution" written by world-renowned Management thinker, and CEO coach " Ram charan " along with other two authors.

The Author Ram charan defines execution as a discipline than conventional thinking as either art or skill. And the authors explain how strategy, people and operations can be integrated to get things done in a competitive organization with their practical / client's examples.

Read the book recently.In my opinion, this book is not for beginners,however,it is a good read  for those people who get into senior management and practicing business heads to get a wide perspective on the execution capabilities at both self-level and for inculcating the capabilities in the organization.

Recommend to senior professionals.

https://amzn.to/3FjJ80Y

Have a great week ahead.

Staying focused in a day to day life

  Staying focused in a day to day life 

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)

As part of managing self to get things done, one of the self-development areas is being focused. Last few weeks, we have discussed how the leaders demonstrate the focus in the organization and make the team also focus at the macro level/organization level / medium term.

Now let us discuss how effectively people stay focused in day-to-day activities/micro level / individual level.

It is very challenging to remain focused on our daily activities and results as distractions may be created by ourselves through our practices and others. Some effective people overcome by consciously practicing some behaviors which i observe and learn from them.

1. They have clarity about what they want or what agenda to fulfill in a day.
2. They maintain a "To do list" on a piece of paper and ensure to check at the end of the day.
3. They convert their agenda into key performance indicators (KPIs) that they measure and track periodically. We speak ideas most and forget them, but converting the idea into metrics will improve the focus.
4. They will always start with END. This habit will help them focus on the result rather than being distracted by the activities.
5. They are more prudent about "what not to do or what not to talk" about than what to do. Focus is all about what not to do and what to do.

In one of the firms, the business head casually shared his plan to go about technology degradation through investment. The team was then working on solving quality issues in the existing technology. When they heard about the business head's plan for upgradation, they stopped working on problem-solving. They pointed out the new technology could be the panacea for all the problems ...complete focus distraction!! by sharing untimely information.

6. They manage and conduct the meetings very well, as distractions mostly happen in meeting forums. They organize themselves very well by certain behaviors like putting the mobile in silent mode, going by the agenda, taking notes, and involving all stakeholders.
7. Even if someone distracts from the agenda, they will bring it back to the agenda quickly as they know it is one of the core jobs of chairing the meetings. Sometimes when the discussion gets into conflict, they brilliantly handle it or, worst case, make it offline to remain focused.

 
You might have observed the above behaviors and something more.
 
The point is that staying focused is a choice irrespective of the environment, and this is one of the mindsets that help us to stay focused. When we, as leaders/managers, remain focused, the team will also stay focused and enable us to get things done.

Have a great week ahead.

Being focused-How do effective people display?

 Being focused-How do effective people display?  

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)

As part of "managing self" to get things done, one of the self-development areas is being focused. Last week, we discussed how the leaders demonstrate the focus in the organization and make the team also focus.

In continuation of it one more example in the Indian automobile industry is Bajaj auto's transformation from being a domestic scooter manufacturing organization to one of the world's largest exporters of motorcycle organizations in a decade.

Before 2000, Bajaj auto was widely known as a scooter manufacturing company with a decent presence in motorcycles. They focused more on the Indian market, with a sizable market share in the two-wheeler industry. That is the legacy created by Rahul Bajaj as a founder. In 2005, the next generation Rajiv Bajaj took the managing director role and decided to focus only on motorcycles to take the company globally and dropped the scooter business completely. At that time, there was skepticism about his decision to leave the scooter legacy even at the family and industry levels.
Despite all the concerns and noises, he single-mindedly focussed only on motorcycles, developed new products in all the ranges, tied up with many international companies as partners, and exported to many countries apart from the domestic market.

To cut short the story, today, Bajaj is exporting to more than 70 countries, and the export sales are around 53 % of its overall sales. No other Indian company achieved this sales performance. The other achievements are company is globalized and cash rich.
 
Now having achieved significant results in motorcycles, he is again entering into the  EV scooter segment with the old brand of Chetak.

That is the focus till achieving the result.

Scholars and Business consultants may define the above achievement as strategy or specialization, but i  see it as a demonstration of the focus of the business head to get things done without distraction. Most of us are good at planning and need to be more disciplined in execution. That calls for focus as a behavior.

In this way, only the leader demonstrates to others what is priority or focus, and the team or organization is also focused.

Let us discuss how effective people demonstrate the focus on a day-to-day basis next week
.
Have a great week ahead.

Organizing self-managing Time

 Organizing self-managing Time  

(Execution Excellence -"Ability to get things done" Series)

 

We have discussed the importance of personal leadership or organizing self to improve the execution capability.
 
Let us discuss one of the essential elements of self-organizing, which is "Time Management."
 
We have discussed many aspects of time management in the earlier discussion; let us understand how managing time will impact getting things done at the workplace.
 
Managing Time should be looked at from two angles.

1) How do we organize our Time for ourselves;
2) How do we organize our Time for others

 How we organize our Time for ourselves 

It consists of planning our priorities/activities, making a To-do list, being on time for any events or meetings, and being aware of our Time wasters.

 How we organize our Time for others 

It consists of how we respect others' Time, keep our commitments up without follow-up or reminders from others and be available for others when needed.

Let us discuss all aspects, and the critical, fundamental conduct for any professional is "Being on Time" or "being punctual."
 
In childhood, we used to be punctual in school as an act of obedience or control from teachers and parents, and somehow we have not learned the basics behind it.

Fortunately, i  learned the science behind "being on time" from the beginning of my career. As most of us are aware that TVS as an organization is very specific about being on Time (punctual). They differentiated themselves from others in their bus service business by punctuality when they started the company in the 1910s in the southern part of Tamil Nādu.

When i was working as a trainee in TVS, one day, i went for a learning session late by a minute or less. All my colleagues were inside the room, and then the Vice president sarcastically greeted me as welcome mappillai! (meaning bridegroom). I felt embarrassed and shamed. After the session, i asked him why he was so concerned about being less than 1 minute late. What he said was real learning. He said, "It is not a matter of one minute late, it shows how you look at your work, event, and other people's time. It reflects your attitude".

Very profound learning for me. Since then, i have never been late to any event by plan, and i will keep informing people when unforeseen circumstances beyond my control pull me to be late.

While growing up, i observed that many people who keep up on Time are cool, handle situations calmly, consistently grow, and lead a quality life. Quality of life starts with the right attitude toward managing Time.

In my consulting experience,i have seen a typical pattern that the leaders who arrive at the organization on Time and start the meeting on time relatively manage the business well in any circumstances. Because they set the tone of their attitude towards Time to others, the organization follows them. The first step towards execution!

When you organize well, obviously, you will get things done efficiently.

Let us discuss some more aspects of time management next week.

Personal Leadership

                                             

 As we discussed, Execution capability comprises three elements, viz. 

1. Personal Leadership or how we organize ourselves
2. Inspiring and Influencing  others to get things done
3. In-depth knowledge about our work or business
 
Let's talk about Personal Leadership or self-organizing. 
 
What is self-organizing or personal leadership?
 
Self-organizing or personal leadership is about proactively preparing ourselves for the position/ title or the job or task we do."

It is all about how we conduct ourselves, shape our character, attitude, enrich our knowledge and skill for the position.

It is all about personal effectiveness.

It is the foundation for getting things done.

For example,

Suppose you are a functional or business head. In that case, this position demands certain behaviors, knowledge, and skills like being a role model for others on respecting time, and people, expertise in functional or business knowledge, and specific skills to demonstrate. How you prepare yourself for those requirements is about self-organizing or personal leadership.
 
Why do we need to self-organize from the "Execution Capability" perspective?
 
1) When you have not organized yourselves, you can not lead others effectively. You can not improve your team's capability without improving your effectiveness
 
As per the law of organized performance, the ratio of a leader's performance to their team remains constant.

For example, if you measure your performance on a scale of 1~10 and your score is 8, your team score would also be eight or less. Hence ratio is 1:1

You can not change your team's performance score to 10 unless you also improve your score to 10; therefore, the ratio remains constant as per law.

The point is your team's execution capability, or effectiveness depends on your execution capability only.

To get things done, you need to enhance your effectiveness first.

2) You will derail any time during the growth stage if you are not organized.

As said, self-organized is more about disciplining yourself. You will get derailed when you do not maintain the discipline as the job demands.

We might have come across many talented people who derailed their careers not just due to performance alone but lack of personal leadership.

Some of the examples could be ICICI bank Ex women CEO or  Satyam computer founder's fall mainly due to governance issues from a business perspective or integrity issues from a personal point of view.
 
The point is self-organizing is very fundamental for enhancing execution capability. Without that, we cannot inspire or influence others. When you grow up, people look up to you for everything.

Let's talk more about personal leadership next week.

Developing Execution Capabilities

Thank you for your feedback last week on my request. When i analyze the input, most revolves around "how can one be effective in a professional life and how we achieve result in work or business." Some concerns about bringing ownership to the young generations to achieve organizational goals.Something related to the family business, conflict management, and delegation in general.

I observe a gap between what we intend or plan to do and what we achieve. That gap is due to execution capabilities. We want to get things done but struggle to get them for various reasons.

                                  

 
Hence, we initiate a new series on "Developing the Execution Capabilities" in a professional environment as an individual and an organization.
 
Why do we need to develop the execution capabilities?

1. One of the studies says that only 8 % of the leaders are good at planning and delivering results. The remaining 92 % of the leaders are either good only at planning but lacks execution skill or struggle with both effective planning and execution.

We may relate these findings with our experience as well.
 
For example, we might have experienced many times that we plan to follow some good habits but give up soon. That is an execution discipline problem at an individual level.
 
Similarly, we may plan to achieve some level of business growth every year at an organizational level. Still, for many years, we may be stagnant at the same level of growth performance. That is due to execution problems at the organizational level.
 
 Execution problems may be a common phenomenon for any professional and organization. Unless we understand the execution process and develop the capabilities, there will not be much progress in professional life.
 

2. Success and Growth come from implementing actions and delivering results, not just from planning or strategy or simply ideas. Execution is the critical differentiator between performers and nonperformers. The world admires performers only.

 
However, developing the execution capability is not as easy as learning concepts, tools, and techniques. It is a mix-up of managerial process and art.

Execution capability encompasses the following.

1. Personal Leadership or how we organize ourselves
2. Inspiring and Influencing others to get things done
3. In-depth knowledge about our work or business environment
 
Let us discuss developing the capabilities, the set of behaviors in each aspect, and some insights from effective personalities in this Series.