Leadership Pure and Simple: How Transformative Leaders Create Winning Organizations

CHAPTER 9Balancing Operations and Execution

Once a strategy is in place and innovative opportunities have been targeted, a leader is left with the task of running the business on a day-to-day basis. All kinds of operational situations will surface while he or she is trying to keep the locomotive on track, demanding yet another set of mental skills as part of the leader’s arsenal. What is now required is a framework for operational decision making that leads to the resolution of day-to-day concerns in a manner that continuously edges the organization toward its new strategic profile.

At this point, we are often asked to explain the difference between execution and operations. Our answer is that they are not different. The largest single impediment ...