Are you an Ideas Person” “or Execution Person”?

While I was working at JNBS in charge of youth marketing, I was often referred to as the “ideas man” by executives in the organization and they frequently asked me to sit in on meetings that had nothing to do with my job description. I loved being able to get involved in multiple projects and leave a little mark. I thought it was such a great compliment to be recognized for my creativity, knowledge and ability to quickly generate ideas.

I was wrong.

My boss at the time sat me down one day and had a nice long talk about what it takes to be truly successful. He wanted me to adjust my strategy and focus on “execution”. He said that everyone was impressed with my ability to formulate and articulate ideas, especially big ones, but the next step was being able to move up the ladder to become and “execution” guy.Some say that ideas are a dime a dozen and the only difference between success and failure is execution. That is true, just look at the search engine wars.

Google was not the first, second or third, but they executed better than everyone else. It is the same story in every single market - those who can execute best always win. The idea is always secondary.Being an “ideas person” is not a bad thing, it tends to be what CEOs are - they have the vision, but the execution is usually done by the COO or other management. You need to figure out if you want to be in “ideas” or “execution” and then work hard at it. Some people can do both well so don’t think that it is an either or decision.I like to think of myself as someone who can do both, but I am know I am still weaker in the execution department.

To strengthen my execution skills, I have assigned myself specific tasks to execute each week and slowly increased the level of complexity and length of time a project needs to be executed.Eventually I won’t have to be the one actually executing but I want that skill in my arsenal so that I can better relate to the strong management team we will eventually hire to handle execution of strategy to achieve the vision.

One of our advantages at Realvibez has been execution, we generally under-promise and over-deliver. We however have a tremendous amount of work to do when it comes to the execution of specific things but nothing happens over-night.We have found that reducing the number of BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals - Jim Collins “Good to Great”) and focusing on executing one at a time has paid off far better than having 50 brilliant ideas to work on.

We have turned down opportunities because it would diffuse our limited resources, which usually leads to sub-par execution.If you under-deliver or execute poorly, it hurts you and your brand forever, forcing you to work 5 times as hard the next time to get over that hurdle.

Never forget:

A mediocre idea with great execution will always trump a great idea with mediocre execution.