The 4 Disciplines of Execution Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals

You've got great  ideas to improve your company…but the people you manage seem hesitant to execute

on them. Why is it so hard to get them to take action?

The problem  is that your people spend so much  energy doing their day-to-day jobs just keeping the operation afloat that they have  little time or mental  energy to execute on anything  new.

So how do you overcome this hurdle in the midst of the whirlwind of competing priorities? Through  four core  disciplines: focus, leverage, engagement, and accountability.

Discipline 1: Focus on Wildly Important Goals

The more we try to do, the less  we actually  accomplish. There  will always  be more good ideas than  your team  has  the capacity to execute.

That's why your first big challenge is to focus only on "wildly important  goals." That way employees easily understand what is truly a top priority.

Discipline 2: Leverage your Lead Measures

Your progress and success are based on two measures: lead and lag.

Consider the goal of losing weight.  Lead measures include calorie intake and hours  of exercise. The lag measure shows the pounds lost. Focusing on the lag measure (what the scale tells you next week) doesn't help you improve.

Concentrate efforts on your lead measures since  they are the key leverage points for achieving your goal.

Discipline 3: Boost Engagement by Having Employees Keep Score

People are more engaged when they are the ones keeping score.

Employee engagement drives results, but results also drive engagement. This is particularly  true when people can see the direct impact their actions have on results.

Discipline 4: Accountability

When employees make  their own commitments rather  than  just taking orders from above - and do so in a highly visible way in front of all their co-workers - personal accountability skyrockets.

This creates a shift from professional to personal responsibility. They're making promises to their team. And most people try very hard not to break  their promises.

By Chris McChesney, Sean Covey &  Jim Huling