A chap asks me, “In your 50 years of CEO-ing and leadership what did you learn that was unexpected?”

I had a couple of weeks to think about it and I answered, “Urgent patience!”

To which the chap replied, “What the Hell is ‘urgent patience’ and why is it important?”

There is not much unknown about what makes an effective CEO. Whether the CEO does those things is another issue, but what a CEO is supposed to do is quite well known.

Today, we are getting a lesson at Disney which has just jettisoned its “new” CEO and retained Robert Iger, the new CEO’s predecessor. [BTW, the replacement was Iger’s handpicked boy. Go figure!]

Already, Iger has dampened the Florida Mouse War and the board has calmed down. After an initial positive reaction, the stock price hasn’t gone anywhere. It is a good situation to study.

So, Big Red Car, what the Hell is urgent patience?

There are a small number of very important things that must be done on a deadline and executed over a long period of time. Here are two examples:

 1. Strategic planning; and,

 2. Performance appraisal.

I use these two examples because this is where a competent CEO can have a huge impact on the organization and its performance.

Urgent patience is getting the prep, the foundation work done NOW and slowly implementing it over a period of time.

The prep and foundation work is urgent whilst the execution requires patience.

Strategic planning? I don’t get it Big Red Car – explain

Yes, dear reader. To create a useful and effective strategic plan, the CEO has to do the following:

 1. Circle back and review the Vision, Mission, Strategy, Tactics, Objectives, Values, and Culture of the company as it exists today. Some may require updating because of changed conditions.

Compare the plan to the execution.

 2. It is essential to review the prior 2-3 years’ performance as to markets, competition, pricing, and performance. I am taking a broad approach here to make this applicable to as many industries as possible. So, it is a little simplistic.

 3. It is also essential to review the personnel at the top of the company who will have input into the planning and will, ultimately, execute it.

Do you have the right people to execute the Strategy? If not, then these changes have to be baked into the Strategy cake.

 4. It is also useful to review Values and the resulting Culture.

It is worth noting that today, individual and company Values may be in flux or  even conflict – case in point: Work From Home.

Why is it strategic, Big Red Car?

A strategic plan is a road map for the company – the entire company – from a 30,000′ perspective. The time horizon is 2-5 years with continual updates twice a year.

Tactics – the view of the execution of the strategy from 10,000′ – are the plans to execute the strategy from a departmental and discipline perspective.

Objectives are the individual assignments that must be completed by specific persons to implement the tactics and to drive the strategy. [This is also where individual performance – Performance Appraisal – ties into the overall scheme of strategy.]

Speaking of  Performance Appraisal

Performance Appraisal is one of those things that CEOs start well and execute poorly with focus waning over the passage of time.

A well designed – simple is better – Performance Appraisal system ties Strategy into Objectives and grades performance based on actual attainment of assigned Objectives.

In this way, every person in the company is part of the Strategy at the execution level.

This is, of course, exactly the way it is supposed to work.

Pro tip: Always make comp modifications at the same time as Performance Appraisal. Carrot and stick, y’all.

Communication

The key to  urgent patience is communication. A Strategy is no good if it isn’t in writing and hasn’t been broken down into Tactics and Objectives, but most importantly if it hasn’t been communicated and understood.

In this arena, it is nor important what the CEO says the Strategy is, but it is vitally important that the individual participant, the team, knows what the Strategy, Tactics, and their Objectives are.

The technique to ensure this is done correctly is called “brief back.”

Once you have published the Strategy, have briefed the folks, make sure to ask them to “brief back” what they have heard. They will only act upon what they heard, not what you think you said. Sorry.

So, make sure to brief back.

That’s it for today, dear readers. Merry Christmas!

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Have a great weekend and call someone you haven’t spoken to in years. Reminisce about your past. You will feel much better afterwards.