The keys to any successful organization are: The quality of its leadership and its ability to effectively devise

and execute a plan. The long-term health of your organization will be driven by the strength of its leadershipnot just at the top, but also in every division or

to put the following techniques in consideration

1. Set a compelling destination for your organization. 2. Develop a clear and focused strategy. 3. Set measurable objectives for getting there. 4. Develop a thorough plan to execute your strategy. 5. Communicate your strategy for reaching your destination. 6. Execute details and review your progress. 7. Build and utilize effective control and information reporting systems. 8. Actively develop the organization and

 You are a leader. Lead by creating an exciting picture of a successful future for your organization and your people. People without a clear sense of where they are supposed to go will be unproductive or underproductive, wasting the organizations time and money.

1- Set A Compelling Destination For Your Organization

 Leadership Insight
People want to work toward or invest in ideas that are exciting and that they can visualize. Paint a compelling picture of what that success will look and feel like to your people. One approach to developing an overall organizational destination is to visualize and define how you want each of your organizations key constituencies to view you in the future. Be imaginative, bold, and aggressive in setting a destination for your organization. A modest view of your future brings modest

Are others involved in development of destination statement?

The buy-in, or personal involvement, of others from the start is important. High performers want ownership of where they are going. Think about how you want to create involvement and buy-in. The process can be as simple as holding meetings with your leadership team and a diverse cross-section of people from your organization where you lay out your preliminary thoughts about the direction you think the organization should go. Encourage smaller breakout meetings where people can hatch ideas, offer suggestions or objections, and generally improve or expand the initial thinking.

Set aggressive, yet achievable targets for your business; it will help maximize long-term results.

If leaders arent bold in setting a destination, no one else will be!

DEVELOP A CLEAR AND FOCUSED STRATEGY Good strategy provides focused corridors for action. Once your destination is set, developing a strategy to reach it is critical. Strategy development means deciding the best way to move your organization towards its destination. You and your team members must review, understand, and take into account your organizations strengths, weaknesses, and the environment in which it operates. Then, consider and develop a range of approaches to move you towards your destination. Finally, select the approach that will most likely maximize the results you seek with an acceptable level of the tough choices about which options to Are you making risk for your organization. pursue? Good strategy involves making important choices about how toand how not toreach your destination. Focus your resources on your strategic choices. Ignore ideas or actions that are outside your strategy. Develop a clear strategy that will galvanize people and require them to focus on the right actions for success.

3- SET MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES FOR GETTING THERE Measurable objectives are a quantifiable means of determining and measuring progress. They will tell you if you are moving towards your destination at the right pace. These objectives might be set in terms of market share, revenue growth, financial results, profitability, customer satisfaction, or any other meaningful checkpoints that measure your organizations progressor lack thereof. Quantifying a goal forces clarity in discussions about what is possible and what is required to achieve it. Are you setting objectives that will appropriately push your organization? standards count most when objectives are set. If you As a leader, your believe that your organization is best served by aggressive or stretch objectives, then aim high! It may be better to reach only 80 percent of an aggressive objective than to outperform a conservative one.

4- DEVELOP A THOROUGH PLAN TO EXECUTE YOUR STRATEGY Your plan should answer the following questions: AssetsWhat do you have to work with to achieve your strategy? Examples of your assets might include a strong brand, a solid distribution system, or excellent customer relationships. Your plan should capitalize on your key assets. Action stepsWho must take what specific steps and by when? BarriersWhat can stand in your way? Examples of such barriers include structural weaknesses in your organization, strained customer relationships, or a weakened position in the marketplace. Resources and solutionsHow can you overcome the barriers? Expectations and returnsWhat do you expect to gain financially or in marketplace results? Every area and function in your organization should develop detailed and thorough plans tied into the overall business plan. For example, you should provide a strategy for human resources that asks: How many additional people might this plan require? What skills must they possess?

5- COMMUNICATE YOUR STRATEGY FOR REACHING YOUR DESTINATION Dont expect your people to be mind readers in determining your strategy and plans. Create as many opportunities as possible in large and small forums to communicate your organizations direction. When you do, have a clear picture of how you want your audience to react to your communication. before a presentation you must outline explicitly what you want your audience to think, say, or do once theyve heard your communication. Compare what you want your audience to think, say, or do after your presentation to where they are now. To do so, work to understand their current concerns and consider any existing assumptions they have already made about your ideas. Only by understanding their present position can you develop a message that will move your audience from A to B, from where they are now to where you want them to go. Understanding where people stand on an issue allows you to develop a plan to influence where they end up.

Are you doing enough listening? Make sure that you listen more than speak. Are you using visible signals to demonstrate your direction? Get personally and directly involved with visible actions that demonstrate your strategy is alive and underway. Early in a change process, it is critical to take actions that demonstrate your direction clearly. People are looking for visible signals of change and progress. Are you persistent in telling the story? Dont give up! Think of communicating your strategy as trying to cross a river. Like the river, your audience is constantly changing and moving. Only through persistent and continuous communication can your message get across.

Are you managing perceptions, or being victimized by them? People make decisions based on their perceptions, not yours. Let your learning about those perceptions shape your communication. Still, while it is important to hear what people are thinking, its also important to recognize in the early stages of redirecting your strategy that you need to have conviction.

6- EXECUTE DETAILS AND REVIEW YOUR PROGRESS A strong plan is only as good as its execution. Set time aside in your daily routine for meetings to review the progress of important initiatives. At the meetings, focus on the execution of each key element of the planfollow up, ask questions, and ensure that each action in your plan stays on course. Successful execution of important plans and projects requires a leaders attention to detail. Be attentive and others will follow your leadand your business will benefit t.

Are your employees sweating the details? By focusing on the details, you can ensure processes work better at the lowest level and avoid crises. Doing so might frustrate some people who would prefer that you not be so involved. Yet, once they demonstrate that they are sweating the details then you can focus your attention elsewhere. Are you automatically assuming good execution? Do not assume your plan is being well executed until youve seen a person demonstrate that ability. Until then, review for evidence that plans and strategies are being implemented correctly.areas of your organization where the Focus extra attention on details are not being closely reviewed and managed.

Are you relentless?

High energy, positive attitude, and tenacity count. It is amazing how people will respond to someone who is appropriately persistent, positive, and focused on an objective. People must know you will not back away from whats important, including your standards of success. Are you looking for the cracks? Where are the slow leaks that ultimately turn into a flood? Repair them as soon as you see them. Observe carefully and ask questions to determine how your customers are reacting to the level of service your organization is providing them. Anything less than very positive feedback may indicate a problem that could quickly turn into a big one. Are you relying exclusively on company manuals and rulebooks to guide your people? Dont do this! Try providing clear direction to your people through simple guiding principles that they can carry with them wherever they go. Heavy, thick, and complicated employee manuals cannot go everywhere with employees in their day-to-day activities. Therefore its wise to communicate your most important company rules and principles in a way that makes them easy to remember and follow.

Develop clear and simple key principles or values to guide the day-to-day behaviors that will create success for your organization. Do you act fast? Complete tasks or projects as quickly as you can. In some ways, projects are like minefieldsthe longer you stay in one, the more likely you are to walk into a problem. Be proactive rather than reactive, and get things done.

7- BUILD AND UTILIZE EFFECTIVE CONTROL AND INFORMATION REPORTING SYSTEMS Good leaders and managers use control and information reporting systems as effective management tools for planning, keeping the execution of the plan on course, and protecting the organizations assets. A control system consists of those routine reports, analyses, review meetings, and audits that are designed to ensure sound decision making and to protect the value of your organizations assets. Do your control and information reporting systems support your key strategies and plans? Match your reporting systems and key indicators to the critical objectives that will drive your plan, and to other significant yardsticks of organizational health, like product quality and brand health.

8- ACTIVELY DEVELOP THE ORGANIZATION AND THE PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP REACH THE DESTINATION To reach your destination, your organization must develop and maintain strong capabilities in areas important to your success. To create and maintain strong capabilities in all areas of your organization requires that you select, acquire, develop, and reward people who have, or can acquire quickly, core skills that will be continuously developed as they Are you progress. staying in close touch with your people? Outstanding leaders know that they need to stay in close touch with their people. Feedback and development occur primarily through focused one-on one discussions. Yet, the payoff s that arise from quality discussions, many times unplanned, are significant. Let your strong performers see that, as their leader, you are willing to recognize them as individuals who are key to your organizations success. Let them know that you are pleased to be making an investment in them.

Outstanding leaders develop a clear picture of where they want to go and strategize how to get there. They create a clear and focused plan for reaching their destination. Then they attract, manage, and develop the people and resources to make it happen in an effective way. These great leaders make connections between different parts of an organization and the business environment and then ensure quality execution of the details in order to create strong results. They expect and encourage others to : lessons on leadership by Jack Stahl . Reference do the same. Solid performers seldom want to disappoint a strong leader. Ultimately, effective leaders find ways to Prepared by : Ahmed Khalil . celebrate with their people the success that strong leadership and execution brings to the organization, and to reward the achievement of good results.