4 Disciplines That Will Make You Win In Business

Have you had the nagging feeling, while running a business, that we are caught up in a perpetual whirlwind of unending phone calls, unexpected and urgent meetings or appointments, ‘urgent’ stuff piling up from last week, just to name a few. The list is almost endless. Urgent matters have become the rule of the day. More and more things are becoming Urgent and Important.

We and our entire team is also caught up in the same web. To come out will require huge doses of commitment and motivation, with full heart and mind.

Changing behaviour is an uphill task at all times. The following 4 Disciplines of Execution can, rest assured, make a big difference. When all are moving in the same direction, it is easier to tear through those urgent matters, towards achieving goals critical for Success.

Discipline #1 – Focus on Wildly Important Goals (WIGs)

As a Business Manager, you know – The more you try to do, the less you will accomplish. That’s why your WIG is not in this year’s final list of your goals. Focus is, unlike a machine-gun, where you shoot and hope for the best but a rifle to blow away those strategic bottlenecks. This one discipline, when properly applied by the team, will make the company successful, and also transform it into a performing machine, time and again.

Just try to chart the critical actions on x–axis with y–axis showing the extent of risk of failing. The points that start appearing at the top right hand corner will become a starting point for your WIG. Intensely focus on one WIG and you will see speedier, better results, even if you work less hours.

Key to success here, is to choose just that one WIG. Even if you choose the wrong WIG, you will still see some unbelievable results. Refrain from the trap of choosing 3 or 4 WIGs. Narrow the focus and get clear on the WIG. By intensely focusing on one WIG, you will not only see the results but on achieving this WIG, the team will be raring to go for the next WIG.

Discipline #2 – Act on Lead Measures

Have you ever received your sales performance report for the quarter only to see that you have missed the target by a big margin. That is because you depended on the Lag Measures rather than on the Lead Measures. Lag measures do a good job of measuring your sales performance for the quarter but by the time you know the situation, it is too late to be able to do anything about it. Something like a Post Mortem. Lag Measures are a historic number that cannot be changed. They are part of history. Lag measures are things like sales revenue, employee turnover, market share, customer satisfaction or even worse, profit margins.

Managers are rarely focused on how many calls were made per day or if the cash flow at the end of the day a plus or a minus. That is where they should focus, if they want to see the trend much before it becomes a wave. In business, instead of trying to sell more or increase customer satisfaction, managers would do better to aim at something more tangible, that actually delivers those results. They are called lead measures.

Lead Measures have two criteria :

·    They are predictors of Success - If you are trying to exercise, how much time you spent exercising in the gym is a better measure than how much time you spent in the gym. If you stay at a target number, you going to get that chiselled body.

·    You can directly Influence Them - In a production facility, weekly stock–out situation, where there is not enough finished goods to supply the logistics for distribution, would be something where the manager can reschedule the production plan to ensure zero or minimum stock–outs.

Come up with a good Lead Measure to meet both criteria. If you discipline yourself to act on the lead measures, you will immensely impact the results.

Discipline #3 – Keep a Compelling Scoreboard

Create a scoreboard and let your team know the score, at all times. If they could design the scoreboard, it would build more engagement. Think of a colourful scoreboard with red, yellow, and green indicators for lag and lead measures. The challenge is to make it so simple that, anyone can see in a glance what the score, in real time, without any analytical tools.

When teams keep score, there is the natural tendency of competition that kicks in. For the highest level of engagement from the team, simply set up a winnable game that they understand how to play. They will simply surprise you with their performance. What you have done is to just let them see where they winning or losing in the moment.

For this the players need to

a    -  know the score

b    - see they can influence the lead measure

c    - know the lead measure moves the lag

If you can do this, then you have a winnable game. Winnable games get the best performance from the team.

Discipline #4 – Create Accountability

The first 3 disciplines are about defining the objectives and rules of the game. Discipline 4 is about how to playing the game. Make each team member, one at a time, reporting on the achievements and making commitments, for that period. Create an atmosphere regular accountability at meetings, with the focus always being on WIG. Such meetings could be held weekly, need to be short (not longer than 20 minutes) and consist of team members holding each other accountable to their commitments to move the score.

In a software application development team, you may commit to things done right rather than bugs removed. You are losing precious time, by doing the latter. Reward them for that. These can be the real WIG commitments, which will ricket you to success. In short, Discipline 4 brings the results home. Create a rhythm that constantly reminds the team  members of the objective and rules of the game and you are bound to have a team that they will play to win. The team should feel like they are in a winnable game.

Conclusion
The best part is that the Whirlwind will never go away. It is just a matter of focusing your energies on the above 4 disciplines of execution. Then those urgent matters (which eat into your time and motivation) will no longer shove aside the important things, that the business needs to grow. All of you will be playing a game that drives the company forward and helps everyone achieve BIG wins.