Tale of a Turnaround, Part 5: “Discovering Execution”
The most Foundational Capability any organization can have is to know how to Plan and Execute while overcoming the daily whirlwind that always seems to get in the way. In far too many organizations managers abdicate their responsibility to manage their employees and hold them accountable for performance. They are concerned they will be perceived as a “micromanager” for challenging an employee on specific action items they agreed to accomplish. However, this is not micromanagement but active involvement which managers should be doing in the first place.
Our Client was no different and the owners were too busy working “in” the business instead of “on” the business. We initially introduced weekly Team Meetings to review the month-to-date KPIs and get everyone on the same page. The next step was to create the Business Foundation by clarifying their Vision for the business and developing a 3-year Strategic Plan with clear milestones.
Many businesses and their advisors stop at this point with a thick binder that ends up sitting on the shelf collecting dust. However, everything we do is through the Lens of Execution so we helped cascade the Company Initiatives down through the levels of the organization to develop individual goals and “Performance Agreements” with each employee. In addition to setting clear Metrics and Tasks for each Goal in the Performance Agreement, the employee and manager schedule monthly Progress Meetings to follow up on the employee’s performance.
Through this process, the owners became better managers and clearer with their requests of employees which generated more success and growth.
