Strategy Execution: shaping a winning culture

Why acknowledging performance and shaping a winning culture is a crucial part of successful strategy execution

Leaders, are you doing enough to acknowledge individual performance and celebrate your teams success? Are you actively shaping a winning culture?

Brightline has published an excellent set of 10 guiding principles to bridge the ubiquitous gap between strategy design, execution and delivery, and we think it should be required reading for all leaders. The Brightline Initiative™ is a coalition of leading global organizations assembled by the Project Management Institute (PMI), dedicated to, in their words, "helping executives bridge the expensive and unproductive gap between strategy design and delivery."

We’re particularly pleased that they recognized the importance of acknowledging performance in their list of 10 key guiding principles; point 10 "the need to celebrate success and recognize those who have done good work"

"Inspiring people is part of your job! Yes, you have to drive accountability and focus on delivery, but you also need to motivate those who do the work. Actively shape a winning culture by engaging and exciting the people responsible for delivering strategic change programs. Celebrate successes and quick wins. Generously and publicly acknowledge those who demonstrate the leadership behaviours and program delivery capabilities that make strategy succeed and ask them to share their experiences".

According to strategy implementation facts and figures from The Performance Factory

  • 27 percent of people don’t receive any individual feedback;
  • 17 percent of people indicate that performance isn’t monitored, and;
  • More than one third – 37 percent – have never had the opportunity to participate in a 360° skills assessment exercise.

According to Oxford Economics Workforce 2020 Report "66% of employees surveyed valued competitive compensation as highly important but only 30% of employees said that their company offers this".

At UNTAP by EXM we understand the need for Senior Executives to create effective mechanisms to deploy a variable compensation model linked to the strategy, track performance reviews of their team as well as publicly acknowledge those who demonstrate the leadership behaviours that make the strategy succeed. That’s why we include acknowledge individual performance and celebrate success in our 9 Steps to Perfect Strategy Execution and Control.

It's great to see performance elements of the strategy execution process highlighted in the study and recognition that execution of an organisations strategy and business plan is the responsibility of every individual.

By building in these capabilities they can serve not only to realise your strategy today but also help you to build capabilities for future strategies.

9 ways to shape a winning culture

  1. Motivate and inspire the people that you work with
  2. Engage with your people
  3. Acknowledge team performance
  4. Recognise individual work
  5. Offer individuals feedback
  6. Celebrate success and quick wins
  7. Generously and publicly acknowledge those who demonstrate leadership behaviours
  8. Monitor and track performance
  9. Deploy a variable compensation model

What Next?

Is your organisation's value-creation & strategy planning process as efficient as it could be?

The reality is that according to Harvard Business Review “Companies realize only 40-to-60 percent of their business strategies’ potential value”

Here at UNTAP by EXM we believe that execution excellence is the basis of value-creation for organisations and individuals.  Are you ready to translate your Company's strategy into an executable ‘Value-Creation Plan'?  Why not download our brochure today to learn more.

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