Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

by Larry Bossidy

Getting things done depends ultimately on performing a specific set of behaviors. Without emotional fortitude, it’s tough to develop these behaviors, either in ourselves or in others. How can your organization face reality if people don’t speak honestly, and if its leaders don’t have the confidence to surface and resolve conflicts or give and take honest criticism? How can a group correct mistakes or get better if its members don’t have the emotional fortitude to admit they don’t have all the answers? Putting the right people in the right jobs requires emotional fortitude. Failure to deal with underperformers is an extremely common problem in corporations, and it’s usually the result of the leader’s emotional blockages. Moreover, without emotional fortitude, you will have a hard time hiring the best people to work for you. Because if you are lucky, these people will be better than you are; they will bring new ideas and energy to your operation. A manager who is emotionally weak will avoid such people out of fear that they will undercut his power. His tendency will be to protect his fragile authority. He will surround himself with people he can count on to be loyal and exclude those who will challenge him with new thinking. Eventually, such emotional weakness will destroy both the leader and the organization. In our years of working and observing in organizations, we have pinpointed four core qualities that make up emotional fortitude: AUTHENTICITY: A psychological term...