Ep 145 | Execution Makes All of the Difference

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better, better at business, better at health, better at relationships, just better at life. And today's topic, today's topic actually covers business and health and relationships and life in general. And the topic is about execution. I want to talk about execution today. Now, uh, I am going to read— this is not something I typically do, but it just said so well in this book, I'm going to read it. The book is The 12-Week Year. Many of you are probably familiar with The 12-Week Year, a great book on business planning, uh, and strategizing. Actually, I shouldn't say business planning, just planning in general and strategizing. Turns a number of ideas upside down, and I really, really enjoyed it. And in this book, Brian Moran, the author, talks about execution. And here's what he says: the number one factor holding people back from achieving what they are truly capable of is not a lack of knowledge, intellect, or information. It's not a new strategy or idea. It's not a larger network of connected people. It's not hard work, natural talent, or luck. Of course, all of these things help. They all play a factor, but they are not the factors that make the difference. The thing that makes the difference? Execution. Execution is the single greatest market differentiator. Great companies and successful individuals execute better than their competition. The barrier standing between you and the life you are capable of living is a lack of consistent execution. Effective execution will set you free. It is the path to accomplish the things you desire. That's the end of that excerpt. And man, I gotta, I gotta say, he nails it. Of all of the things that could drive success, of all the things that we consider from, uh, skill, personal growth, effort, activity, attitude. All of these things play a very, very significant role. But at the end of the day, where the rubber meets the road, he or she that succeeds is oftentimes the person that is the best, best executor of, of everybody around them. Execution is the single greatest market differentiator. In the book, Brian talks about, or he gives an example. He talks around health. And this book's a little dated. I want to say it's 10, 11 years old, but he mentions in the book that, you know, when he went on the internet and searched diet, when he searched diet books on the internet, it came up with about 46,000 entries. 46,000 entries. Now that was a decade ago. I would wager to guess it might be double or even triple that today. These book titles were, were The Atkins Diet or The South Beach Diet. And despite the fact that there are probably 100,000+ diet books that would show up on the internet today, despite the available resources and the education, the knowledge that's there at our fingertips, Americans continue to be significantly out of shape, overweight, and unhealthy. Most people know how to get in shape. They know it. They know you got to eat better. They know you got to exercise more. They know you got to sleep. They know you got to do, take, you know, do these different things and you can't really avoid it, right? Like we all know, But here's the kicker. Most Americans just don't do it. So it's not a knowledge problem. It's an execution problem. So focusing question number one, right? We're only a little ways through the episode, but I want to make sure that we take a moment to reflect. What's going on in your world? Where have you excelled and had success? And where did you maybe fail or not have the success you desire? Is it possible that you failed to execute or in the way— and when you won, you actually executed at a high level, but what role did execution play in that in comparison to knowledge and all of the other variables that, that the, the earlier quote referenced? So where does execution show up for you? Now to go a little further on this concept of execution, what Brian talks about in the book, he said he had found that top performers, whether athletes or business professionals, you know, they'd found that top professionals that are in fact are top performers that are in fact great, it's not their ideas that are necessarily better, but again, it's their execution disciplines that are better. And he says there's 5 core disciplines to execution. 5 core disciplines of execution: vision, planning, process control, measurement, and time use. Vision. What is vision? Now, this is if you want to be an effective, effective executor. Here are the components. Here are the disciplines that must exist. Vision. Vision's just your clear picture of the future. Vision's where you want to go. It is critical that be it in business or life or relationships, whatever it may be, it is critical that you have a clear vision. Absent that clear vision, it's difficult to actually execute. What are you executing towards? Right? So number 1, vision. Next, planning. An effective plan clarifies and focuses top priority, right? Focuses on the top priority and gets you— gets your actions aligned with that vision, get your initiatives aligned with that vision. So planning is critical. A good plan is constructed in a manner that facilitates effective implementation. So the Five Disciplines of Execution: 1, vision; 2, planning; 3, process control. Process control is just, is just a set of tools and events that align your daily actions with the critical actions in the plan. So these are your guardrails, right? These are the things that are outlined, defined, and regulated and monitored in an organized manner. So vision, planning, process control. Next, measurement. Measurement drives the process. It's the anchor of reality. So effective management— measurement, I'm sorry, uh, has lead measures, has lag measures. This is your scoreboard. And then lastly, as it pertains to execution, the Five Disciplines of Execution, time use. Everything happens in the context of time. You've got to control your time. So to recap, the difference maker between success and lack of success is not all of the, uh, the, is not the, the typical variables we discuss. The single differentiator is execution. Did you execute or did you not? And there are 5 core disciplines to execution: having a vision, having a plan, process control— controlling the processes— measuring— measurement via scoreboarding— and then lastly, time use, which would be control of your time. If you fail to execute, odds are you violated one one or multiple of those disciplines. If in fact you executed, odds are you honored all, all 5 of those core disciplines at a very high level. So in wrapping this up, the focusing question for you today, again, the first one I had asked was, you know, take a look, assess where have you thrived and where have you struggled and what role did execution or lack of execution play And then the follow-up focusing question of the 4 disciplines— I'm sorry, 5 disciplines I just went through, which of those might you have violated from time to time that led to poor execution or no execution at all? And what steps can you take today in the various projects and targets you're working on such that you do not violate those disciplines again? That's all we have for you today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.