A Day in the Life of a Senior Leader

Chapter 11. The 12 Steps

The following is a list of all the work necessary to get a thing done, from the high-level company vision defined by the executive team all the way down to the next step an individual needs to complete in order to support that vision. 

Ready for the hard part? Doing this will prepare you for the rest of the book. Unless you choose to, you won’t share the result of this exercise with anyone else, which means you should be brutally honest with yourself. I’m interrupting the narrative flow to make sure I have your attention. You good? Good.

For each item on the list, ask yourself two questions:

• Do I understand the work necessary to succeed at this bullet?

• Am I capable of doing this work?

Start at step 1 and keep going. Take your time. If you’re racing to the bottom in a few minutes, chances are, you aren’t taking this work seriously. Take a breath, think about the last time you failed hard, and try again:

1. This is the vision. It’s huge. It’s ambitious. When you hear it or read it, you are inspired.

2. These are the goals that support the vision.

3. This is the next goal we need to achieve.

4. These are the projects that support this goal.

5. This is the most significant project I want you and your team to complete to support the goal. These are the other projects related to yours that support the goal. You need to be aware of the projects, their interdependence on this project (if any), and their owners.

6. This is how we’ll measure the success of your ...