The Strategy of Execution: A Five Step Guide for Turning Vision into Action

5Build Endurance

I have a lot of stamina and I have a lot of resilience.–Hillary Clinton

Webster’s definition of stamina is “staying power, endurance.” Endurance is the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity, like running a marathon. Hillary Clinton is right. To be successful in today’s 24/7 world, we need endurance to meet all the demands we face each and every day—to stay on track until the strategy is executed.

To endure sounds, frankly, a bit grim. Yet the truth is that, in business today, we are asking people to sustain a high level of continuous effort. If strategy has become a sprint, as leaders lurch from each economic crisis to the next social unrest, then strategy execution has become a marathon. Getting the organization ...