Execution Quotes

“But if you have to choose between someone with a staggering IQ and an elite education who’s gliding along, and someone with a lower IQ but who is absolutely determined to succeed, you’ll always do better with the second person.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“The hardware of a computer is useless without the right software. Similarly, in an organization the hardware (strategy and structure) is inert without the software (beliefs and behaviors).”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“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.”
― Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“The behavior of a business’s leaders is, ultimately, the behavior of the organization. As such, it’s the foundation of the culture.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“The foundation of changing behavior is linking rewards to performance and making the linkages transparent.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Organizations don’t execute unless the right people, individually and collectively, focus on the right details at the right time.”
― Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“We don’t think ourselves into a new way of acting, we act ourselves into a new way of thinking.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Execution requires a comprehensive understanding of a business, its people, and its environment.”
― Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“If you can’t describe your strategy in twenty minutes, simply and in plain language, you haven’t got a plan.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Stronger, faster companies can detect and pounce on opportunities, for instance, to take advantage of the downturn by snapping up assets at bargain prices and snatching market share out from under their competitors.”
― Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“You must be in charge from the start of each cycle, to the reviews, and to the follow-up steps you take to make sure the things that are supposed to happen do, in fact, happen. This is how you acquire both the knowledge and the authority to run the business as an integrated, reality-based whole. It is how you ultimately assure that all three processes are linked.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“While understanding reality is crucial, equally important is communicating it to your people. In part that means, as noted earlier, knowing your people and listening to their concerns.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing hows and whats, questioning, tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability.”
― Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“plan scattered”
― Ram Charan, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Las estrategias fracasan más frecuentemente debido a que no son bien ejecutadas. Las cosas que se supone que deben ocurrir no ocurren.”
― Larry Bossidy, El arte de la ejecución en los negocios

“One way to ensure that you have the right people in the right jobs in this rapidly shifting environment is by writing job descriptions for the kind of people you need in each job as it will exist tomorrow, then match those descriptions against the talents and abilities of the peole holding those jobs today. If you don’t have the right leaders for the environment, then it is incumbent to move quickly and make the necessary changes. You must also begin now to cultivate the leaders of the future, testing and evaluating people for their ability to execute in the face of new challenges and circumstances.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Execution not only ensures efficient use of resources in a credit and cash-starved world, but also provides the feedback loop needed for the business to adjust to changes—big or small—in the external world.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Competition for the best leaders will be intense. One way to ensure that you have the right people in the right jobs in this rapidly shifting environment is by writing job descriptions for the kind of people you need in each job as it will exist tomorrow, then match those descriptions against the talents and abilities of the peole holding those jobs today.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“The general environment is the same for every player. What differentiates the successful ones are their insights, perceptions, and abilities to detect patterns of change and relate them to their landscape, industries, competition, and business.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“The Duke team identified four basic groups of competencies: functional skills, business skills, management skills, and leadership skills.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“If you have leaders with the right behavior, a culture that rewards execution, and a consistent system for getting the right people in the right jobs, the foundation is in place for operating and managing each of the core processes effectively.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“That person is primarily operational and doesn’t seem to have the strategic perspective.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Sometimes there’s no way around it—you have to let people go. But again you do it as constructively as you can.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“performing at the level that is essential for the company’s success.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“is responsive, not proactive. Give him candid feedback. He doesn’t show the passion for the role we need.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“is more process- than results-oriented. We haven’t seen the ability to pull through results. He is more knowledgeable than others but doesn’t perform. His people standards are not high enough, and he isn’t demanding. His leadership skills are underdeveloped. Make sure he gets some help.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Follow-through is the cornerstone of execution, and every leader who’s good at executing follows through religiously. Following through ensures that people are doing the things they committed to do, according to the agreed timetable.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“How many meetings have you attended where everyone seemed to agree at the end about what actions would be taken but nothing much actually happened as a result? These are the meetings where there’s no robust debate and therefore nobody states their misgivings. Instead, they simply let the project they didn’t like die a quiet death over time.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“Salary increases in terms of percentage are too close between the top performers and those who are not. There’s not enough differentiation in bonus, or in stock options, or in stock grants. Leaders need the confidence to explain to a direct report why he got a lower than expected reward. A good leader ensures that the organization makes these distinctions and that they become a way of life, down throughout the organization. Otherwise people think they’re involved in socialism. That isn’t what you want when you strive for a culture of execution. You have to make it clear to everybody that rewards and respect are based on performance. In chapter 4, we’ll explain why so many companies don’t reward the doers, and how those that execute do.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

“There are seven essential behaviors that form the first building block of execution: Know your people and your business. Insist on realism. Set clear goals and priorities. Follow through. Reward the doers. Expand people’s capabilities. Know yourself.”
― Larry Bossidy, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done