5 Execution Mistakes That Challenge Most Leadership Teams

If you want to grow and scale your business quickly, avoid these five execution mistakes that trip up many leadership teams.

Having been an Inc 500 CEO and now a strategy coach to dozens of growth companies, I’ve seen what it takes for successful companies to grow and scale a business quickly and effectively…and many of the ways companies can fail. And while every company is in a unique situation and requires a unique strategy, there are some common core principles.

At the heart of any business is a leadership team. They set strategy, make decisions, evaluate trade-offs, calculate risks, and place bets on how to win in their market. The best teams are critical strategic thinkers, but they are also masters of execution. Putting plans into action and successfully navigating the fog of the day-to-day business is where the hard work is done.

I’ve seen many teams create innovative and brilliant approaches to winning in their market, only to flop on putting their plans in place. Here are five key areas I see teams getting wrong, and how to avoid them in your business.

1. Lacking a clear strategy

Driving your car as fast as you can into a brick wall doesn’t make much sense. Yet I’ve seen many teams driving—spending vast amounts of time, energy, and resources—into a business model that doesn’t make sense and has no clear differentiated position in the market. Without a clear understanding of what customers really want, what the competitive landscape looks like, and where the unique position is that will drive profitable growth, you’re likely going to have to compete on price, which is a bloody and painful war to try and win.

Instead, take the time and effort to really understand your customers and the competitive landscape. Find a set of attributes that will set you apart from the crowd and allow you to charge a premium price. Then, focus your operational processes and talent strategies on becoming excellent in a handful of values that truly differentiate you in the market.

2. Poorly defined roles and responsibilities

I run an exercise with all new timers where I ask them: who owns what? I have them work individually or in small groups, and when we come back to the table, there are always vast differences on what the roles are and who is in charge of what area of the business. Different names, multiple names, no names, and wrong names all reveal the underlying lack of role definition and clarity on ownership. This leads to duplicated efforts, conflicts, and dropped balls.

By carefully designing the senior leadership roles and clearly mapping out areas of responsibility and handoff points between functions, we create an effective map for everyone to follow. Assigning responsibilities to one and only one owner makes accountability much easier to manage and resolve. Everyone knows what they need to focus on and where they can depend on a colleague to execute. And as the business evolves, so can the roles evolve in a clear and comprehensive manner.

3. Unclear metrics and targets

Every game needs a goal and a way of keeping score. Yet most companies haven’t defined their desired success in objective terms and measurements. Most of the time when I ask teams to define success, I get vague statements about being a great place to work, making an impact, or having happy customers. And while these are great things to strive for, without an objective measure of what “great” or “impact” or “happy” really mean, everyone is left guessing and will likely be working toward different goals.

By defining success in clear and specific terms and using key metrics to measure progress, we create a means of evaluating actions and results that anyone on the team can use to guide their efforts. Knowing that freemium conversion rates, on-time delivery percentage, and project gross margins are key areas of focus will make decisions easier and faster to make. A business that has defined and agreed on its key metrics will have few arguments on which strategies and actions are working, which are not, and where to invest in the future.

4. No meeting rhythms

It’s great to set goals and make plans, but if you put them on the shelf only to look at them at the end of the quarter, you’ll never make any progress. Many teams I’ve met with do a great job of setting objectives, but they fail to put in the weekly reps to do the actual work and measure progress.

Running a high-growth company means there are always a thousand things to do and never enough time to get everything done. But if you want to be strategic, you must set aside time to meet and do the actual work. The best teams have a set schedule for meetings and dedicated time to work on strategy. It’s in their calendars, they have a clear and effective agenda, and they show up on time and prepared. Execution is about discipline and being proactive, not reactive.

5. Lack of leadership accountability

Many times when I work with companies, I have to increase the level of conflict on the leadership team. In an effort to be nice and be a good team player, teams shy away from disagreements and different opinions. The problem is that they’ve created a situation that lacks true buy-in and commitment which will then make it impossible to create a culture of accountability. Trying to be nice leads to nobody being held to task.

High-performance teams are engaged in lots of constructive conflicts. This doesn’t mean they fight; rather, they are willing to express different opinions, are critical of strategies and plans, and are willing to challenge each other to get to better ideas that are highly resolved. By really voicing their minds, it means they can truly embrace the conclusion and plans. This drives commitment and accountability. Without this rigorous debate, you’ll never get to higher levels of performance.

While mastering these five areas will not guarantee flawless execution, failing to master them will make it very likely you won’t. In the end, teams need to have both a clear strategic plan AND the ability to put it into action effectively.

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