Título: Execução: A disciplina para atingir resultados

Autores: Ram Charan e Larry Bossidy

Theme: Strategy

For a good execution, there must be accountability, clear goals, and precise methods.
to measure the performance and the right rewards for people who present
good performance. This is the proposal of the book Execution: The discipline to achieve
results, by Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy, by the way, one of the best books I've ever read until now
today.

According to the authors, countless companies are falling short of their potential due to poor
execution. The gap between promises and results is common and clear. The gap that
nobody knows it is that between what the company's leadership wants to achieve and the skill of
organization for such. If you don't know how to execute, the whole of your efforts as a leader will always

will be less than the sum of the parts.

The importance of LEADERSHIP in execution

An organization can only execute if the leader is committed to the company.

body and soul. Think of the following analogy, would a team in any sport be good
if the coach spent all his time in the office negotiating contracts with new ones
players, while delegating the training task to their assistant?

Getting things done through others is a fundamental skill of

leadership. Some suppress or micromanage their subordinates, which is a
great mistake, as it diminishes people's self-confidence, takes away their initiative, and stifles ability
to think for themselves.

Other leaders abandon their people. They truly believe, deep down, that they can delegate:
let people develop on their own, swim or sink, manage themselves
autonomy. They explain the challenge and pass the ball completely to their subordinates. Not
they establish benchmarks and do not track what is being done. So, when things
they do not turn out as expected, they become frustrated.

Both types weaken your organization's skills.

When people, especially those in the highest levels, violate

As one of the basic values of the company, the leader must intervene to publicly sanction these.
violations. Anything less than this is interpreted as a lack of emotional firmness.

The leader should reward not only based on the goals achieved or surpassed, but
also considering the desirable behaviors that the person actually adopts. In addition
thus, it must ensure that those who perform well will have greater rewards than
those who do not meet the goals.

Setting goals based on execution

To properly reward these people who do, you must define accurately.
What is a person who does. This is a central point of the idea of execution. A person who
Doing is someone who makes things happen. To do is to achieve goals.

Very often, wrong goals are set because the leader is not realistic about what is
refers to people's ability to achieve them. After setting the goals, it is necessary to execute them.
that means establishing priorities and benchmarks. It's not enough to say: 'we need to
double our revenue." You need to know which parts of the business will generate how much cash,
how this will be done, who will be responsible, and how to monitor to
certify that everyone is doing what must be done.

It's not enough to set a goal, like a 10% increase. You need to plan where that will come from.
increase? Which products will generate this increase? Who will buy them and what discourse
What sales will you develop for these clients? What will our reaction be?
competitor? What will our milestones be? If a milestone is not achieved by the end of the first
This month, something is not going as planned, and therefore, it needs to be changed.
 When someone fails to reach the goal, it's not enough to just scold them, it is
it is necessary to ask why.

Although ambitious goals can be useful in pushing people to break old

rules and doing things better are terrible if they are completely out of reality or
if the people who need to reach them do not have the chance to discuss them in advance
and being their owners. Adopting realism means always having a realistic point of view of your
company, comparing with others.

Achieving goals the wrong way can sometimes have extreme consequences. One of the many
things that mechanical evaluations lose is how the candidate managed to fulfill the
commitments – if they managed to do this in a way that the organization and the capacity of the

people as a whole or weakened. How leaders fulfill their commitments is,

At least, as important as having achieved them, and, in general, it is more important.
Achieving objectives the wrong way can mean a huge loss for an organization.

Profit is a result, not a goal. If you develop the right strategy and set the
the right goals, in addition to ensuring a good execution to implement the strategy and achieve the
goals - good cash flow, greater market share, increased revenue per customer
this will result in greater profit. If all the elements are right, the profit will be the
natural consequence.

How to create a culture of execution?

First, you change people's behavior so that they produce results.

Second, you clearly tell people what results you want, discussing how.
obtain these results as a key element of the execution process. Third, you
reward people for having produced results.

The company culture is the behavior of its leaders. Leaders achieve the
behavior that they show and tolerate. You change a company's culture by changing the
behavior of your leaders. You measure change by assessing the change in
personal behavior of your leaders and the performance of your business.

People change their beliefs only when new evidence shows clearly
convincing that they are false. If they believe that others do less than they do
they will be rewarded in the same way, this belief will drain their energy.

If a company rewards and promotes people for execution, its culture will change.
Mas o fundamental é que as pessoas agem como pensam porque são voltadas para
results. If you reward based on performance, the interest in performance will be
large enough to encourage dialogue.
Recruitment of people based on execution

As primeiras coisas que procuro em uma pessoa para minha empresa são energia e
enthusiasm for execution. The candidate is excited to make things happen
in comparison to talking about them? He puts energy into everything he does, starting with
seus estudos? Ela detalha os obstáculos que precisou superar? Parece ter habilidade para
convencer e engajar os outros em uma missão? Qual seu histórico de realizações e qual o
degree of difficulty in achieving them?

In a mechanical assessment, it is simple to determine if a candidate meets their

commitments: here are the goals he has to achieve and here are the numbers that show whether he
whether or not it was achieved. But what other circumstances affected your ability to achieve them? They did.

a great job in the face of adversity or put the future of your business at risk to
be successful in the short term?

In a good evaluation, the leader analyzes in detail how people achieved their goals.
Did the people perform consistently well? Which ones are they?
unraveled, entrepreneurial and creative in the face of adversity? Who succeeded?
quick gains and did not seek better results? And who achieved the goals at the expense of morale
of the organization and long-term performance? By achieving the goals, it also
strengthened the organization by assigning tasks that developed the leadership potential of
people, and gave them space for personal growth? Or did he leave behind a
total destruction and a team that doesn't work? You won't find answers to such
questions in a list.

Execution-based meetings

Companies need to put an end to the 'The CEO is Always Right Syndrome', which
it ends up repressing healthy debates and arguments. You can have one of those meetings
in which people nod their heads in agreement just to evade the
agreements a few days later. The leader must ensure that each person will leave with the
correct information and will take responsibility for the task assigned to him.

When people speak openly, they express their true opinions, and not those
that will please the powerful or maintain harmony. In fact, the harmony sought
by many leaders who do not want to offend anyone – can be an enemy of the truth. It can
silencing critical thinking and leading to a non-transparent decision-making.

Never finish a meeting without making it clear what the final product will be, who will do it,
when and how it will be done, what resources will be used, and how and when the next evaluation will be

it will happen and with whom. And never launch an initiative unless you are personally
committed to her and ready to accompany her until she is embedded in the DNA of
organization.

Conclusion

As a leader, you should be approachable, project trust and interest, and share as much as possible.
possible to obtain undistorted and unfiltered information and act decisively. If listening with
be careful about what people are saying and what they are worried about, you might be able to
from time to time – when particularly serious or damaging rumors are being
revealed - stop and say: this is not right. Let me tell you what the true
information.

No worthwhile strategy can be planned without considering skill.

of the organization in carrying it out. Execution is not just making it happen, it's HOW to do it.
happen. It is the main task of the company leader and should be a key element of their
culture. If you do not know how to execute, the sum of your efforts as a leader will always be lesser

than the sum of its parts.

Monitoring is the cornerstone of execution. You need people.

capable of adapting to adverse circumstances, not of people who tend to complain
You have to oppose everything. You need to hold people accountable for the results, raise awareness.
to make things happen, and to reward those who perform better.
You need to monitor the implementation of decisions to ensure that the plans are
on the tracks.

When I see companies that do not execute, the chances are that they do not evaluate the
performance, do not reward accordingly and do not promote people who know how to.
making things happen. Without rewards, people think they are in a
socialist regime. This is the kind of thing you don't want when fighting for a culture of
execution.