5 Tips to Celebrate Flawless Business Execution

    

project-execution.pngOne of the most ridiculous elements they teach you in leadership development programs is to “Celebrate Successes.”  Inevitably this means an “enlightened” business leader will react to the following scenario:

Jayne saved the day again. She was able to work all weekend and through Sunday night on the design prototype to deliver it to the customer in the exact and specific solution the customer needed for their meeting at 9 am.  With bags under her eyes, no sleep for days, and a burnt-out team behind her, Jayne was feted in front of the organization as a tireless worker who does what it takes to get the job done.

As a result of Jayne’s heroic efforts, her Supervisor publically acknowledged her efforts, gave her a gift certificate to go out to dinner with her family, and had a pizza party for her entire team.

The Manager gave himself a hearty pat on the back and checked off “Celebrate Jayne’s Success” from his “Leadership Task List” and all was great in this world.

Little did anyone know that there were technical flaws in the design and it didn’t work very well in the prototype demonstration for the end-customer.  But no matter, Jayne and the team did whatever they had to do and everyone was appreciative and celebrated the success with pizza.

Here is an idea:  Celebrate Flawless Business Execution, not “Artificial Heroes!”

In an alternate universe and reality, Jayne was more aggressive with her project team, developed a realistic and comprehensive project time line that included meetings and reviews, held people accountable for their work, gave coaching and feedback when necessary, and was able to have full reviews with the customer prior to delivering the prototype 2 weeks early.  In this alternative reality, there is no hero worship, no firefighting and no celebrating “amazing dedication” because in all reality, Jayne and the team would already have been working on the next project as the culture doesn’t give a gold star for doing the job right and without incident.

Celebrate Flawless Business Execution!

In this world – and the world I propose we follow – leaders look for examples of smart, thoughtful, and operationally effective flawless business execution and acknowledgement to reward people for doing their job exceptionally well.  Here are 5 suggestions to reward flawless business execution:

1) Conduct in-depth Reviews on Successful Projects/Program

It seems that only bad projects get the reviewed and usually there is some sort of witch-hunt to find blame and humiliate people who made mistakes.  Instead of doing that, identify the process and root systems that worked and talk about how to replicate them for future projects.

2) Measure and Share the Happiness of the Customer(s)

Too often once the project is completed and the product is out the door, it’s time to move to the next project hanging over our heads.  Make sure that there are systems and structures in place to measure customer happiness and by all means necessary share that customer satisfaction.

3) Reward Profitable Projects

I can almost guarantee you that in the story where Jayne and the team worked all night, the project was a financial disaster and probably lost money.  It is critical to build a culture that understands and focuses on project profitability and rewards flawless execution and not the save-the-day mentality. This is where business acumen training can really help!

4)  Create a Flawless Execution Trophy

It may sound trite, but acknowledging and recognizing individuals and teams with a symbolic award for doing the right things and executing flawlessly will create a different type of vibe and culture.

5)  Remove the Problem People

There is nothing more frustrating or disengaging to a “Flawless Executor” than watching poor planners get recognized and rewarded for their incompetence.  When those quiet, yet professional and productive people get fed up, they quietly leave and nobody really notices because everyone is so busy toasting the latest person who just “saved the day.”

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Robert Brodo

About The Author

Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience.