80% of Businesses Fail In This One Area
Year on year business owners like you and I sit down with their leadership teams, and perhaps with an external advisor, and map out what they think the following year should look like, goals they want to achieve and even the strategic objectives needed to reach those goals.
Money is poured into developing strategic plans, attending conferences that help you to workshop your next 3 years, and business plans are presented to teams right across the country with passion and motivation.
You’ve been there. You come out of those meetings motivated, and it feels like you are on the right track. And yet, statistically it is said that 54% of organisations achieve less than 50% of their strategic objectives.
So, what is it that you are not paying attention to?
80% of businesses fail at the execution part of the strategy. No follow through.
“Strategy without execution is just a wish list.”
Execution is the result of thousands of decisions made everyday by leadership teams and employees acting according to the information they have and their own self-interest.
As your company grows, especially if you are scaling rapidly, execution can become more and more muddied if you do not have a clear framework to work to, and a system for accountability in place.
How do you bridge the gap?
How do you keep your eye on the ball? To reach performance or lifestyle success, you need to be able to deliver on intent.
5 ways to ensure you stay on track with the execution piece:
1. Have a clear framework and methodology for implementing strategy.
That means you need to develop a repeatable system that links the strategy down the line all the way to the individual goals of each employee in your organisation. So rather than the strategy remaining a pie-in-the-sky concept that sounds good, it needs to be clearly defined with actionable tasks for each employee, followed by an accountability framework for follow-up.
2. Plan for the distractions
One of the challenges that business owners and teams face after mapping out a strategic plan are the fires that are constantly demanding their attention. The busy-ness of everyday operations that cause distraction, become time-consuming and eventually cause the wheels to fall off. Re-thinking the way you do business is key here, and having a process in place when the distractions appear to ensure focus and direction is maintained is essential.
3. Condense your vision into a one-page strategic plan document.
Your strategic plan needs to be easy to share throughout your organisation, easy to understand, and easy to follow-through on. A quick 1-page reference for employees (and for yourself) that is viewed on a daily basis helps reconnect the organisation back to the vision on a regular basis.
4. Set a clear priority, one at a time.
Rather than trying to implement all areas of the plan all at the same time, focus on one aspect of the strategic plan, one piece at a time. Map out the actionable tasks, the people involved, and the objectives for that one priority and see it fully executed before moving on to the next strategic priority.
5. Develop a meeting rhythm with clearly defined agendas
Meetings for the sake of meetings are a waste of time and money. You need to develop a rhythm of meetings that have clear intent and a defined agenda that is adhered to.
Start with morning team huddles that last 10 minutes to see that everyone has a focus for their day.
Weekly team meetings are essential for reviewing the progress made, and to ensure there are no fires raging out of control (get to the problem areas quickly). This weekly meeting also helps set the goals for the following week, so come Monday, everyone knows what they are working on.
Monthly board meetings are needed to review the strategic priority for that month, review the data, assess how the company is tracking in terms of the strategic plan, and then set the coming months’ priorities. Get our free meeting agenda template - CLICK HERE
Then a quarterly review of the strategic plan will allow you to reassess the direction the company is going in, and make the necessary changes required at that time.
Our monthly service supports you through this process, with regular reviews of the strategic plan working with our 9-Pillar Framework. Contact us to find out more.
With just a few small changes, and a quick honesty check - that you haven’t been following through on strategic objectives - you can quickly turn your failure to launch (execute) into regular wins. This is how you scale a company that delivers you lifestyle and performance success - one piece at a time.
Simplify your success. Start making the changes today that your future self will thank you for.
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