Barriers to Effective Execution

"Execution is a specific set of behaviors and techniques that compnaies need to master in order to have competitive advantage."

Managers who execute well do so because they make a habit of doing the right things while guarding against forces that threaten the company's future. The following specific factors can interfere with a manager's ability to execute consistently:

Failure to practice purposeful abandonment.
Managers should regularly review products and people to make sure they are still fulfilling their original promise.

Excessive bureaucracy or management layers.
Few things can clog an organization like excessive, oppressive management layers. If decisions get bogged down, it could be because of too much red tape and/or too many stifling layer of management.

The absence of clearly defined values and an operating system to share learning and ideas.
The most effective organizations have shared values that define the company, and they conduct meetings, reviews, and training (i.e. the operating system) to help inculcate those values throughout the firm.

The wrong management structure.
"The right structure does not guarantee results," Drucker wrote in Managing for Results. "But the wrong structure aborts results...Above all, structure has to be such that it highlights the results that are truly meaningful."

No clear strategy or one not communicated throughout the organization.
Unless there is a clear strategy that everyone in the firm can communicate, people will not understand how their accomplishments contribute to the organization as a whole.

An insular culture that focuses on the wrong things and reward the wrong behavior.
A culture that does not encourage its people to focus on customers, the marketplace, and the "right" results will eventually falter.

ACTION POINT: Recognize and remove any of the above barriers to effective execution.

Execution Requires Abandonment

Execution isn’t only accomplishing things—it’s accomplishing the right things.

Much of the Drucker body of knowledge is aimed at making managers and “knowledge workers” more productive. Drucker coined the term knowledge worker in the 1960’s to describe educated rather than apprenticed workers. A knowledge worker is “nonmanual,” Drucker told me, “what you have to go to school to learn—what you can’t learn by an apprenticeship.” The ultimate test of a manger, and the only one that counts, is one that measures accomplishment. In Drucker’s view, execution isn’t only accomplishing things—it’s accomplishing the right things.

The most effective leaders know that execution and abandonment are two sides of the coin. Organizations that consistently outperform their peers are those that discard outdated strategies, products, and processes. Only through this cleansing process can an organization renew itself.

Planned abandonment is a prerequisite to consistent execution. “To call abandonment an opportunity may come as a surprise,” argues Drucker. “Yet planned, purposeful abandonment of the old and of the unrewarding is a prerequisite pursuit of the new and highly promising. Above all, abandonment is the key to innovation—both because it frees the necessary resources and because it stimulates the search for the new that will replace the old.”


ACTION POINT: Seek opportunity in abandonment.

Execution First and Always

Objectives are needed in every area where performance and results directly and vitally affect the survival and prosperity of the business.”


Peter Drucker understood from the outset that sound management was all about performing, organizing, contributing, developing, preparing, and achieving. His works are infused with dozens of words and phrases suggesting that action is the chief determinant of managerial success; not just any action, but responsible action that advances the objectives of the organization.


One of Drucker’s key assumptions was that management is first and foremost a practice, and for a manager to excel at it , he or she must understand that it is performance that is the ultimate measure of success. During our day together, Drucker told me what separated the good from the fair, and the fair from the incompetent manger. Here’s how he described the most capable manager.

Can hire, fire, organize... promote
Is completely accountable for results
Knows how to delegate upstairs
Makes informed decisions after thinning through the time frame
Really thinks it through and then communicates it
Is the right person for the business plan
Asks what needs to be done and sets a new priority
Ends meetings with clear assignments. most meetings end in murkiness


These tenets say a great deal about Drucker’s notion of the practice of management. Managers hire, promote, and delegate (both up, and down, the hierarchy). They are strong communicators; they make effective decisions that help the organization, not only in the near term but for the long run. They set priorities and make sure they are executed, and when that is done, they set a new priority.

ACTION POINT: Execute your role by using Drucker’s tenets for the practice of management.