Lead In 30 Podcast

Vision Vs Execution: Which One Is More Valuable in a Leader?

• Russ Hill

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Which one are you stronger in? Which one does your organization value more? Which one will help you scale your career more? In this episode Lone Rock Leadership cofounder Russ Hill digs into vision vs execution and which one matters most.

• Vision encompasses purpose, key results, first principles, and the "why" behind organizational actions
• Leaders with vision maintain altitude by looking beyond immediate tactics to see the horizon
• Execution problems typically stem from undefined deliverables or lack of accountability 
• Most execution issues result from not clearly defining the 2-3 metrics that matter most
• When leaders fail to execute despite feedback and coaching, organizations typically wait too long to make changes
• Great leaders regularly remind teams of the bigger purpose behind their work
• Vision provides the foundation that makes effective execution possible

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Speaker 1:

Vision versus execution. Which one does your company need more right now? Leaders with more vision or leaders who execute? I'm going to take a position on which one I think is more important in this episode.

Speaker 2:

This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.

Speaker 1:

You cannot be serious.

Speaker 2:

Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes. You cannot be serious.

Speaker 1:

So which one do you think I'm going to say is more needed in the organizations, across all different industries Restaurants, hospital systems, manufacturing companies, retail outlets, financial firms, all these different industries. In our 20 years of working with organizations, which one of those two do you think is more needed, more absent, more lacking vision or execution? My answer might surprise you and I want to get you thinking and challenge your thought process on this a little bit. Welcome into the Lead in 30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, we give you a framework, a model, a question, a best practice, an example, something for you to think about implementing in the way that you lead others. Nothing has more of an impact on your life, your livelihood, your legacy than your ability to lead others. It cannot stay stagnant. If you want to find out more about our firm, what we do with executive teams or with our off the shelf leadership training programs for mid managers, go to lone rockio. Lone rockio. I'm Russ Hill, one of the founders of lone rock leadership, but this is the first ever podcast episode of mine that you've been listening, that you're listening to. Um, here's the uh. Here's the one or two sentence uh, bio for me.

Speaker 1:

I make my living coaching, consulting senior, uh, executive teams at some of the world's biggest companies, and, uh, that's our, that's our consulting business. I'm part of that and I just happen to be the voice of the podcast, and so in this little corner of the internet, I share experiences that we're having because we've got this incredible front row seat to executive leadership at all these organizations. And so years ago I was sitting on a plane crisscrossing the country actually at that time, the globe going to Singapore and New Zealand and London and all these places in between, and I thought why aren't we sharing? Why aren't we sharing what we're learning? I mean, like we are with our clients, obviously, but what about the rest of the world? And so obviously we've got NDA non-disclosure agreements. We can't talk about every organization's names or specific situations, but there are all kinds of general thoughts that we can share. So that's what I do in this podcast.

Speaker 1:

Okay, a quick one today, because all of my recent episodes ever since I took a little hiatus all of the episodes have been exactly 30 minutes and I've made them too long. So this one we're going to do like 15 minutes tops, a super quick one for you, all right, and I want you to think about these two different ideas of vision and execution, because at the root of it, we have so many conversations, so much tension, so many challenges, so many discussions inside our organizations that really sit around these two topics. Wouldn't you agree with that Like we're? We're we're either having a a challenge with vision, either collectively across the enterprise, across the whole organization, or a particular department or business unit, or whatever it might be, depending on the size of the organization that you work in. We've got, we've got a leader, or we've got a group of leaders, or we all collectively, as the leadership of this organization, feel like we're lacking vision. We really don't have a game plan. What do I mean by vision? I'll get more into that in just a moment. Make that tactical for you, because vision is like a buzzword and who even knows what it means? So I want to break that down because it actually is very, very meaningful and I'm super passionate about that being in place, or your ability to define it and communicate it. So we'll talk about that in a second.

Speaker 1:

Others of you you're like man. We're just. We've got an execution problem. We got this. We got this manager, this supervisor, this VP, this executive that isn't executing Like they're an incredible person, hopefully they they've got all these skills, experience, abilities, whatever it might be, but we aren't delivering, like they aren't delivering, we aren't meeting the needs.

Speaker 1:

And I'll tell you the the the percentage of leaders, the percentage of executives over the years who've I've heard or seen or been around who have said, yeah, we should have taken longer, we should have waited longer on taking any action around that executive, vp, supervisor, manager, director, whomever it is who wasn't delivering. We should have given them a longer opportunity to fix that. What's the percentage of times I've heard people say that? Zero, like literally. What do I often hear? What are you often here? What? What do we? Frequently? Where do we err as leaders?

Speaker 1:

We give these leaders way too long, these managers way too long. They don't execute. We're like, ah, maybe we'll turn around. They don't execute. Ah, we need to give them a little longer. They don't execute, but they're a nice person. They don't execute, yeah, but we've got they don't. Well, we'll give it. And like then we, we take action after a year, two years, 18 months, six months, whatever it is. And what do we?

Speaker 1:

You always hear people say dang it, we should have done that faster, we should have. We should have. We should have made that change sooner. People are who they're telling you they are. People. Are that manager, that supervisor, that director? She or he is exactly who you think they are. Now there are exceptions, but generally I mean we talk about this all the time with executives that we coach like that's who they are. What you're seeing is what you're seeing. Now.

Speaker 1:

Am I a believer in coaching and giving people a chance to react and implement on the feedback that you give them. My gosh, of course. That's called being a decent human. Like who's going to go to go? Oh, they didn't execute in the first week or two weeks. Like that's what happens in fast food or certain you know um high turnover industries where we're just like churning and burning through talent.

Speaker 1:

But in the vast majority of our organizations, like no, give them the feedback, step up, be a leader. Like that's part of leading. Saying the hard things, telling them what they. That's who I want to work for. Tell me what I'm not seeing, tell me what I'm ignoring, tell me what I don't want to hear. Right, and give it. Give me that feedback at the right moment and then and then let me work on it. Let me get and then give me some feedback and coaching on that. So that takes more than a week or a month. You got to give me a little bit of time on that.

Speaker 1:

So I'm not advocating like make these impulsive decisions, oh, she didn't perform last week off with her, you know like. No, I'm not advocating like make these impulsive decisions, oh, she didn't perform last week off with her, you know like. No, I'm not saying that, but I am saying that over time, meaning a few months at a minimum, that if you're seeing this, you're giving feedback, you're giving coaching. That's specific and there's no change. You got an execution problem. Quit denying it, Make a move. That's what we're paying you to do. That got an execution problem. Quit denying it, make a move. That's what we're paying you to do. That's what great organizations, that's what those that are gaining market share do. They move on those things. So, vision or execution, I will I'll just take a position on right out of the gate on this and let you know which one.

Speaker 1:

I absolutely think most organizations lack and most leaders lack and when I say most, I mean the majority and its vision period. End of story done. End of podcast. We need more vision. Well, what do I mean by that? Okay, russ, that sounds nice, I've heard about that. Yeah, that's something that isn't unique to you saying like that's out there in the business world. What does it mean? Well, I'm sorry to be repetitive, but we teach what is the core need inside organizations. It works, vision are key results, first principles, principles and purpose. I've talked about this recently. That's vision. So let's talk a little bit about what I mean by that and how to define it. So vision is? It's a rallying cry. It's why we exist. So I'll give you I'll give you actually a non-traditional, non-expected answer.

Speaker 1:

So I'm sitting in a meeting yesterday Yesterday was Sunday at the time I'm recording this, and those of you that listen to this podcast on a regular basis know that I'm active in my faith. So I go to church. I always have. I've been to over 5,000. I was calculating I'm like, okay, how old am I? How many weeks have I gone to church? Like in a typical year, whatever, whatever. And I calculated I was like, okay, I've been to church over 5,000 times, like way more than that, but at least that many times, cause I go out of 52 Sundays in a year, probably 50. Forty, nine, right, sick a couple, maybe it's forty six or forty seven, but it's it's most Sunday. So, anyway, I'm sitting at church yesterday and I'm in a meeting after after the typical meetings and we're planning a camp.

Speaker 1:

This is for the teenage boys in our congregation, so those between 12 and 18 years old congregation, so those between 12 and 18 years old, and we do this every summer. A lot of you that go to churches or you're part of different community groups, you put your kids in this, or they go to it or you volunteer, and I'm super passionate about it. Every single summer, every summer, for the last at least 20 years, I have spent at least a week of my summer at a church sponsored camp for teenage girls, teenage boys, both of them, whatever. I find it extremely rewarding. My kids go to them. They found it extremely rewarding. And there are all kinds of different camps. One of our, our, our youngest, is he's spending a week at. He's going to multiple camps this summer. One of them is uh, in Chinese, and it's all these Chinese speakers in high schools around around the U S and uh, and, and over Christmas break he was in China at a camp, you know. So, um, anyway, all these different camps. So we're planning, we're planning the camp and um, and.

Speaker 1:

And as we were breaking up into these kinds of committees, these subgroups, I said to the person running the meeting. I said, hey, can we, before we break up into the, into the committees, into the groups, can? Can I just make a quick comment? He's like, yeah, absolutely, russ, go ahead what's on your mind. And I said, can we, just before we break up and start really getting into the tactical planning, can we just remind ourselves of why we're even doing this camp? Why are we going to this place that we're going to? We happen to be taking these boys, uh, whitewater rafting, um, and out here in the western us and it's going to be amazing I'm so excited about. We've got a bunch of different activities and we're it's going to be an amazing experience for everybody involved. And um.

Speaker 1:

And so I just stopped for a second. I said so I'm just asking the teenage boys who are part of the plan I'm like, why are we doing this, like before we get into the tactics of planning it? Why? And one young man made a comment, another young man made a comment, another one. And then I asked the adults I'm like, what would you add to that, and so we have this like two to three minute conversation. That's vision. That's vision.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's just that, that basic reminding us of why we're doing. Why do we exist as a company? Why are we launching this new product? Why? Why do we care about ROI? Why are you putting that revenue number out there? Why, why are we working so like? That's what a great executive does? They stop and and I'm only. I only took the opportunity to do that yesterday, because I preach it all the time like gosh, right, you got to practice it a little bit too. You know, in in all kinds of settings. You can even do it in like a church volunteer setting, do it in a corporate setting, right, why?

Speaker 1:

The leader with visions constantly reminding the team why this is important, why we exist, what we're trying to accomplish. I'm not talking about the revenue target. I'm not talking about the growth target. I'm not talking about the margin. I'm not talking about the product. I'm not talking about on-time delivery. I'm not talking about safety. I'm talking about overall. Why are we making chicken sandwiches? Why do we make these fighter jets? Why are we? Why do we build these hospitals? Why do we sell insurance? Why do we have these retail locations open? Who are we serving? What do we exist for?

Speaker 1:

Great leader, it's so easy to get lost in the tactical it's it's. It's so easy that, like every leader does that, the exceptional one, the highly effective one, is just constantly reminding the team vision. So that's part of it. Purpose is what I'm really talking about, right, and I've talked about that a little bit in a recent episode. And then you're reminding us of the targets. Hey, don't forget by or or you all. What we're working towards is this. And then you've got a why. Why do we need to get to that target by the end of the year? Where's that taking us the following year, the year after? What does that enable? Or what well like? Why do? Why do I care if we grow at that percent? What's the bigger picture? That's vision. So leaders with vision have altitude. They are looking at the horizon. They turn off the noise and consider the bigger picture where we're going, why we're going there, how we're going to get there that's vision going. Why we're going there, how we're going to get there, that's, that's vision. Okay. And so leaders with vision are those that typically spend time contemplating, pondering, planning, building strategy, looking at trends. That that's what's required to build vision. The leaders with no vision are the ones lost in the tactics, which takes us to execution, and I got three minutes before my next virtual meeting starts, so we're going to wrap this up the execution.

Speaker 1:

Execution is obviously performance. Do many organizations have an execution problem? Hello, yeah, absolutely. It's part of what keeps us in business and vision problems and execution problems. And so, yes, the chances that your organization, that you've got managers or leaders inside your company that are dealing with execution problems, is absolutely true. How do you solve the execution problem? It's really two things. It's not complicated, this is not rocket science. If you have an execution problem, it's really two things. It's not complicated, this is not rocket science.

Speaker 1:

If you have an execution problem and a part of your organization, you have one of two different problems or issues. Number one this is most likely the case you haven't defined what actually needs to be delivered. Everything's important, everything's being talked about, everything's a priority. You don't have key results. You haven't defined the two or three, maybe four metrics that matter most. And so what do you need that leader to execute on? He or she needs team key results. We call them TKRs. Right and lead in 30,. Our course and in our consulting work, they need to define that.

Speaker 1:

If you have an execution problem, you usually haven't defined, or that leader doesn't know what's most important. They think their job is to stay busy and that's not their job. That's not what you need them to do. You need them to prioritize and focus on the right things. So if you have an execution problem, nine out of 10 times you haven't defined, you don't have clarity around the key results either. That. And if you've solved that and you've got that in place, then it's a follow-up issue. So you've got to hold them accountable. That leader doesn't doesn't think that they actually have to deliver on that. Or right, cause we've defined the key results of people like oh, that's nice, I don't actually think we're going to hit that growth target and I don't think anybody in this company cares if we miss it. So you got to fix that right.

Speaker 1:

Or under that category, I'd put you've got someone without the capability to do it.

Speaker 1:

Or under that category I'd put you've got someone without the capability to do it.

Speaker 1:

They don't have the know-how, they don't have the competence. It's not an insult of their intelligence or how good they are. They're just not in the right seat. They're in over their skis, as we say, right, and so you can help them. You can put reinforcements in there, you can beef that team up a little bit to try to support them. Or you can look at your resources and say we don't have resources for that, and it's pretty easy for me to find a leader that actually our manager in that space that does have competence. So we're going to make a move, we're going to move this leader over to that part of the company where they do have competence and they can execute, or we're going to ask them to, we're going to invite them to leave the organization, take care of them on the way out, because it's just not a good fit. Vision and execution which one do you need to focus on more right now? Hopefully I gave you some things to think about in this episode of the lead in 30 podcast.

Speaker 2:

Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.