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Most firms have no shortage of ideas. The harder part? Performing on them.
This is not a latest challenge. More than half of the employees their company said good ideas failed to be implemented.
It affects firms of all sizes, even Amazon. To avoid evaluation paralysis, Jeff Bezos instilled a powerful mantra in his team: “(*5*)tendency to actAmazon leaders are expected to make difficult decisions and follow through on them, even when the end result is uncertain. Risk is not only tolerated – it is encouraged.
But this is just one strategy for turning innovation into execution. As the founder and CEO of a company that recently surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue, here are some of the most significant lessons I’ve learned along the way about the art of “getting the job done.”
1. Keep customers informed – early and often
Companies that want to close the gap between innovation and execution won’t succeed without listening to their customers.
As a teenager, I worked in Mac customer support while also developing Mac applications. Watching people use the software—and seeing what confused them and what didn’t—gave powerful insight into its creation. By including customers in the loop, innovation happens faster.
When I began building my POS company, I spent a lot of time with customers every week, providing them with latest versions of our software to test and then implementing their suggestions. This showed us whether we were innovating in the right direction or whether we were building features that had no effect on the customer.
Too many startups skip this step. Because they never watch someone use their software, they do not understand how customers actually work. This is a big oversight considering that customer-obsessed firms increase revenues and profits about 30% faster.
As your online business grows, the key is to preserve those intimate moments where you provide customer feedback. For example, I recently organized a meeting with retail clients to find out how they track social media ad conversions to in-store results. This meeting led directly to a product conversation with my team.
2. Regularly check the pulse throughout the company for excitement
For leaders, a big a part of turning ideas into motion is gaining buy-in from everyone.
At my company, we do this through a quarterly product review. All product groups share with us what they have accomplished and are working on this quarter whole team, from sales, through marketing, to customer support. This open session is a probability for product specialists to present a project which may be a bit dangerous and get a big selection of perspectives on whether to pursue it.
It’s principally an emotional barometer. What is everyone most enthusiastic about and what do they think will excite the market? Equally necessary, which “promising” latest ideas make the larger team yawn or even flinch? Getting this feedback early is extremely necessary.
One goal of such a pulse check is to make your organization an organism whose parts are deeply interdependent. After all, sales are based on the success of a latest product hitting its goal for the 12 months, so it’s in everyone’s interest to help each other. The higher the collaboration and alignment between teams, the higher the product launch must be.
Rowing together pays off. Companies with highly aligned teams are more or less likely to be 70% more profitable than their unbalanced peers. They are also greater than twice as likely to retain customers and greater than three times as likely to satisfy them.
3. Extend true ownership to individual teams
Good leaders know that when it comes to moving ideas from idea to execution, there is a difference between motivating people and micromanaging them.
The other day I met with my company’s design team to review our mobile sales tools. Since I had been building mobile products myself for 15 years of developing the company, this was my distinctiveness. It could be easier for me to take over the meeting with my product vision.
But that is not the way you scale a company and that is actually not the way you motivate employees. Instead of taking the deserved ownership I had given the design team, I used to be there to encourage them by showing real interest in what they were doing.
Giving people ownership helps them get things done. In firms that are strong in execution, more or less 70% of employees agree that everybody has a good grasp of the decisions and actions for which they are responsible, compared to only about 30% for those that are poor in execution.
4. Don’t quit on your greater role as head cheerleader
Taking responsibility is one thing, but people need to know that their leader is committed too.
When I think about good ideas that did not work in our company, it’s often because team members didn’t feel like I used to be going all the way with them. Leaders should be careful not to deprive innovations of the energy and attention they need to move beyond the drafting board.
At this significant, middle stage, the project needs fuel – and I do not just mean throwing bodies and resources at it. In this case, the strongest fuel a leader can provide is enthusiasm for the team’s success. This type of excitement is contagious. People know that when they achieve something, not only will it’s a profession victory, but their boss will join them to rejoice this success.
For team members, this recognition matters. Four out of ten employees would put more energy into their work if the company recognized them more often, while six in ten who feel valued are not possible to look for a latest job.
5. You can never have too many dashboards
Do you would like to stand out in your performance? You cannot improve something if you possibly can’t measure it.
Our company has all the time had sales roots, so metrics are in our DNA. As a part of this culture of accountability, our offices are equipped with dashboards showing key performance indicators (KPIs). Ultimately it returns to ownership. People are responsible for their KPIs and expect the same from their colleagues.
Across departments, these KPIs all add up to seven core metrics that represent the company’s priorities – for example, the percentage of shoppers who have switched to using our payment tools. With this alignment, everyone is working on goals that can move the needle.
Yes, sometimes the pressure to watch and match numbers can seem overwhelming and even boring. But it’s no coincidence that just two years after launching our payment services, they now account for almost 40% of our annual transaction volume.
Overall, data-driven firms have a serious advantage – or quite, they do almost 60% more likely exceed revenue targets.
Bridging the gap between innovation and execution is probably not easy for leaders, but it is not rocket science either. By engaging team members and customers and measuring results, firms can turn a good idea into a great business move.