In his new book, Louder than Words, 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps that Drive Results (2010, BLKB Publishing), Bob Kelleher helps leaders identify why employee engagement is a pressing issue for their companies and backs it up with interesting case studies and compelling statistics that show the link between high performance and engaged employees. 

 

One of the critical issues that leaders face is not necessarily creating a strategy, but actually executing it throughout the ranks of the organization.

 

Think of execution as a set of linked activities that carry out the critical changes and development efforts that you have worked so hard to create.  Since leaders are trained more in planning than they are in execution, they tend to be more comfortable with strategy creation than implementation. Let's take a moment to look at the next step - turning planning into doing.

 

The most successful strategic outcomes are best achieved when the "rank and file" is also part of the planning and formulation process. We have all read about how critical "buy-in" is, and that adage still rings true. The greater the overlap between the doers and the planners, the more success you will have.

 

What else can you do to ensure success? Managers must take execution into account while they are formulating plans. In other words, execution is not an afterthought. All execution decisions cannot be taken at once. However, the formulation and execution overlap is critical to carrying out your plans.

 

In addition to being played out over longer periods of time, strategy implementation always involves more people than strategy formulation. That presents additional problems. Communication down the organization or across functions becomes a challenge. So what can you do to make the execution process as smooth and successful as possible?

 

1. Develop a logical model that works for your company.

 

2. Keep the overlap between strategy and execution at the forefront at every stage.

 

3. Foster information sharing, coordination and clear accountability.

 

4. Develop a culture that supports a robust execution process.

 

Is your career on the right path? Are you strategizing for your professional future, or are you simply on auto pilot? Many people never truly know if their career is headed in the right direction, they simply follow the path of least resistance. Now is a great time to set a career strategy into motion.

 

Of course, change is inevitable, and no matter what goals you strive for, development is at the core of any change. Many people seem to have stagnated, and are on an irreversible career path, based on response to past circumstances and experiences. Is that you?

 

Give your career the boost it deserves by putting the past where it belongs–in the past. It may be useful for learning purposes; think of it as providing you with the core knowledge necessary for creating a better future.

 

Next, determine which parts of your professional past provided significant learning. Sift through your bank of experiences and decide how you can maximize what worked and ignore or eliminate what did not.

 

 

It seems that no workplace is completely immune to the ill effects of gossip.  Our situation this time is no different.  Christine has not ever gotten along with her boss, and feels confident that she is smarter and more competent than him.  When given the chance to work off-site at an industry conference, she was excited to get the ear of her boss's immediate superior. 

 

Taking charge of this opportunity, she gave him a complete description of all that had gone wrong due to her boss's actions, starting with the facts, and injecting her outrage as she continued.  You are the superior in whom she confided.