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Chapter One
The Gap
“Leaders; they often fall victim to the gap between promises and results.”
_______________________________
Have you fooled yourself the way many leaders have by thinking that their companies are
being led better than they really are? They are in the dark the same way some of us are with our
families. We tend to “see no evil and hear no evil, so there is no evil.” Well, a lot of times there are
things going on that we are unaware of because we’re not engaged. If you are a parent and your
children are in sports, it’s easy to think they are better than they really are, right? I mean, every once
in a while a parent may get it right, but it’s easy to think your kids in late elementary school are
going to become Division I players. We believe in them and yet we see that there’s a great difference
between their level of athleticism and what would be required for that level of playing.
Sometimes we have that problem as leaders. We think what we’re leading is going better
than it really is, and I believe the fundamental problem is execution. We falter in this area many
times, thinking that execution is the tactical side of business and it’s something that we delegate to
other people while we focus on bigger and better things. But that idea is completely wrong.
Execution is not just tactics, it’s a discipline and a system and it needs to be built into the company’s
strategies, goals, and culture. Leaders of an organization, a department, or a team need to be deeply
engaged in what’s going on. They can delegate a lot of different things, but if something’s not going
right in a department or a company or a family, who is accountable? The leader.
Leaders can blame many other people and situations, but in reality, leaders are called to
bring about results and have to be able to deliver in order to get results. They often fall victim to the
gap between promises and results. They begin to assume there’s a problem with accountability.
People aren’t doing the things that they’re supposed to do and the leaders are not able to
implement their strategies or plans. They desperately want to make changes but don’t know what to
change because they think what’s wrong is the strategy or the plan. I am suggesting that the issue is
execution.
Chapter Two
Hard Truth
“I would rather have a poor strategy with great execution than a great
strategy with poor execution.”
_______________________________
Our tendency when something doesn’t go right is to think the plan was bad, right? We think
the plan could’ve been better or the strategy could have been more thorough, but I want you to see
that often the mistake lies in improper execution. Recently Nick Saban was interviewed as he came
off the football field. Somebody shoved a microphone in his hand and suggested that he should be
calling better plays. He retorted, “Look, it really doesn’t matter what play I call. If we will just
execute it, we will be okay.” He was really saying, “You know what, you can say I need to be a better
play caller, but the fact is we’d make progress with whatever plays are being called if the players
would just execute them.”
I agree with his view on the importance of execution, and I would rather have a poor
strategy with great execution than a great strategy with poor execution. Execution is basically a set
of specific behaviors and techniques that leaders in every area need to master so that their
organization has a competitive edge, and in this world, a competitive edge is important. Almost
everybody has a decent product, right? I mean, you can only take a product so far and then what
matters is how well you can deliver that product and execute the promises that you have made to
your customers. Can you do it on time? Can you do it the right way? That is execution. It basically
separates people who have lofty ideas and lofty goals from people who wind up winning the game.
When leaders execute, they don’t have to come up with excuses. They can just say, “Hey,
you know what? We executed it, we did it, and we finished.” The number one reason why leaders
fail is lack of execution. Seventy percent of strategic failures are due to poor execution. When a
company fails to deliver on its promises, the most frequent explanation is a faulty plan or strategy
and yet the failure resulted because things did not happen that were supposed to happen. The gap
between what you promise and what you deliver is critical to your success. You can promise a blue
sky, but if you can’t deliver it, you’re not going to have sustainable success in your business.
Let’s look at some more statistics that demonstrate how important this is. I found the
answers to this poll unbelievable. It asked, “Do people know what to do at your workplace?” The
result was that 44 percent of all employees said they did not know their company’s highest
priorities. Wow! Then they asked this question: “Do you want to do it?” Only 19 percent felt a strong
sense of commitment to their company’s goals. What does that say? Even when employees do know
the top priorities or goals of a company, only one in five are really committed to following through
and making them happen; only one in five are committed to executing those priorities. Then they
asked the question “Do you know how to do it?” Nine percent believed that their work had a strong
link to the organization’s goals, meaning a mere one out of ten believed that what they were doing
on a daily basis really contributed to the success of the company.
If I don’t think that my daily work is really making a difference and contributing to the
success of my company, I’m not going to be thorough or be excited about doing things right. I’m just
a little guy in a little cubicle whom nobody knows or really cares about. So it doesn’t really matter if I
get my work done on time, either. Then the study revealed something about discipline: people
spend less than half of their time—49 percent—on activities linked to their organization’s top
priorities. Your place of work may be exceptional, but statistically the average employee wastes 2.9
hours of their eight-‐hour workday. If you have a company that has a hundred people, and let’s say
the average salary is forty thousand dollars, that’s one million dollars a year that’s going down the
toilet. That company is losing a million dollars because its employees are really only working about
five hours a day.
Furthermore, the poll revealed that only 31 percent of employees feel they can express
themselves honestly and candidly at work and feel free to say, “This is how I feel, this is what I see,
this is what I know,” without shocking their leaders. So you can see that the work environments
represented in the study are having a hard time executing because their teams are not on the same
page. Nine chances out of ten, these companies are struggling big time, and it may not be because
they have bad products. They may have great products, but if they’re not executing, they have a
huge problem. Let me break down execution into three important aspects.
Chapter Three
Discipline, Leadership, Essential
“Sometimes, the things that you and I don’t like to do we try to make excuses
for.”
_______________________________
First, execution is a discipline. We have to understand that it’s more a discipline then it is a
skill. Let me explain it to you this way. Ladies, if your husband says that he does not have the skill of
picking up after himself, you are going to be ok with that, right? And you are going to say, “Honey, I
understand that some people have the skill of picking up after themselves and some people don’t
have the skill.” No, you are going to come back and say, “Honey, it‘s not an issue of skill; it’s an issue
of ‘want to’ and of discipline.” Sometimes the things that you and I don’t like to do we try to make
excuses for. “Well, I am not gifted at that.” Maybe you don’t feel you are gifted at mercy, but that
does not mean you can treat other people rudely. As leaders, sometimes we might say, “Well, I don’t
have the skill of execution,” as if it somehow gets you off the hook. I would say to you that execution
is more about a discipline and a “want to” than it is about a skill, and no worthwhile strategy can be
planned out without taking into account the ability to execute it. Execution is a systematic way of
exposing reality and acting on it.
Second, execution is a leadership thing. Many business leaders like to think that those who
are leading the department or organization are exempt from the details of actually running things
and just get to stand on the mountaintop. Leaders just get to think strategically and inspire people
with visions while other people do all the grunt work. Wrong. An organization can execute only if the
leader’s heart and soul is immersed in the company. He or she has to know the pulse of the
company or department. Leading for execution is not about micromanaging or inhibiting people; it is
about being engaged and knowing what is going on with the team that’s being led.
I lead at a church that has four different sites, and one of my big things is sitting down with
every employee for fifteen minutes. We have about fifty-‐two to fifty-‐five employees, so you may say,
do you really have that much time to give? But I have to do it, because when I am talking to them, I
have a piece of paper and a pen in my hand and it is amazing what I hear. I hear things from their
perspectives—some of it may be true and some of it may just be a perspective, but I am seeing it
through their eyes. Now, I don’t do that on a regular basis, maybe every year or eighteen months,
but I want to be able to touch base with everybody in the company and find out what’s going on.
Execution is leadership, and I have to know, hear, and be able to find that pulse.
Before we look at the third part of execution, let me say that leaders can ensure execution in
three ways. One is by choosing the people who can come alongside and help execute the strategy.
Of particular importance to me are the campus pastors I choose. Leaders have to make sure that
they have the right people in the right seats to be able to make the vision happen. A football coach
chooses the quarterback, running back, linebacker, and other players because he is saying, “These
are the people who I think can help us execute our strategy and plan.”
Leaders also get to choose the direction. Yes, they should get input from other people, but
that should help them be able to set the direction that is in the best interest of the whole company.
For example, I am blessed to have four kids. We make some decisions as a family, but when my wife
and I ask for input from our kids, we aren’t giving them the power to make the call. I want them to
know that I value their input and perspectives, but as kids, they’re probably going to make decisions
in their own favor. They are probably not going to look at issues from the perspective of the whole
family. I want to take their individual perspectives into account, but because of my position, I am
going to set the direction. I believe that is the way it is in most companies; that is why the leader is in
that position. He or she can choose the leaders and set the direction.
Leaders also get to conduct the operations. They determine how the company is going to do
things, and they make sure that people are hitting their marks and doing what is needed to be able
to ensure that the strategy is going to be executed. We as people have a tendency to drift and lose
focus. That is why 49 percent of people do not focus their work on their company’s top priorities.
We have a tendency to drift into activity instead of progress and that is why we don’t execute. I can
say I had a very busy day, but that doesn’t mean that I made a lot of progress. So leaders need to
conduct the operation and ensure that everyone is making progress and getting done what was
agreed upon.
To finish off my three original points, execution is essential. It is a discipline, it is a
leadership issue, and it is absolutely essential. As I said before, give me great execution for an
average plan over a great plan and average execution. So how do we go about achieving execution in
our places of leadership? I think there are six things that we need to embrace.
Chapter Four
Six Pillars
“Most of us do not have a hard time staying busy or active at work; the real
issue is whether we are working on things that are the most important and
will move the company down the field.”
_______________________________
First, leaders need to have clarity if they are going to be able to fully take advantage of this
discipline called execution. They must communicate with clarity and understand if staff or team
members do not know what the organization’s priorities are or if goals are not present. Clarity
enables leaders to set the whole team up for success. They know what the company is all about and
what the most crucial accomplishments are in order to avoid failure. That is why it is essential that
leaders have clear priorities and ask themselves, do the people I lead know the few critical objectives
that we are after? Do they know what we are really moving toward? Do they understand the goals
and what is most important so they don’t just do a lot of good things? An employee can water the
plants, but that is not the most important thing in a job. Most of us do not have a hard time staying
busy or active at work; the real issue is whether we are working on things that are the most
important and will move the company down the field.
Sometimes leaders have to repeat themselves over and over again to bring clarity to the
team. In a meeting recently, I got up from the table, grabbed a dry-‐erase marker, and went to the
whiteboard. My team started snickering, saying, “I know what he’s going to draw.” I stopped and
responded, “You guys don’t know how much that thrills me! It means maybe you have been getting
what I’m trying to say.” When somebody mimics you, it means you as a leader have been clear. So
clarity is first and foremost and is an absolute for execution to happen.
Number two is commitment. Why does execution fail? It fails when people don’t buy into
the company’s goals. It is one thing to understand what is important, but it is another thing to be
committed to following through. Execution is at risk if the team does not feel committed. Ask
yourself this question: how many workers are energized by and committed to the goals that we
have? Bring them in and say, “We are going to have collaboration on our goals. If this is what we are
saying we want to provide for the customer, then what goals should we have to ensure that comes
about?” If the leader simply assigns all the goals, the team is not going to be committed or energized
by that. There must be strong collaboration. Each employee needs to know how he or she aligns
with the vision and actually contributes to the goals of the company.
Look at this principle from where I lead. I am not committed to getting more people to come
to church because I am a person of faith. Church does not change people’s lives. My goal is to
introduce people to Jesus Christ. A pastor can have a great big church and still be missing the mark.
Or a leader can have a great big company and still be missing the mark. The key is ensuring that the
whole team understands what the organization’s goal is, has helped identify the plans so that they
are energized by them, and says, “Hey, I buy into this. I am drinking your Kool-‐Aid.” Then you are
moving forward.
The third thing that’s critical for execution is communication. If team members do not know
what they individually need to do to help the organization reach its goals, execution fails. Leaders
must be able to help people understand that what they do on a daily basis is helping the
organization reach its goals. I met with our secretary recently. She has been on our team longer than
anybody else and yet she has never been on a platform or taught a lesson. You could say not many
people know her. She just works in a cubicle and proofreads all of our stuff. I communicated to her
that what she does on a daily basis helps us reach our goal and helps us to execute. As she checks all
the spelling and the grammar, she’s making a difference because when people read our stuff, they
don’t say, “Oh, that’s misspelled,” or “Oh, that’s bad.” Though she may not be out in front, I
communicated to her that what she does on a daily basis, when she’s sitting at that computer going
over all of that material, is really, really, really important. Some of the staff are like me and don’t
spell or use grammar very well. So I told her, “You make me look better than I really am!”
If you’re going to execute, you not only need to bring clarification to everything and get your
team to buy into commitment, but you have to communicate and help people understand that what
they are doing is making a huge impact. I tell my team, “I know people see my face and hear my
voice, but if it were not for what you are doing today, we would not be able to execute everything
that we’re doing.”
Number four is empowerment. Execution fails when people are not given the proper
structure or freedom to do their job well. So you have to empower your team and give them the
ability to succeed. Once you choose leaders who will help you execute the strategy and the plan that
you have, you must equip, educate, and then empower them to be able to do what you’re asking
them to do. As leaders, we need to remove obstacles to make it as easy as possible for our team to
execute, because it takes a lot of energy to follow through with a plan. That’s so often why we don’t
do it! That’s why execution is leadership. Leadership removes all the barriers within one’s power to
give the team a clear path and the resources that they need to be able to execute.
The fifth critical thing to embrace is synergy. Execution fails when team members do not get
along or work well together. In some workplaces team members compete with each other rather
than believe the best about each other. If there’s no synergy, the team is not moving in the same
direction. Maybe this is because the leader hasn’t been clear about the goals or hasn’t
communicated that everybody’s role is important. Synergy happens when clarity creates clear lines
of expectations and roles. When employees know what to do and why they are doing it—to move
the company toward the desired outcome—the company experiences success. A critical factor for
creating synergy is trust, and if you don’t have trust at your workplace, I can promise that you don’t
have synergy. Instead, you have people who are not looking out for one another and do not want to
help or serve one another. But when you have trust, anything’s possible. You can overcome almost
anything that’s thrown at you, even a bad strategy plan.
Ask yourself a couple of questions. Do my team members work well together? Do they work
well with other teams or are they “silos,” standing alone and not interacting? Are they willing to
clear the path for each other? Can they speak candidly to one another? That is a big deal in a
workplace. You can get places faster if you’ve created a culture of candor where people can say
what they want to say in a respectful way and in the right setting and know they will be heard.
I had somebody on our team who had been working here for about a year before he came
into the office and asked if he could talk to me for a few minutes. I could tell he was really nervous,
and he began by saying he wanted to find out if what I said was true—if the people on my team
really could come to my office and tell me anything that’s on their hearts that they don’t agree with
or don’t like. I agreed that it was true, and he admitted he had finally mustered the courage to come
to me. He said, “I never could have done this at the last place I worked. I’ve wanted to have this
conversation with you for almost a year and have been afraid.” And so he shared the issue with me,
and we talked and I affirmed him and acknowledged, “Hey, I hear you on that. That’s not the way I
intended it to come out or be heard. Please forgive me and tell me how I can make it right.” What do
you think happened to his level of trust with me? It went up, but it also spread—we never keep good
things to ourselves, do we? He went back to all of his buddies and said, “I had a talk to Mr. White,
and I’m still living, and he worked through the issue with me!” When word spreads, that’s synergy.
The final important thing to embrace is accountability. If team members do not hold each
other accountable, execution fails. Teams have to be able to report results to one another and hold
each other accountable, and leaders have to create a culture and standard for this. They must foster
an environment where their team members can say, “You know what, I don’t know if that’s really
your best effort. That’s not what we agreed upon, and we need something else from you in this
area.” As humans, we default to pinning responsibility on the leader, right? But I’m telling you that
the whole group has to have commitment to one another to be able to say, “We’re going to hold
each other accountable because we’re a team. We’re not just going to look to the coach for that.” If
you don’t do that, you’ll never be a champion team. But be aware that accountability must come
with consequences. If an employee doesn’t execute and doesn’t reach a goal, then there are
penalties to pay. Consequences must be present or else accountability is not valid.
I hope you have a better understanding of the importance of execution and the six critical
things leaders must embrace in order to achieve execution in their areas of influence. I challenge you
to ask yourself, “Which one of these do I need to begin to focus on more?” Execution is absolutely
essential and can bring your organization success.
