Execution is Essential to the Equation of Success: Your 4 Barriers

Planning is essential to the success of any project or initiative but execution of that plan is critical to achieve anything of substance. Lack of execution is the number one reason businesses fail to progress, change, evolve and thrive. Whether your company is looking to enact new processes, complete projects, innovate game changing products or plan for 2015, it is no doubt that there are goals established that require execution. Understanding the barriers that prevent execution for most businesses will allow you to mitigate those risks; there are 4 common pitfalls in an organization that impede success:

1. Status Quo – Change is rarely welcomed by those that are comfortable and it makes people uneasy as well as insecure when someone else recommends a mix-up that could affect their current position. But the world does not sit still and neither should your business. You need to evolve and change or the competition will move on while you stand still in the status quo (which will change with or without you). You should always strive to be better and not settle for living in the status quo.
2. Resources – By far the most prevalent barrier to execution, lack of resources. This could be people, money, time etc. Most corporations operate at max capacity and simply don’t have the bandwidth in their staff to take on any additional work or projects. Day to day business must still be run and fires will always come up that need to be put out. That pushes projects onto the back burner and unfortunately they are rarely brought back to center stage.
3. Office Politics – The unseen government, those that work to push things through that only help their own vested interests rather than the greater good. Every business has them. Identifying the “bad eggs” and mitigating their fears, addressing concerns early on and building an all-team buy in is critical to success. You have to squash the water cooler lobbyists.
4. Unmotivated Staff – Everyone is motivated by something different; it’s not always about money. Most of the time, you can get your staff excited about a project or initiative by educating them on the goal and how its success will affect their role. For example, if you have a billing manager that is swamped and operating at 100% regularly they are not going to want to jump at getting you the data sets you need to implement a new automation process. But if you educate that employee on how this new process will eliminate a pesky data entry job of theirs in the long term and thereby save them hours of headaches every month, they might be more prone to jump on getting that report over to you.

Execution is essential to the equation of success. If you have ever participated in an Executive Leadership meeting setting out goals for the short and long term, you know it is all too common that a year later many of those plans are left unexecuted. 2015 should be the year of change; recognize your barriers and plan on overcoming them. Successful companies will eventually admit defeat and either outsource their projects or bring in a Consultant to assist in getting the job done. They recognize that things are not getting accomplished internally and that it is more important to succeed than to postpone growth any longer.

Related Article: 5 Signs You Need a Consultant in 2015

For more information on hiring a consultant to help your business execute on plans and eliminate the barriers to success, Contact Blue Ocean Principles for a free business consultation.