The 3 C’s of Execution

Removing Roadblocks to Follow-Through

Having just written about the 3 C’s of Strategy, I guess I have C’s on the brain. Even scarier is that two of the C’s of Strategy are the same as two of the C’s of Execution!Execution: Results, not Excuses

Whether you’re a boss, coach, or head of a household, you’ve undoubtedly struggled with someone with a task that just stays on the to-do list forever. Maybe it’s even you who can’t get it in gear!

Let’s look at three potential causes of that execution logjam. Continue reading The 3 C’s of Execution

Affirmative Accountability

Giving Success the Attention It Deserves

It’s a well-established fact that accountability greatly increases the likelihood of success.  Yet most of us cringe at the idea of being held accountable.  Why is it so hard to set aside our egos and welcome something that we know would help us succeed?

Rather than dive deep into the psychology of our resistance, I want to propose just one idea that might lower the barrier to accountability we find in our followers. Continue reading Affirmative Accountability

Minimalist Project Management

Doing Small Projects Well

Landing a man on the moon or building a skyscraper are incredibly complex projects requiring advanced project management (PM) skills.  Highly skilled project managers pull off seemingly miraculous feats of coordination and puzzle-1019766_640collaboration. You may not need that caliber of PM skills, but even small organizations still need to rally multiple resources to launch products, plan events, create marketing materials, build business plans, and solve other problems. Continue reading Minimalist Project Management

That’s Not What I Wanted…

Getting the Results You’re Looking For

I spent the early part of my career as a software developer. The nice thing about software is that it is highly predictable. Barring hardware problems, software does exactly what the developer tells it to do. Even bugs aren’t the software’s fault – it’s just doing code-944504_640exactly what some developer (either of the application, the compiler, or underlying operating system) told it to do. Not necessarily what the developer wanted, but what it was told to do. The developer’s job is to provide thorough and accurate instructions so the software behaves correctly.

If only human interactions were that straight-forward.
Continue reading That’s Not What I Wanted…