Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

by Larry Bossidy

“We’ve got one stock that investors buy,” I replied. “We need one brand.”

When a company executes well, its people are not victims of mistakes

when a company executes well, its people are not brought to their knees by changes in the business environment.

There aren’t many companies where leaders would produce a new operating plan for a major part of the company in ten days. More often there’d be a lot of talk and off-site conferences but no action. That’s one distinction between companies that execute and those that don’t.

Too many leaders fool themselves into thinking their companies are well run.

As I facilitated meetings at the CEO and division levels, I watched and studied, and I saw that leaders placed too much emphasis on what some call high-level strategy, on intellectualizing and philosophizing, and not enough on implementation. People would agree on a project or initiative, and then nothing would come of it. My own nature is to follow through, so when this happened, I’d pick up the phone, call the person in charge, and ask, “What happened?” In time I saw a pattern and realized that execution was a major issue.

Here is the fundamental problem: people think of execution as the tactical side of business, something leaders delegate while they focus on the perceived “bigger” issues. This idea is completely wrong.

Execution is not just tactics—it is a discipline and a system. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture. And the leader of th...

Many business leaders spend vast amounts of time learning and promulgating the latest management techniques. But their failure to understand and practice execution negates the value of almost all they learn and pre...

Execution is a specific set of behaviors and techniques that companies need to master in order to have competitive advantage.

Leaders in an execution culture design strategies that are more road maps than rigid paths enshrined in fat planning books. That way they can respond quickly when the unexpected happens. Their strategies are designed to be executed.

the leader’s most important job—selecting and appraising people.

meaningful change comes only with execution.

Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.

In its most fundamental sense, execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it.

We would argue that the core of his management legacy is that he forced realism into all of GE’s management processes, making it a model of an execution culture.

The heart of execution lies in the three core processes: the people process, the strategy process, and the operations process.

They don’t debate, and as a result they don’t get much useful outcome.

People leave with no commitments to the action plans they’ve helped create. This is a formula for failure.

You need robust dialogue to surface the realities of the business. You need accountability for results—discussed openly and agreed to by those responsible—to get things done and reward the best performers. Y...

Most important, the leader of the business and his or her leadership team are deeply engaged in all three. They are the owners of the processes—not the strategic planners or the human resources (HR) or finance staffs.

Lots of business leaders like to think that the top dog is exempt from the details of actually running things. It’s a pleasant way to view leadership: you stand on the mountaintop, thinking strategically and attempting to inspire your people with visions, while managers do the grunt work. This idea creates a lot of aspirations for leadership, naturally. Who wouldn’t want to have all the fun and glory while keeping their hands clean? Conversely, who wants to tell people at a cocktail party, “My goal is to be a manager,” in an era when the term has become almost pejorative?

An organization can execute only if the leader’s heart and soul are immersed in the company.

only the leader can make execution happen, through his or her deep personal involvement in the substance and even the details of execution.

The leader must be in charge of getting things done by running the three core processes—picking other leaders, setting the strategic direction, and conducting operations. These actions are the substance of execution, and leaders cannot delegate them regardless of the size of the organization.

How good would a sports team be if the coach spent all his time in his office making deals for new players, while delegating actual coaching to an assistant? A coach is effective because he’s constantly observing players indiv...

Only the leader can set the tone of the dialogue in the organization. Dialogue is the core of culture and the basic unit of work.

Is the dialogue stilted, politicized, fragmented, and butt-covering? Or is it candid and reality-based, raising the right questions, debating them, and finding realistic solutions? If it’s the former—as it is in all too many companies—reality will never come to the surface. If it is to be the latter, the leader has to be on the playing field with his management team, practicing it consistently and forcefully.

Leading for execution is not about micromanaging, or being “hands-on,” or disempowering people. Rather, it’s about active involvement—doing the things leaders should be doing in the first place.

As you read on, you’ll see how leaders who excel at execution immerse themselves in the substance of execution and even some of the key details.

Kelleher of Southwest Airlines were powerful presences in their organizations. Just about everybody knew them, knew what they stood for, and knew what they expected of their people.

Are leaders like Jack, Sam, and Herb good communicators? Again: yes, but. Communication can be mere boilerplate, or it can mean something. What counts is the substance of the communication and the nature of the person doing the communicating—including his or her ability to listen as well as to talk.

Leaders of this ilk are powerful and influential presences because they are their businesses. They are intimately and intensely involved with their people and operations. They connect because they know the realities and talk about them. They’re knowledgeable about the details. They’re excited about what they’re doing. They’re passionate about getting results. This is not “inspiration” through exhortation or speechmaking. These leaders energize everyone by the example they set.

Execution Has to Be in the Culture

It should be clear by now that execution isn’t a program you graft onto your organization. A leader who says, “Okay, now we’re going to execute for a change” is merely launching another fad of the month, with no staying power.

Execution has to be embedded in the reward systems and in the norms

Organizations don’t execute unless the right people, individually and collectively, focus on the right details at the right time.

Leadership without the discipline of execution is incomplete and ineffective. Without the ability to execute, all other attributes of leadership become hollow.

Organizational capability includes having the right people in the right jobs.

Especially when a business is making major changes, the right people have to be in the critical jobs, and the core processes must be strong enough to ensure that resistance is dissolved and plans get executed.

the innovator’s dilemma itself has an execution solution that isn’t generally recognized.

If you’re really executing, and you have the resources, you are listening to tomorrow’s customers as well as today’s and planning for their needs.

‘Here’s your test of leadership; now calm your organization, give them information; strike right at the heart of their worries. I can’t believe that their worry is fact-based. I believe their worry is ignorance-based. And if that’s the case, it’s your fault.’”

The discipline of execution is based on a set of building blocks that every leader must use to design, install, and operate effectively the three core processes rigorously and consistently.

Leaders have to live their businesses. In companies that don’t execute, the leaders are usually out of touch with the day-to-day realities. They’re getting lots of information delivered to them, but it’s filtered—presented by direct reports with their own perceptions, limitations, and agendas, or gathered by staff people with their own perspectives. The leaders aren’t where the action is. They aren’t engaged with the business, so they don’t know their organizations comprehensively, and their people don’t really know them.

good people like to be quizzed, because they know more about the business than the leader.

You’ve got to bring in some other people once in a while to get fresh thoughts, or you’re always basically washing yourself in the same dishwasher. In other words, you’ve listened to all of the ideas of the people in the place, and you miss out on the fresh perspective of newcomers.”

Being present allows you, as a leader, to connect personally with your people, and personal connections help you build your intuitive feel for the business as well as for the people running the business. They also help to personalize the mission you’re asking people to perform.

A business review should take the form of a Socratic dialogue, not an interrogation.

One thing you’ll notice about leaders who execute is that they speak simply and directly. They talk plainly and forthrightly about what’s on their minds. They know how to simplify things so that others can understand them, evaluate them, and act on them, so that what they say becomes common sense.