The fourth thing that lead­er­ship does is exe­cute with excel­lence.  The best lead­ers are clear on their teams major ini­tia­tives, goals, time­lines and they expect excel­lence.  They do all they can to sup­port those lead­ing the projects so the orga­ni­za­tion suc­ceeds.  They have sched­uled monthly meet­ings that focus just on the exe­cu­tion of the strat­egy and do not allow any of the cri­sis or oppor­tu­ni­ties of the day to be discussed.

As I have shared in times past, I think Patrick Lencioni does a great job of lay­ing out a very sim­ple and effec­tive model for help­ing lead­ers to gain clar­ity on major ini­tia­tives and meet­ing rhythms in his newest book The Advan­tage and in Death by Meet­ing.

It is pretty straight for­ward but requires real com­mit­ment and dis­ci­pline.  There are three things that are crit­i­cal for an orga­ni­za­tion to exe­cute with excellence.

1. Clar­ity on your vision.  With­out this, it is very dif­fi­cult to com­mit to improve­ments or strate­gies that require exten­sive resources.  If you can­not see how the ini­tia­tive will impact the orga­ni­za­tion over the long haul, chances of you and your team fully com­mit­ting the money, time and tal­ent required are slim.
2. Clar­ity on the actual ini­tia­tive.  What does a win look like, by when, what are the steps, by whom, what resources will be needed?  If you get this down to a page or two and it is eas­ily under­stood, the chances of suc­cess rad­i­cally improve.
3. Ded­i­cated time.  You as the leader sched­ule time for monthly progress updates.  This is done in the one on one meet­ings with your direct reports with the focus on mak­ing sure they are on track, have their pri­or­i­ties in line, are ade­quately resourced for suc­cess.  You also have one team meet­ing per month that is solely ded­i­cated to review­ing the strate­gic ini­tia­tives.  Make sure that this meet­ing is not derailed with the tac­ti­cal urgent.  Some may opt to have these meet­ings quar­terly and can still exe­cute well, but we have found that the monthly rhythm works better.

There is a bal­ance between focus­ing on the demands and oppor­tu­ni­ties of today along with the long term strate­gies that will pay off tomor­row.  Keep one eye focused on your cur­rent real­ity and the other on the hori­zon and you will con­tinue to grow and improve.