Strategy naturally flows down from the top of any organization to the teams and individuals below. Team members receive this strategy and are asked to execute it in a fashion to achieve important outcomes.
Over time, execution processes often become highly defined and prescriptive on purpose. The consistency most organizations desire benefits from a highly repeatable set of execution steps that don’t allow for much improvisation or creativity.
Unfortunately, executing strategy with key processes, tasks, and actions that are highly scripted produces team member engagement that is both mechanical and superficial. Yes, the precise steps and controls put in place to create predictable decisions will produce consistent results. But, over time, this process begins to erode.
Without the freedom to innovate on critical tasks involved with execution, the enthusiasm for the strategy and how to bring it to life becomes stale. Too much execution rigor without flexibility and team members disengage. Too little constraint or scripting and team members operate without the stability to create replicable results.
The best leaders walk this line with aplomb. When it comes to executing strategy, they establish clear standards of quality and then set the guardrails and guidelines that constrain unchecked improvisation. This gives team members the clarity they need to execute the strategy with a high degree of consistency without robbing them of the creativity needed to adapt to specific people and situations.
When team members are given the discretion to execute the strategy within a set of parameters, they make quality decisions that help to produce top performance. Good leaders understand the need to empower others to operate with some independence without giving them the keys to the store. They spend the time to articulate what great execution looks like and to make sure everyone understands the guardrails that keep everyone in the same lane.
In high-performance cultures, the most common decision across the enterprise involves individual choices regarding how to execute the strategy. When team members enjoy the autonomy to improvise how they enact the strategy within a set of guidelines, they execute with passion and enthusiasm and take ownership for outcomes.
Ask yourself how much discretion your team members have to execute the strategy the way they believe any situation demands. Too much leeway and consistent results suffer. Too little flexibility and results suffer.
Great execution across the enterprise requires finding the right balance between constraint and flexibility. Finding a healthy middle ground between these two endpoints is where leadership lives.
