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Execution Revolution is now #1 on the Wall Street Journal’s Business Best Sellers Book List.

It is also #1 on Amazon’s Business Best Sellers List.

I have a few copies for those of you who want one…just send me an email.

Today we will be discussing the quarterly ratings process. Reviewing employee’s accomplishments is an important part of maintaining alignment and accountability - unfortunately though - so many managers and leaders struggle to keep up with this. We will share with you how to simplify this process.

The Goals of today’s cast is to share with you:

• The steps that need to be taken to complete a quarterly review
• The review agenda
• The role of the team member and team leader
• Why this is an important part of leadership and coaching
• How to keep it simple
• How to increase learning on each team members professional development needs
• The value of this process
• What can leaders do today to begin this process

 

 Quarterly Ratings [9:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today we will be discussing the weekly status report. Status reports are a the most important activity in driving execution so if you do only one thing - this is it!

The Goals of today’s cast are to share with you:

• The goals of a weekly status report
• Why they should be held weekly
• How the meetings should be organized
• How to incorporate coaching in these sessions to drive individual leadership and accountability
• Why these should be the first thing you put on your weekly calendar

Enjoy!

To download the Weekly Status Reports Template - click here

 

 Status Reports [9:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this cast we discuss estimating the time it takes to complete your deliverables. From our previous casts on this subject, we outlined the importance of determining deliverables for your team - now we are going to look at how and why you should take the next step - and that is estimating and tracking deliverable time.

The Goals of today’s cast are to share with you:

• The importance on estimating deliverable time
• The importance of measuring deliverable time
• How this process can greatly impact your ability to execute
• Steps that you can take today to start estimating and tracking your deliverable time
• Making sure that the priority of deliverables are clear

 

 Estimating Time [6:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In my last post, I shared suggestions on how to create a target client profile. Now that you have a draft it is time to share it with you management team as well as others within your company. The purpose of this step is to get feedback to make sure that what you think makes a great client is inline with their view.

Your managers should now take what you have put together and run it by their team to gather feedback. One of the mistakes that I see leaders make is coming to the incorrect conclusion that their view of the world is entirely correct. The best source of insight into clients are those that connect with them on an every day basis.

It wouldn’t hurt to run a couple of brainstorming sessions with the internal teams who are interact with your clients everyday. You can ask them the same questions I posed in my last post to see if they answer similarly.

Once you have consensus on the important components of a great client it is time to finalize this part of the plan. In the next post, I will share with you an example target client profile for you to use.

Today we will be discussing the importance of documenting dependencies to help increase execution.

The Goals of today’s cast are to share with you:

• An explanation of just exactly what dependencies are
• Why identifying them is so important
• The impact they can play on goal obtainment
• The impact they have on the entire business
• How to start measuring your dependencies execution
• The steps you can take today to incorporate the identification and measurement of dependencies in your business

 

 Dependencies [5:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Think Fast. Visualize your very best client. Got em?

Now jot down some specific things that make them the best or answer these questions:

• What is their annual revenue?
• What industry are they in?
• Why are they so good? (is it because they pay on time, buy all of your services, understand your shortfalls, bring you to the table when making big decisions, etc.) Write as many of these down as you can
• What is that client’s demographics/psychographics makes them so attractive?
• Where are they located?
• How many employees do they have?

Once you feel like you have a good working description save it. Come back a few days later and make sure that it still seems correct.

Next you will want to share it with your management team. We will talk about that next.

In my last post, I shared some examples of companies that established a strategy that was so clear, it could be recognized by sharing just two simple themes.

Now it is your turn. To create your first theme - write down the industry in which you compete. Think carefully about this to ensure that you accurately capture it. For example, if you a marketing company that designs web sites, handles SEO programs, designs logo’s, etc. - you could say that you are in the marketing services industry or the web advertising industry or the design industry. Whatever it is that you decide, make sure that the term/terms that you use describe the entire industry that you serve.

Next write down some words that describe how you are different than all of your competitors. Be very specific. If you provide superior quality - try to answer “how” you do that. If you are innovative - how do you innovate - through design, technology, products…again the more specific the better.

Finally put the two together - it should look like this:

Inexpensive Retailer - the industry is retail, their difference is that they are inexpensive and the company would be? Wal-Mart

Designed Technology - the industry is technology, the difference is design - the company, Apple

I made up these two examples so they may not be dead-on…let’s here what you put together, send me your comments…

“Online Auctions”, “Fast Oil-Changes”, “Low-Fare Airline”

Now name the companies that these phrases describe.

Ebay

Jiffy-Lube

Southwest Airlines

As an organization, if you can simplify your company’s strategy (or difference) into two words or two themes just think how powerful that is to help you make decisions.

Herb Kelleher the former CEO of Southwest Airlines once was asked about how he ran the company so well. The abbreviated version is - “It’s simple, we are THE low-fare airline - after that all decisions are easy.” For the extended version, check out this excerpt from the well written book Made to Stick.

In part 3, we will build your two-themed Strategic Position

In a few months, Execution Revolution, will hit the shelves. This is the new book from Gary Harpst, founder of Six Disciplines (disclosure - for those of you who don’t know, I am the President of Six Disciplines Tampa - we help companies hit their goals more consistently).

The early buzz is that this book will be a hit. Ads are already up in the print editions of Fast Company, Inc. Magazine. There maybe more that I haven’t seen yet too.

We will be giving our readers the chance to win the book on our site, but if you want to get a preview, here is where you can learn more about it on Amazon.com.

Please share a comment on this post or send me an email and I will try to hook you up when we get them.