Bridging Leadership and Action

How Effective Leaders Balance Mission, People, and Resource Optimization for Organizational Success

by George Belsky, Blue Courage/Purple Resolve Master Educator

No matter where you sit on the food chain in any organization, people both inside and outside of that entity have expectations about your performance. Partners, stakeholders, shareholders, and the public all will expect certain things from you as a member of the organization you work for or belong to.  Supervisors, peers, colleagues, subordinates, and constituents inside the organization expect some level of performance or productivity.  In other words, “Are you doing the job you were hired to do?” 

Execution is using sound judgement and common sense grounded in an ethical foundation to act decisively in accomplishing a task or mission. As someone who has studied history, leaders and leadership for a long time, I’ve tried to arrive at a definition that applies to all conditions whether you are in a designated “leadership” position or not.  For me, leadership is the art and process of influencing others. For organizational leaders the influence is used to accomplish goals, objectives, or missions of the organization (or the appointed leader). No matter the external goals, contained in those goals should be the implied task of developing individual and future leaders for the organization (“Great leaders create more leaders.” – Roy T. Bennett). Execution, then is where art and process meet reality, where the metal meets the meat. We can gather intelligence, debate courses of action, conduct analysis, and plan. In the end, though, we must “do.” Execute.

I was taught, and believe, that a leader (and we are all potential leaders, whether we are serving in a designated supervisory/management position or not) has three main responsibilities. The first of these is to accomplish the mission, get the job done, close the deal or however you would like to say it. The bottom line is that we’re expected to get results. Execute. The second of these is the care of your people or your other team members. This doesn’t mean molly coddling or babying people, but making sure they have the training (relevant, realistic training), resources, and authority to get their jobs done to the established standard. The third is an effective use of resources; using those assets at your disposal (or the ones you can bring to bear) to maximize their effect. To get the best bang for your buck. These three responsibilities are very closely aligned.  Like a three-legged stool, if one is out of balance the stool doesn’t work right.

I had the good fortune of working with some outstanding law enforcement professionals over the course of my career. Every one of them had leadership qualities and could be counted on to effectively and efficiently run their investigations and manage their cases. Many of these cases involved multi-defendant, multi-jurisdictional, complex conspiracy investigations. Often these cases required them to be leaders. In their interactions and relationships with their investigative partners, they were the ones influencing and working alongside those other agencies to accomplish their mission. With their abilities to build relationships, form partnerships, lead investigations and make sound decisions and judgements, as an organizationally appointed leader, I was able to concentrate on getting them the resources they needed, provide overall guidance or make decisions required of my position. Likewise, my leaders had enough confidence in my abilities that they gave me the operational autonomy and responsibility to make decisions affecting my team or a specific investigation. Again, as a leader, my job was to facilitate, provide the necessary guidance and resources for them to execute, make the case, accomplish the mission.

One of the things a leader, regardless of their position in the chain of command, must recognize is the need to make a decision. When they have the authority and ability to do so, they should gather as much information as practicable and make the call, as General George S. Patton said, “A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”  With the amount of information available, leaders must not exercise “paralysis by analysis.” If the decision is not in their purview, they must ensure that all relevant information is forwarded up the chain, along with their best recommendation so their boss can make the decision. Decisiveness is an aid to execution.

The great football coach, Vince Lombardi, was a student of leadership as much as he was a student of the game of football. One of his quotes on leadership is apropos, whether you are an appointed leader or a leader among your peers: “The strength of the group is the strength of the leader – I am the first believer. Leaders must have the quiet confidence, the certainty of professional preparation, and personal conviction that the task can and will be done.” Those qualities drive successful execution in any endeavor. All of us are called on to be the leaders we would like to be led by. Effective leadership, at all levels, by all members of the organization drives execution and is a force multiplier in every successful organization.