The Nine Principles for
Achieving Excellence in Execution
by Leland A. Russell

Three critical leadership mindsets—Think Strategically, Focus Sharply, Move Quickly—are the foundation of Leadership In FastTime®. They provide a comprehensive mental model for achieving Excellence In Execution Leadership.

By practicing nine proven principles, a leader translates these leadership mindsets into action. Before we review them, let’s clarify our definitions of “practice” and “principle.” 

“Practice” refers to an established, effective way of performing a leadership function that has been developed through experience and knowledge. “Practicing” means following the effective leadership practice repeatedly in order to improve performance. “Principle” refers to an important underlying law or assumption required in a system of leadership thought. It is presented as a concise statement of a fundamental truth about leadership within a specific context.

For example, a few years ago an adventurous family decided to go backpacking in Alaska. The wilderness area they planned to visit had a large population of grizzly bears. Since the family had never before been in bear country, they decided to visit the National Park Service Center for a presentation on “Safety in Bear Country.”  The Park Ranger strongly emphasized one core fact: bears, if annoyed or surprised, can be very dangerous. He concluded his presentation with a key principle for bear safety: “Make noise!”

The principle “Make noise!” provides a guideline for ensuring personal safety in a potentially dangerous environment—bear country. Likewise, the nine Leadership In FastTime® principles provide guidelines for ensuring leadership success in today’s dynamic environment of complexity and rapid change. These leadership guidelines target the common obstacles to achieving excellence in Execution leadership.

Think Strategically Leadership Principles

• Leadership Principle One, See The Big Picture, is an antidote for the narrow perspectives and blind spots that can lead to bad decisions, missed opportunities and unintended consequences. It provides leadership guidelines for developing realistic situational awareness.

• Leadership Principle Two, Design Your Future Picture, is an antidote for the knee-jerk solutions that compound current problems and fail to move you in a strategically smart direction. It provides leadership guidelines for setting stretch objectives and shaping effective strategies and measures.

• Leadership Principle Three, Practice Winning Behaviors is an antidote for the status quo ways of doing things that are often counterproductive. It provides leadership guidelines for defining and practicing the behaviors and cultural norms that will support success. 

Focus Sharply Leadership Principles

• Leadership Principle Four, Understand The System, is an antidote for underestimating what it takes to overcome the inertia of the status quo. It provides leadership guidelines for building a shared understanding of the key Leverage Points of the organizational and market system in which you are executing.  

• Leadership Principle Five, Create Good Enough Plans is an antidote for allowing the desire for perfection to be the enemy of the good. It provides leadership guidelines for shaping Action Roadmaps that allow you to move forward quickly and build momentum when implementing plans.   

• Leadership Principle Six, Organize for Rapid Success, is an antidote for the tendency to maintain outdated structures and processes because they are difficult to change or politically expedient to maintain. It provides leadership guidelines for organizing your resources to support fast-cycle implementation of your “good enough” plans.

Move Quickly Leadership Principles

• Leadership Principle Seven, Orchestrate Parallel Actions, is an antidote for lack of implementation speed and the potential to have your strategy derailed by a single point failure. It provides leadership guidelines for implementing multiple, aligned Action Roadmaps that affect a critical mass of Leverage Points concurrently. 

• Leadership Principle Eight, Improve While You Move, is an antidote for the failure to quickly learn from mistakes and rapidly course correct. It provides leadership guidelines for continuously assessing Execution outcomes with a singular focus on getting better faster Execution results.

• Leadership Principle Nine, Lead The Transitions, is an antidote for the weak beginnings and endings that waste valuable time and resources. It provides leadership guidelines for starting initiatives and projects in a smart way and finishing them with finesse to maximize results.

Whether you are a seasoned leader at the top or an emerging leader on the way up, these nine leadership principles can help you and your organization improve Execution performance because:

The Leadership In FastTime® architecture depicted in the graphic below offers a disciplined, proven leadership methodology that integrates the Execution practices, processes and tools that leaders, managers and mission-critical teams need to win.

SUMMARY

Three critical leadership mindsets—Think Strategically, Focus Sharply, Move Quickly—provide a comprehensive mental model for achieving Excellence In Execution. You can translate these leadership mindsets into action by practicing nine proven principles.

“Practice” refers to an established, effective way of performing a leadership function that has developed through experience and knowledge. “Principle” refers to an important underlying law or assumption required in a system of leadership thought.

Whether you are a seasoned leader at the top or an emerging leader on the way up, applying the nine Leadership In FastTime® principles can help you and your organization improve your organization’s Execution performance.

When you think about the potential value of learning and applying the nine Leadership In FastTime® principles personally, or in your organization, consider these questions:

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