The economic recovery in 2021 will put a premium on execution. Why? Well, many companies got lean in 2020, and are doing more with less. Plus, the operating environment in 2021 will be more stable and predictable. 2020 was a year when a lot of companies had to change their business strategy. In 2021, we will need to execute flawlessly to get back on track.

However, how do we even know how well our organizations are currently executing? Financials cannot give the full picture since they don’t tell us how much better we could perform.

Wouldn’t be great if you had a Line-of-Sight into your business to uncover these hidden vulnerabilities?

Nast Partners is a Certified Partner for Line-of-Sight where we help our clients execute better by looking beyond talent to help you assess the five Key Success factors for Execution (we call them KSEs): Strategic Understanding, Leadership, Balanced Metrics, Activities & Structure, and yes, Human Capital.

Our next few articles will be a series of short tips on execution. We will begin by examining how you can improve each of these five KSEs.

Is your Leadership Team Enabling Execution?

The Importance of Leadership

Execution excellence starts at the top. It is the leadership team’s responsibility to set the foundation of execution by formulating a clear market positioning, communicating it to all employees with credibility, deliberately and thoughtfully managing the changes required to maintain excellence in operations, and being self-aware enough to understand their own strengths and gaps to deliver against their strategic goals.

The primary responsibility for a high-performing leadership team is to think and work strategically. Yet, the strategic intent should not be a secret known to only the C-suite. In fact, quite the opposite: it must be known and embraced by all employees, so they can own tasks and activities which support these goals. Aligning all tasks and activities to the single purpose of the organization is the secret to execution excellence.

Communication must be credible. Credibility comes from expertise, but also from consistency - consistency in intent (being persistent and resilient in the face of adversity), in messaging (repeating the strategic intent over and over), and in behavior (knowing themselves and being aware of how they communicate and take action). This is especially true for companies that are going through significant change where the employee base needs to be kept especially well-informed.

Most leaders stepped up during the crisis. But the return to growth and greater stability in the post-pandemic environment should not be an excuse to slacken the effort. More than ever, execution requires leadership to constantly repeat and articulate the vision and goals, and to ensure it is understood and accepted by all.

Walt Disney said, “Your frontline represents your bottom line.” He was known for wandering his parks and asking frontline employees to share Disney’s top strategic priorities with him. Disney knew execution excellence was impossible without the leadership clearly communicating the strategy to every single employee.

Is your organization’s leadership enabling execution?

Answer the questions below to find out. If you answer “no” at least once, you need to closely assess how well your executive team is leading efforts to both communicate and execute the company strategy:

●            Does the leadership team have full credibility with employees to lead the execution of strategy?

●            Is the leadership team managing change effectively?

●            Is the leadership team clearly communicating the strategy across the company?

●            Are the leadership team’s behaviors aligned with their strategic objectives?

In our next article, we will examine The Importance of Balanced Metrics.

How well is your business executing? To find out, please reach out and we can initiate an assessment of your execution capabilities.

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About the Author:

David B. Nast is the CEO & Managing Partner of Nast Partners based in the Greater Philadelphia area. 

David uses artificial intelligence, workforce analytics, and science-backed data to help businesses stop guessing and erase bias in their talent and execution decisions.

He is a 3-time CEO, a Workplace Behavior Expert, and an Award-Winning Business Coach with over 30 years of experience in Human Capital Management, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Talent Optimization, Sales, Change Management, Talent Acquisition, Training, Talent Management, and Executive Search.

David holds certifications as a Workplace Behavioral Analyst, Business Coach, Talent Optimization Consultant, Corporate Trainer, Leadership Architect, LOS-Organizational Health Expert, and Interview Architect.

#PredictPerformance

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