Do you have a time management problem? Or do you have an execution issue?

Everyone thinks they have a time management problem because it’s easier to admit than having a focus and execution issue.

Our distractions are innumerable: LinkedIn, Twitter, email, personalization, perfectionism … whatever it may be, it’s cutting into your ability to focus. Focus allows you to execute quickly and effectively on tasks.

There’s a fine line between thinking versus doing, spending an hour on a cadence versus a week on a cadence, or being okay with mistakes versus being terrified to make them. This is why I am always preaching to “shrink the delta between idea and action.”

I meet people that take hours to write an email … sifting over every word and piece of punctuation. They end up writing something insanely long with no real punch to it. [Worth noting here that Lavender can help with email.]

Focus is great. Freedom is better. Freedom from your own worried mind.

Get rid of filler words and get to the point. It will help you move faster and progress breeds positivity. The key is to make every word count. Long, verbose email will either A) not get read B) end up immediately in the trash or C) overwhelm the reader who will walk away having no clue what the takeaway was.

So just save yourself and the headache: get good at being succinct.

This goes for anything … as soon as you start spending too long trying to perfect the plan or any task it becomes impossible to execute at all. At least for me it does.

So what else can cause a lag in execution? Maybe you’re feeling unable to fail. Maybe there’s this impending feeling that if you mess up, you’ll be on the chopping block.

A huge misstep in any organization from the top-down is making your people feel terrified to fail.

If your team feels supported when they make mistakes, they won’t overthink their every move or every word. It’s an integral part of being a leader: give your team confidence and it will repay itself tenfold.

You’re already doing the job of giving them the tools to execute effectively [I hope], now everyone needs to know how not to get caught in the weeds of inefficiency.

Sales enablement platforms are amazing and extremely helpful for overall team productivity and results, but if you throw a bunch of new SDRs into the ring with one, they might not know how to effectively execute on their cadences, especially when the steps start asking for personalization at scale.

In order for your team to use tools to the full capacity, they need to be trained on how to execute cadence steps well.

As for what you can do personally: give tasks your full attention and trust that you know what you’re doing. Fail a little bit and don’t be afraid to. As soon as you get comfortable getting out of your head you’ll be able to make a greater impact and continuously follow-through.

This is how you slowly build a culture of execution.

Trust, confidence, knowledge, empowerment, focus.