A simple reminder to the powerful mantra for execution excellence.
A large number of companies often struggle with execution. While the board room discussions (supported by top notch consultants) are often grand, the implementing of the ideas and initiatives on ground are often fraught with failure.
In retrospect, company executives often attribute this struggle to lack of resources, poor project management, issues with collaboration, communication, and a culture of resistance. The issue of poor leadership leading to lack of motivation is spoken about in hushed tones in private conversations. I have often heard senior management talk about how the leadership culture has focus only for the short term, presumably due to the obsession of investors / shareholders demanding quarterly results and no more. There is too much pressure to deliver a lot in a very short time with very little resources.
While all the above might be true, there is a simple and fundamental formulation that I have discovered in my last three decades of work. This is the main ingredient for the execution engine to work flawlessly but is often missed. It is nothing new and is a subject that has been dominating the leadership mind space for a long while.
Working with startups made me think about what makes some of these companies with young and inexperienced founders take on large corporates with established business models. I am not talking about the success or failure of the startup, but the execution ability – being nimble and delivering with minimal resources at record speed and quality.
There is a simple way to remember this formula. “Namaste”, the traditional Indian greeting, visualises the corporate formula for flawless execution in the most perfect way. Namaste is a greeting where the person brings both hands together, closer to the heart and bows the head down gently. I look at it as an immensely significant but easy way to remember what is most important for the execution culture in companies.
“Namaste” signifies alignment of three critical aspects that are crucial to execution:
1. The head understands. What is the purpose of the company? Why are we doing what we are doing? Does it even make sense? How is my department and team aligned to and contributing to this purpose? How is every individual in the team aligned to the purpose?
2. The heart believes. This is the most difficult part. Even if the purpose is clear, the “buy in” has to happen. For this, the heart has to believe in the purpose, vision, mission, leadership and the direction the company is taking. That requires building trust, continuous communication, and culture building.
3. Hands deliver in alignment. Both hands signify collaboration, and not operating in silos. Over the years, performance management processes in companies have gone overboard with MBOs, OKRs, metrics and KPIs etc. to manage this aspect. Companies have to realise that if the head and heart are in alignment, the execution is fairly easy.
The formula is simple, the formulation is a lot more difficult. And administrating the formulation successfully across teams is no easy task.
It is called institution building. And it does not happen overnight.