Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hey. Hi.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: How are you doing today?
[00:00:10] Speaker A: I am good.
Excited to talk to you. About.
Well, I named this episode kind of a fun one. A vision without execution.
Just a motivational poster. Yes. That's all it is.
So you don't need more vision boards. As a business owner, what you need is results.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: I mean that's, that's why we're here. That's why we work every day. So if your goals never leave the meeting room, it's not a vision, it's a fantasy. And so let's break down how to turn ideas into action and action into margin.
That's why we're here. So my first question for you is why do you think that so many leaders are great at that overarching vision execution?
[00:00:56] Speaker B: That's a great question.
I think a lot of them sometimes have the inability to pass their vision to their teams. So it, it's locked up in their head. And if you don't share that in a way that makes sense, it's never going to be executed and it leads to frustration.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Communication skill.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: 100%.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
Lots of companies have good mission statement. Very few have traction. There's a big gap between dreaming and doing.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: So lots of companies have that. They just don't have the traction.
And the problem is, is that people don't follow ideas. They follow execution. When you hire somebody, they want to be told, what am I supposed to do? Right.
And so if your crew can't tell you what matters this quarter, then you've got a vision that is stuck in your head.
Okay.
And here's kind of the mic drop statement is that nobody gets paid for potential. They get paid for performance.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: 100%.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: 100%.
So what, what is the cost of casting a vision like that with no follow through? Talk to me about some of the costs of that.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Oh, gosh. So when you're.
You're bidding with your vision but you haven't casted it, you're. You have an executable idea that's not resonating with your workers. So there's that communication gap, but also that it's. If you're thinking gold and you're working in bronze or silver, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. So aligning your words, it's not a check the box when you fill out a mission statement or company goals, it's what do we want to set our guardrails up for? How do we want to set our boundaries to go forward and what does that look like and what can we execute?
Because it's it's very, you know, the smart analogy is in goals for a reason. So they're executable and achievable.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. There's a few signs that you're.
You're leading with a vision, but no execution. So like, if you're having a lot of meetings but you're not moving the needle, that's a really good sign. You have goals that get set and they might be defined, but you're not tracking them. You're not tracking any progress toward the goal. You've got team members that are not clear on what the definition of done is or what success looks like. And there's no systems in place that you can review and measure against and, you know, hold people accountable to.
Those are some things to kind of check off the list and make sure that you're not. That vision isn't stuck in your head.
How do we make sure that the owner's big idea and the owner's dream actually drives the day to day behaviors of the team?
[00:03:54] Speaker B: It's a repeatable message that continues throughout the company. And every time it's repeated, it's repeated the same.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: That's quarterly, weekly, monthly.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: It could be in their paychecks, it could be on stationary. It's. It's the vision of the company and the execution executables of the company.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: The.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: The other side of it is, is how it's like a. Pulling the rope in the same direction. How do we get everybody to pull so the company's going where everybody needs it to go?
[00:04:28] Speaker A: I'm thinking I'm in Minnesota, so I have Vikings in my head. I feel like a Viking ship. Where everybody's rowing at the same time. Right. And the ship is moving forward. Yes.
[00:04:36] Speaker B: And it's that constant voice of the leader. Row, row, row. It's that rhythmic system.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Like a Harvard crew team. In my head.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Exactly. Stolen.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Modern day. Yeah.
The callers.
What about. Okay, so setting a quarterly priority so that at the end of the quarter you can look back and say, did we achieve this and were they smart? Were they specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time bound. That's smart, attractive. Right.
And no more than three to five. Like you don't want to overwhelm your team. Right. Set those priorities and get everybody rowing in the same direction and they don't.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Have to look like Wall street with ticker symbols. And it's something that's relatable.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Right.
And assign ownership. So you've. We talked about this in a previous episode where we've got people that own Certain outcomes. You are responsible for bringing on 10 new clients this quarter. Okay, that's you.
You are responsible for cutting our costs by 10%. Whatever those outcomes are, you're holding people accountable to the outcome.
Most people, I think, think of outcomes in terms of sales, but there's outcomes across every single job. If there isn't, then you need to define it using scorecards. So we're tracking those things and even though we're going to have a debrief at the end of the quarter, we're tracking those things on a scorecard every week, every day, every two weeks, whatever, whatever rhythm makes sense to you. And then reviewing those, reviewing the progress along the way and creating kind of a cadence for check ins and rewarding the progress, I think that's really important.
Rewarding each one of those progress and so leading with visibility and clarity. Repeating that vision like you said, on their paycheck, on the walls of the office, every time you communicate, maybe it's in the signature of your email on the website or whatever, but keep repeating it until they roll their eyes and.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Then keep going and noticing the results, acknowledging the results, but keeping these weekly check ins so you can troubleshoot what went wrong. Why weren't we on track with the goal? So if you let it go for six months, you just have that much more of a challenge to troubleshoot what the problem was.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Whereas 2/4 is half, the half of your year is gone. I mean you can't course correct at that point.
Tying every action that the team takes back to the business goal. I think that's a, a habit, a really valuable habit of a leader. So you've set these goals at the beginning of the quarter and every action that I take throughout the day, how is that moving the needle? How is that pulling the ship closer to that goal? And then again, celebrating those progress points, visibly celebrating them loudly and making people feel like the work that they're doing really matters.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: And I think people want to be held accountable because 100% it's that completion of that cycle.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: We set a goal with all my heart. I think that people want responsibility and they want to be held accountable to it. I know that without a doubt it.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Helps them grow so, so deeply. Yep, exactly.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah. It makes them feel like I own a corner of my world I'm responsible for and I just gives people pride.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: And who wouldn't want a proud workforce?
That's they're selling your brand, they're selling.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Your business above and beyond.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: They do. They will, they'll run through brick walls for you. If you're doing it right, they sure will.
So the challenge this week is to pick one big goal that you've been talking about for months and break it into three action steps. Assign each one a name and a due date. And then follow up next week and focus on execution over excitement over your big, grand vision. Okay? So pick one big goal that you've been talking about for a while, break it down, and then assign each one a name and a due date, and you've got ownership.
Every task that you want done has a name attached to it, but they're responsible for that outcome.
And then create your scorecard, and then.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Troubleshoot if it doesn't work out.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: And repeat. Never give up. Just keep repeating.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Lather, rinse, and repeat.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: It's a bit of a hamster wheel, but it works. And it's a slow kind of a quiet growth, but it can be so powerful.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Oh, amazing.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: And if you hit a few hiccups.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Take her cool.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Take her cool. It's all going to be fine.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: It's going to work out.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
