I am generally a big picture guy. I don’t have the discipline for continuously looking at the details or working on the day to day activities.

However for any team to operate you need to have a daily rhythm of ensuring that the team performs. That’s where the discipline of execution comes in. Ensuring that the right things get done and are done continuously is a big job and I admire companies who have grown so big and still continue to surpass the results every day. Its the sheer execution that their managers are taught to do.

On the other hand the people with ideas – like me – think that executing on a bad idea will not get you anywhere. So you may have the best execution skills but if you don’t have a good idea it won’t get you anywhere.

The ideal situation is if you can complement whatever your skill is with someone who has the other skill. If you are a big picture guy and hire another big picture guy then your company is doomed. On the other hand if you are a good execution guy and take the other person also from execution then how will you get new ideas to for the Next thing.

But inspite of all the arguments which both sides give, I think if you have a team or a company, then you need really really strong execution. Someone needs to watch on how things are happening on an hourly basis otherwise very soon things go out of control.

Execution has a lot to do with follow-up. Due to my ability to drift away from targets I have found 2 things useful. One when I have team meetings, I want someone to make a “What-Who-When” list of the things that were discussed. What is the item that needs to be done, Who is responsible for getting it done and by When do they need to get it done. The other thing which I have found useful is to put a task on my calendar on my phone. Then when I have performed the task and I need to follow-up with someone on it, instead of closing the task I just change the date on the task for a future date and save it. So automatically the task shows up again till I have closed it. I am still trying to find even more effective methods.

What’s your view? let me know in the comments section below.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!