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In our personal, student, or professional life, we aim at completing tasks that brings a difference to our life. After careful planning and deliberation when we act, we decide to put a plan into action. Even if we have made the best plan we could conceive of, if we do not execute our plans, we will remain where we are. The same philosophy has been explained in The 4 Disciplines of Execution.

It was written by three authors: Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling. The authors, with clarity and assertiveness, have explained the importance of execution. They have highlighted why the execution of a decision at the right time and direction is significant. They talk about four disciplines that can enhance the performance of individuals and teams working in organizations. They can also be used by student’s others including athletes, homemakers, etc. It not only fulfills objectives but it also translates strategy and tactics into action. This book dwells on the in-depth analysis of how proper execution breeds results. The authors have talked about the four disciplines that comprise the majority of the book’s content. These disciplines are: Focus on the Wildly Important, Act on Lead Measures, Keep a Compelling Scoreboard and Create a Cadence of Accountability.

Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important looks at the one decision that will enhance your organization’s productivity and output. It is one objective that will streamline processes and people. At times, multitasking does provide the illusion of enhancing productivity. However, it reduces our creativity as we aim at completing multiple tasks at a time. The leaders and line managers must focus on the more important goals. Prioritizing them is the key.

Discipline 2: Act on Lead Measures discusses what we want to accomplish and how will you do it. These are two starkly different objectives. A company may want to implement an online video conferencing method so all employees can work remotely. However, the IT team along with the system and database administrators would need to fix loopholes. They would need to approve a budget to buy servers, laptops, Wi-Fi setup, and licensed software that could make this possible. As mentioned in this book, “Lead measures are quite different in that they are the measures of the most high-impact things your team must do to reach the goal. In essence, they measure the new behaviors that will drive success on the lag measures, whether those behaviors are as simple as offering a sample to every customer in the bakery or as complex as adhering to standards in jet-engine design.” In contrast to lead measures are lag measures. This book defines it as, “Lag measures are the tracking measurements of the wildly important goal, and they are usually the ones you spend most of your time praying over. Revenue, profit, market share, and customer satisfaction are all lag measures, meaning that when you receive them, the performance that drove them is already in the past. That’s why you’re praying-by the time you get a lag measure, you can’t fix it. It’s history.” After focusing on the wildly important tasks, the team must focus on the lead measures, the activities directly linked to your core objectives or the wildly important tasks. Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard refers to the quantifiable measures. They include measures to identify and track performance to ascertain productivity. According to the book, the scoreboard must be simple that gives a realistic view of the actions the team members perform. It should highlight the lag and lead measures along with the input and output of all team members.

Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability is a recurring cycle. The authors say that if the team of an organization wants to set up their game for success, they need to focus on the first three disciplines. However, they are not in the game until they apply the fourth discipline, which is being accountable for their actions. The first three disciplines look at how you will achieve the goal and what measures do you need to focus on. The fourth discipline is all about knowing where each team member stands based on their commitment. By creating a cadence of accountability the organization ensures that each team member or employee goes through a performance review based on their actual performance. The authors have connected the wildly important goals with the accountability factor. In this regard, the employees must report about the commitments they have achieved, review the scoreboard, and develop new commitments. This will enhance the accountability factor. By reviewing activities, results; observing the scoreboard, and how the results affect the organization, the team members can prepare the future course of action. It will let them and their managers know the actions they took, the results they achieved, and the plans they need to cater for optimum performance.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. He can be reached at omariftikhar@hotmail.com and Tweets @omariftikhar