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Execution IS the Strategy: How Leaders Achieve Maximum Results in Minimum Time
In today’s world of rapid, disruptive change, strategy can’t be separate from execution—it has to emerge from execution. You have to continually adjust your strategy to fit new realities. But if your organization isn’t set up to be fast on its feet, you could easily go the way of Blockbuster or Borders.
Laura Stack shows you how to quickly drive strategic initiatives and get great results from your team. Her LEAD Formula outlines the Four Keys to Successful the ability to Leverage your talent and resources, design an Environment to support an agile culture, create Alignment between strategic priorities and operational activities, and Drive the organization forward quickly. She includes a leadership team assessment, group reading guides, and bonus self-development resources. Stack will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and inspiration to help you hit the ground running!
Laura Stack shows you how to quickly drive strategic initiatives and get great results from your team. Her LEAD Formula outlines the Four Keys to Successful the ability to Leverage your talent and resources, design an Environment to support an agile culture, create Alignment between strategic priorities and operational activities, and Drive the organization forward quickly. She includes a leadership team assessment, group reading guides, and bonus self-development resources. Stack will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and inspiration to help you hit the ground running!
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
20 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Laura Stack
120 books27 followersLaura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE, is best known by her moniker “The Productivity Pro®.” Stack is an award-winning keynote speaker, bestselling author, and noted authority on sales, leadership, and team productivity. She is the President & CEO of The Productivity Pro, Inc., a boutique consulting firm helping leaders increase workplace performance in high-stress environments.
For over 30 years, Laura Stack’s keynote speeches and seminars have helped associations and Fortune 1000 corporations improve output, increase speed in execution, and save time in the office. She is a high-energy, high-content speaker, who educates, entertains, and motivates professionals to deliver bottom-line results. Stack is a member of the prestigious CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, which has fewer than 200 members worldwide). She has earned the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation from the National Speakers Association, of which she was its president in 2011-2012.
Laura Stack is the bestselling author of nine books published by Random House, Wiley, and Berrett-Koehler, including her newest, The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: Johnny Stack’s Life and Death Story (Freiling, July 2021). Her books have been published in more than 20 foreign editions, and she is a featured columnist for the American Business Journal, LinkedIn, Time Management, and Productive magazines. Stack has produced more than 50 online productivity training programs.
Laura Stack has been featured nationally on the CBS Early Show, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg, the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and Forbes magazine. Stack has been a spokesperson for Fellowes, Microsoft, 3M, Skillsoft, Office Depot, Day-Timer, and Xerox. Her client list includes top Fortune 500 companies, including Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Aramark, Bank of America, GM, Wells Fargo, and Time Warner, plus government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Air Force Academy, the Census Bureau, the U.S. Senate, and the Department of Defense.
For over 30 years, Laura Stack’s keynote speeches and seminars have helped associations and Fortune 1000 corporations improve output, increase speed in execution, and save time in the office. She is a high-energy, high-content speaker, who educates, entertains, and motivates professionals to deliver bottom-line results. Stack is a member of the prestigious CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, which has fewer than 200 members worldwide). She has earned the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation from the National Speakers Association, of which she was its president in 2011-2012.
Laura Stack is the bestselling author of nine books published by Random House, Wiley, and Berrett-Koehler, including her newest, The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: Johnny Stack’s Life and Death Story (Freiling, July 2021). Her books have been published in more than 20 foreign editions, and she is a featured columnist for the American Business Journal, LinkedIn, Time Management, and Productive magazines. Stack has produced more than 50 online productivity training programs.
Laura Stack has been featured nationally on the CBS Early Show, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg, the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and Forbes magazine. Stack has been a spokesperson for Fellowes, Microsoft, 3M, Skillsoft, Office Depot, Day-Timer, and Xerox. Her client list includes top Fortune 500 companies, including Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Aramark, Bank of America, GM, Wells Fargo, and Time Warner, plus government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Air Force Academy, the Census Bureau, the U.S. Senate, and the Department of Defense.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 2, 2015
I received a free copy of this book from the (now-defunct) 12 Books Group in exchange for this review.
Execution is the Strategy. When I first saw the title, I thought, "Duh." Nothing gets done unless you execute. You can sit around in meetings all day and plan to your heart's content, but unless you execute, it's all meaningless. Unfortunately, a lot of corporations don't do this, or don't really know how. The author has a 4-step plan, based on the acronym LEAD, to get things done.
L stands for Leverage. This means that you have the right people and drivers to execute your strategy.
E stands for Environment. This means you have the right organizational atmosphere , practices, and culture to allow employees to execute.
A stands for Alignment. This means that employees' attitudes align with the organization's goals.
D stands for Drive. This means that everyone is agile enough to move quickly to execute.
Within these, she discusses various strategies to make sure can execute effectively. She goes through the ideal scenario, and then explains what to do when the ideal scenario doesn't work. There's also a "Final Word" in each chapter, summarizing what was said.
I've read a lot of business books, and some of this reminded me of things I'd seen elsewhere. For example, the section on prioritizing reminded me of the "ABC" method I've seen elsewhere. (A is top priority, B is important but lesser priority, and C is trivia.) Also, a section on refreshing your mind by doing important things that aren't urgent. reminded me of Stephen Covey's quadrant system. (Check it out in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.)
She does address big disasters in the book, where you do what you can, but a lot of other plans go out the window. She doesn't mention the biggest one of the last few years, however--9/11. That was a big improvisation. It also illustrates the dichotomy in the book. For a big emergency, you need to have one person in charge, giving orders. For other considerations, however, collaboration is better, but not to the point of analysis paralysis. The response right after 9/11 was great. The decisions on what to do with the site, though, were not great. It took over a decade to decide what to do with the property, and the new building just opened.
This is a good book. The best thing to do with this, however, is to put it into action. If it just sits on a shelf, the title becomes ironic.
Execution is the Strategy. When I first saw the title, I thought, "Duh." Nothing gets done unless you execute. You can sit around in meetings all day and plan to your heart's content, but unless you execute, it's all meaningless. Unfortunately, a lot of corporations don't do this, or don't really know how. The author has a 4-step plan, based on the acronym LEAD, to get things done.
L stands for Leverage. This means that you have the right people and drivers to execute your strategy.
E stands for Environment. This means you have the right organizational atmosphere , practices, and culture to allow employees to execute.
A stands for Alignment. This means that employees' attitudes align with the organization's goals.
D stands for Drive. This means that everyone is agile enough to move quickly to execute.
Within these, she discusses various strategies to make sure can execute effectively. She goes through the ideal scenario, and then explains what to do when the ideal scenario doesn't work. There's also a "Final Word" in each chapter, summarizing what was said.
I've read a lot of business books, and some of this reminded me of things I'd seen elsewhere. For example, the section on prioritizing reminded me of the "ABC" method I've seen elsewhere. (A is top priority, B is important but lesser priority, and C is trivia.) Also, a section on refreshing your mind by doing important things that aren't urgent. reminded me of Stephen Covey's quadrant system. (Check it out in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.)
She does address big disasters in the book, where you do what you can, but a lot of other plans go out the window. She doesn't mention the biggest one of the last few years, however--9/11. That was a big improvisation. It also illustrates the dichotomy in the book. For a big emergency, you need to have one person in charge, giving orders. For other considerations, however, collaboration is better, but not to the point of analysis paralysis. The response right after 9/11 was great. The decisions on what to do with the site, though, were not great. It took over a decade to decide what to do with the property, and the new building just opened.
This is a good book. The best thing to do with this, however, is to put it into action. If it just sits on a shelf, the title becomes ironic.
October 3, 2014
In July I read "Execution IS The Strategy" by Laura Stack as part of my 12 Books Group. The title sales the concept really well. As the speed of business has increased over the years new challenges have emerged. After the C-level executives work out a new strategy and begin to push it out to the team the environment is already changing. Often by the time the various teams begin to implement and make changes the strategy is already outdated. Laura Stack makes the argument that the key strategy that is allowing business to flourish in that type of environment is execution itself.
The majority of the book is dedicated to helping individuals, leaders, and organizations identify where their execution is weak and how to address it. The book is divided into 4 core parts (which create the acronym L-E-A-D) with 3 sub sections to each of those 4 parts. To get the most out of the reading experience the author suggests, and I wholly agree that the reader should first take the "execution quotient" assessment provided for free on the website. This helps you identify which parts of this book are going to be most important to your learning process. I read the whole book regardless, paying extra close attention to those sections that I identified as my weaknesses in execution.
The book is full of great insights and ideas of how to remove the barriers that slow and stop execution. I found a lot of value in the sections about Training and Coaching. Understanding how to best create an environment of mentors for example was really helpful.
I also felt like the section about communication was very helpful. As companies grow larger I think we lose the skills of listening and communicating well with our people and our teams. Laura addresses well how that hinders execution and gives several great ideas of how to take down that barrier to success.
Check out this book and I think you will be impressed with the insights and the lessons you can glean from Laura's years of coaching and productivity excellence.
The majority of the book is dedicated to helping individuals, leaders, and organizations identify where their execution is weak and how to address it. The book is divided into 4 core parts (which create the acronym L-E-A-D) with 3 sub sections to each of those 4 parts. To get the most out of the reading experience the author suggests, and I wholly agree that the reader should first take the "execution quotient" assessment provided for free on the website. This helps you identify which parts of this book are going to be most important to your learning process. I read the whole book regardless, paying extra close attention to those sections that I identified as my weaknesses in execution.
The book is full of great insights and ideas of how to remove the barriers that slow and stop execution. I found a lot of value in the sections about Training and Coaching. Understanding how to best create an environment of mentors for example was really helpful.
I also felt like the section about communication was very helpful. As companies grow larger I think we lose the skills of listening and communicating well with our people and our teams. Laura addresses well how that hinders execution and gives several great ideas of how to take down that barrier to success.
Check out this book and I think you will be impressed with the insights and the lessons you can glean from Laura's years of coaching and productivity excellence.
June 21, 2016
Laura Stack is one of my favorite time management authors ever. She seems to have all the right tips with all the right information in each of her books. Each time a new book comes out, I'm flying to purchase it. Unfortunately, it took me a lot longer to get through this book than expected. But it is a book for leaders so I should have considered that before reading. It's more business oriented than task oriented. Regardless, I found a lot of good information contained within. Definitely some new techniques that I haven't yet used, or considered which are likely to help me in improving my daily schedule. I'm excited to try them out. And I'm still getting her next book!
August 19, 2014
According to this book, the business cycle has increased so fast that you have to work your plan as you are planning it. All team building has to be a part of teamwork. You have to hit the floor running as soon as you get to the office, and adapt to changes on the fly. This is her idea of how to do that while not driving yourself crazy and taking your co-workers with you.
Read
May 22, 2015Interesting book, especially the thesis of how strategy has changed with the speed up of business and social change. It is perhaps better aimed at newer managers, since it if filled with step-by-step guidelines.
November 22, 2020
Another trite and contrived book. The title was and is sufficient and nothing more needs to be said.
Instead the author created her own acronyms of how to execute, blah, blah, blah.
I cannot recommend this book.
Instead the author created her own acronyms of how to execute, blah, blah, blah.
I cannot recommend this book.
August 8, 2014
For me, Laura Stack was preaching to the choir with this book.
Practical. Insightful. And reflects the reality of my experiences.
Loved it.
Practical. Insightful. And reflects the reality of my experiences.
Loved it.
October 23, 2014
A practical book, showing that at the end the most important is to execute the activities, otherwise all the strategy plans, are just plans and meetings...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews