The Challenge

Leaders often spend immense time giving thought to, creating, and communicating annual visions or forecasts for their enterprises. These are then broken down into monthly objectives for their teams to achieve. These big pictures provide essential direction, unity, and meaning in the workplace. Although vision-casting is vital, the conversation must quickly shift to “What must we execute daily to get there, and how must we do it?” Your focus should first prioritize the where, but then be invested disproportionately toward identifying and managing those essential daily behaviors that convert what I call TUFs (short for the ultimate few objectives that mean the most) into reality. Without this specific focus on the what and the how, you will succeed only in creating more goals that will disappoint because their execution failed.

Commit to a Ferocious Focus on Activities—the Daily MAX Acts—the Key Activities Most Responsible for Desired Outcomes

The outcome focus versus activity focus imbalance is somewhat understandable because team vision casting and goal setting are fun, and dreaming of new outcome objectives (TUFs) is creative and inspiring. Selecting and focusing on those ultimate few objectives will be discussed in detail in the upcoming chapter “Get TUF!” Determining, discussing, and executing the activities most likely to create the outcomes can seem mundane and often requires deeper thought; therefore, it is harder work than dreaming up goals. Communicating and holding team members accountable for executing their master the art of execution (MAX) acts may also create pain and discomfort throughout the ranks, because changing one's behavior and restructuring one's daily routine is rarely easy, pleasant, or welcomed by the masses. (For more in-depth coverage of MAX acts, see Chapter 5.)

The reality is, to achieve the TUFs you have never reached before, your team must do daily what it has never done before. This includes executing with a focus and consistency like it's never executed before. As inspiring as your TUFs may be, these goals should never be considered a “destination thing,” but a daily thing. To that end, a leader's objective must be to create a structure within his or her culture that makes each day a masterpiece—a structure that, when each step of a process is followed, predictably leads to execution success.

I first heard the mantra “make each day your masterpiece” from the late UCLA men's basketball coach John Wooden. Wooden was known for his intensely structured practices that required perfecting basic drills to the point of exhaustion. Wooden famously observed, “It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen” (BrainyQuote, n.d.). Indeed they did; Coach Wooden's teams won 10 national championships in 12 years, including an astonishing seven in a row, and sprinkled in four undefeated seasons for good measure. In the 10 years that UCLA won national championships under Wooden's leadership, their win/loss record was a mind-blowing 290–10!

What follows are three thoughts for helping you and your team MAX by making each day a masterpiece in your own enterprise:

1. Redirect more of your focus and energy away from desired outcomes and toward the daily MAX acts that create them. Outcomes, of course, are your TUFs. MAX acts are the maximum-impact daily actions that create them. TUFs, vital as they may be, are the lagging indicators; they show up too late to affect performance. MAX acts, when consistently well executed, take you to the TUFs and should be focused on daily with more diligence than the TUF itself. Frankly, there is far too much discussion in organizations about the numbers, whereas focus given to managing the daily MAX acts necessary to make them a reality is anemic. In Chapter 5, I will discuss more about MAX acts, including: how to select them, communicate them, train others to do them, and hold team members accountable for executing them.
2. Identify and communicate MAX acts for each position. We are not talking about 40 things, or 14 things, but instead the handful of actions most essential for achieving the desired TUF: one, two, three, or four at the most.
3. Establish an every day means every day (EDMED) mind-set throughout your organization. Talk about EDMED in meetings, during performance appraisals, and during one-on-one coaching sessions. Post framed copies of EDMED in conference rooms or training facilities. Live EDMED, breathe EDMED, walk EDMED, and talk EDMED. Your team will come to embrace EDMED, especially when they see their own results improve.

In the upcoming chapters “MAP It!” and “RAM It!,” I will present specific accountability components in which each team member must answer daily for executing his or her key measures, to strengthen focus and positive peer pressure to perform as well as your culture. For now, you may wish to consider that a more ferocious focus on the MAX acts is the next step your organization needs to attain an entirely new performance level.

What's Next?

• Once you determine your TUFs, create MAX acts for each position.
• Think MAX acts, not just outcomes. Do a great job of managing the right daily activities, and you won't have to worry about the right TUF outcomes!
• Create both a “make each day your masterpiece,” and an EDMED mind-set within your culture.
• As you make each day a masterpiece, watch your daily focus, engagement, and results soar, as outcomes are attained faster and more efficiently than ever before.
• As you work to refine your personal philosophy to make each day a masterpiece, it is time to give serious thought to what exactly the most essential goals for your organization are. This ensures that you are resolutely clear about what you are moving toward. In other words, it's time to get TUF, which is exactly what the next chapter will teach you to do.

Parting Thought

We have been told our entire lives that “life is short,” to “put first things first,” and to “make the most of your time.” We have also discovered the hard way that those admonitions are far easier said than done. Despite our good intentions and strong will, too many days, weeks, and even years have seemingly gone wasted. The simple and structured execution steps (MAX) for making each day a masterpiece simply convert our good intentions into a workable process, enabling us to make a daily masterpiece a reality. See? It's not rocket science!