Every quarter, our leadership team starts with great energy around our Rocks, but we consistently end up in a panicked scramble during the final two weeks of the quarter trying to force them across the finish line. How do we maintain execution consistency over the entire ninety days?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A panicked scramble at the end of the quarter is a symptom of a breakdown in your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ tracking. When a leader reports the status of their Rocks each week, they must only answer with one of two phrases: on track or off track. There is no such thing as mostly on track or working on it. If a Rock is off track for more than two consecutive weeks, it must immediately be dropped down to the weekly Issues List to be solved using IDS®. Do not allow leaders to hide behind explanations or promise they will catch up next week. The leadership team must lean in and solve the bottleneck together. This requires being humbly-confident, admitting when you are stuck, and accepting help. To ensure execution, break each ninety-day Rock down into three or four clear milestones with specific due dates. Track these milestones on your personal task manager. If you miss a milestone, your Rock is officially off track. By forcing this weekly honesty, you catch delays in week four or five when you still have time to self-correct, rather than in week eleven when it is already too late. Consistent execution is about weekly discipline, not end-of-quarter heroics.