From Blueprint to Breakthrough: The Discipline of Execution for Today's Leaders

Plans inspire, but finished work changes lives. We dive into the hard truth many leaders avoid: the gap between smart strategy and real results is execution. Drawing on field-tested practices and biblical wisdom, we map the habits that turn ideas into impact—without drowning in meetings, chasing vanity metrics, or waiting for perfect conditions that never arrive.

We start by naming the ten traps that stall progress: fuzzy priorities, weak accountability, goal drift, fear of conflict, perfectionism, low visibility, overloaded calendars, misaligned rewards, leaders who don’t model, and burnout. Then we rebuild with eight pillars of world-class execution: ruthless prioritization, crystal-clear OKRs, a weekly rhythm of accountability, radical transparency, the one metric that matters, a bias for action, a culture of ownership, and systematic follow-through. You’ll hear practical examples, simple tools like color-coded scorecards and team dashboards, and a 70 percent rule that helps you launch before perfection kills momentum.

Grounded in passages like James 2:26 and stories like Nehemiah’s wall, we connect faith and management in a way that feels both bold and usable. Expect clear next steps: convert your top goals into OKRs, pick the one metric that truly moves the needle, cut meetings that don’t serve it, and protect deep work. Most of all, choose one project your future self will thank you for and start it today. Vision gets applause; execution gets results—and results build trust, careers, and a legacy that lasts.

If this conversation sparks value for you, share it with your team, post the link on LinkedIn or Facebook, and help grow the CBC family. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what one project will you finish this month?

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Global Community
• 1:58 Why Execution Beats Strategy
• 4:57 Ten Reasons Plans Don’t Get Done
• 12:01 Data, Accountability, And Focus
• 15:56 Execution As A Biblical Mandate
• 18:06 Eight Pillars Of World-Class Execution
• 31:20 Ruthless Priorities And OKRs

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to the Christian Business Common Snips with your host Herald Millie. Christian Business Common Snips is dedicated to coming companies and business words and becoming effective, efficient, and successful and godly principles. Here's your host Herald Mobile.

SPEAKER_00: 0:17

Thanks again, Kelly, and welcome everybody to this week's Christian Business Concepts Podcast. You know, at CBC, our goal is to empower you through God's word and biblical business principles so that you can be the best and the most impactful leader that God created you to be and to help you on your quest to find true godly success. And, you know, we do that each week as we discuss business leadership topics, and then we apply biblical principles and standards to make you more effective as you try to walk in this godly success that we're talking about. You know, there is no cost to be a part of the CBC family. We we have people that are a part of this community throughout the entire world, over 22 countries. We just want to say thanks to all of you who download and listen to this podcast every week. And if this is your first time listening to this week's podcast, thank you for joining. You know, please be sure to share what you learn. You know, share it with your team, share it with your staff. Uh, be sure to share the podcast with four or five other people and uh post a link uh to the podcast on your LinkedIn or your Facebook pages and just help us grow the CBC family. Uh, you know, that's just what we're trying to do here. That's what we're about. And uh, you know, this week I want to give a big shout out to the country of Singapore for having so many downloads. So great job. Keep it up and everyone, this apart. We are so thankful and uh so glad that that you have become a part and you've added Christian business concepts to your to your weekly growth plan, you know, a part of growing. You know, I'm focused right now on my growth plan for 2026 right now. Uh so looking at a lot of things right now and trying to develop my growth plan. So I have that done and ready to go on January 1, and and so we're working on that. So I thank you for making us a part of your growth plan. So thank you so much. So let me start today's topic by saying this everyone has ideas. Everybody, everybody's got ideas, whether they're good ideas, bad ideas, big ideas, little ideas, everybody's got ideas. But very few people execute them. Very few. You know, I was thinking about the end of the year and and beginning this new year, and actually, as I was working on my growth plan, I just was thinking about how important it would be to close out the year talking about execution. You know, the gap between a good plan and great results is execution. You know, strategy is like a blueprint. Strategy is like a blueprint. It has all the details that are needed, but the blueprint is the vision, it's the goal. You know what I'm saying? It's the plan for the end result. But the blueprint will not build the building, it's just the plan. So execution is like a construction crew, right? That actually builds the skyscraper. A perfect blueprint print with no crew is just an empty lot. But if you have a decent blueprint with a relentless crew, then you get that iconic skyline because you've got something where that the building can be built. I like to say that that vision without execution is a Ferrari with no engine. It's beautiful to look at, but it's useless to drive. So you've got to have execution. You know, there are a lot of good leaders, a lot of good leaders with really great visions. Um they they they are very uh uh focused on their purpose, but they're their companies never become great because they don't execute. You know, when when Reed Hastings of Netflix talks about execution, he says that always deliver more than expected. That when he talks about relentless execution, that's what he says. Always deliver more than expected. Because this is what I say vision without execution is just hallucination. That's all it is. If you don't have any execu execution, your your dream, your vision is nothing but a hallucination. So it's important. So let's talk a little bit about some of the main and top reasons why people do not execute. Why don't they execute? Well, I'm gonna go through these quickly. Uh there's there's 10 of them, and I want you to get these, okay? Uh so number one is no clear priorities. There, they they they've got a lot of goals, but they don't have what I consider to be a ruthless no. In other words, you've got to be ruthless about what you say no to. So what happens if you have too many goals, you you don't really have clear priorities. You know, when you have 47 different initiatives, there's nothing that's gonna move. You know, according to uh a poll by McKenzie, you know, uh 68% of companies um do not do very well in execution. You know, uh, so I think that's important to realize. The other is that number two is that there's a lack of accountability. Nobody owns it. You know, you you know, you hear stuff like, oh, I thought marketing was doing that, or I thought the sales department was was, you know, handling that. I thought HR was dealing with that. You know, nobody owns it. There's no there's no ownership. And 60, according to Harvard Business Review, 61% cite as the number one failure reason in their business is lack of accountability. So that's huge. Um, you know, so you got to make sure that every action item you have gets a name of the person that's responsible for it, a date, and have it in writing. You gotta have it. All right, number three, vision and goal drift. You know, so the the the vision just kind of, if I could say it this way, it kind of leaks. And every week it just gets a little bit more watered down, a little bit more watered down. You know, you have quarterly goals, uh, but you forget about week number four. You know, you you you you don't have anything there because it just you know, it's just drifting. It's it's drifting along, it's just kind of getting spread out. Um according to a recent Gallup poll, you know, 70% of businesses lose focus in the middle of their first quarter. And that's huge. That's huge. All right, number four, fear of conflict. Um, you could also say people pleasing. So, you know, you're too busy pleasing people, and so you don't execute because you're afraid if you execute that you're going to offend somebody. You know, leaders a lot of times will avoid the hot hard conversations. Let me tell you something. You need to spend some serious time alone with yourself and figure that out because you need to have hard conversations. That's the only way you get better. That's the only way that you lift the lid of your business or your department or whatever it is that you may be doing, your nonprofit, your organization, is you got to have some hard conversations. Um, you know, so that's that's important. All right, number five, I call it perfectionism paralysis. You're you're you know, people will wait uh for a hundred percent certainty or a perfect plan. They're just waiting for that perfect plan. And uh, you know, in in my thoughts is that you ought to adopt like what I consider to be a 70% rule. So when you're 70% ready, go ahead, start the execution. Because as you begin to execute, the other 30% you'll deal with as you're executing. So don't wait for perfection. Don't wait until you have this perfect plan. You need to start moving right now. Start moving right now. You get 70% ready, go. And besides that, ready, being quote unquote ready, that's just an emotion, folks. That's just an emotion. That's all that is. It has nothing to do with what you can accomplish if you make your decision to go ahead and execute. So make sure that you deal with that. Uh, number six is no visibility. You got no visibility. So that left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. So, according to Gallup, again, 48% of employees can't see the company goals. They don't even know what they are. And so you you've gotta you've gotta tear down what we call the silos. You know, you get in these companies, and all these companies have silos of where all this information is, and they don't talk to each other. They don't know each other, they're just in these silos. And uh so you need to make sure that that that everything is visible. That is so, so very important. Uh, number seven, overloaded calendars. Overloaded calendars. Uh you got meetings about meetings, you got no time for real work. Uh, you know, I worked with a company, very large company. Man, they they loved meetings. They had meetings all the time. They had meetings about meetings. And if they thought there was just, you know, one-tenth of one percent of information that you needed to know, you had to be in the meeting. And I'm like, look, that this is not anything I need to be here for. You know, I can wait for the book, right? Wait for the movie. But, you know, you don't, you, you don't want to get overloaded in your calendar. You know, the average manager, again, according to Harvard Business Review, the average manager only has 6.45 hours a week of focused time because his calendar is jam-packed with all these kinds of things that really don't matter, right? So you've got to find out what matters. Uh, number eight, reward systems are misaligned. In other words, there's bonuses for activity, but not for outcomes. You know, we need to have bonuses and bonus systems and reward systems that are aligned with the outcome of the execution, the outcome that we want. You know, that's what we've got to have. All right, number nine, leaders don't model it. So CEOs talk execution, but they never follow through with execution. I love this poll by Gallup. They found that 81% of employees say leaders don't walk the talk. That's huge, folks. That is massive. That's one of the reasons that CBC is here, is because we want to help businesses get beyond that. 81% of employees say that leaders don't walk the talk. That is incredibly sad. But that's what we're dealing with with. Now, number 10, burnout and low energy. Burnout and low energy. So teams are exhausted before they ever get started, before they ever get started. So in 2025, uh, which is the time where we currently are living right now, it is a time when strategy gets you noticed, but it's execution that's going to get you paid. It's going to get you promoted. It's going to get you remembered. You know, 7% or 70%, I should say 7-0, 70% of strategic initiatives fail due to poor execution. And only 8% of leaders are excellent at both strategy and execution. That's according to a poll by McKenzie. You know, companies with elite execution habits outperform others by over 300% over a 10-year period. That's huge. That is huge and it's important. So I want to share with you the eight pillars, the eight pillars of world-class execution. Eight pillars. You know, James 2 26 says faith without works is dead. That's that's execution. That's execution. I know it it it, you know, I understand the spiritual implication of it, absolutely, but it also has a business implication. You know, when you when you think about faith without works, that's like saying, you know, we talk the talk, but we're not walking the walk. Right? In the marketplace, execution, if I could say it this way, using James 2.26, execution is faith made visible. It's kind of like the faith and works, you know. Uh so great Christian business leaders don't just dream kingdom dreams, they finish them. You know, Nehemiah didn't just pray about Jerusalem's walls, he organized shifts, he armed workers, he completed the job in 52 days while he was under attack. You know, ideas are cheap, but execution is priceless. It's so important. So, you know, great leaders spend 90% of their time on strategy uh uh and and or or uh let me reverse that. They spend 90% of their time on execution and 10% of their time on strategy. And mediocre uh business leaders, they spend 90% of their time on strategy and 10% on execution. We got to get that reversed, right? If you're gonna be a great leader and if you're gonna create a great company. So here are the eight columns of execution. Number one, you gotta be ruthless in your prior uh in your priorities, your prior uh prioritization. You got to be ruthless. You know, uh great people, great leaders who execute, say no a thousand times so they can say yes to the three things that really matter. You know, Jesus said, seek first his kingdom, and all these things will be added. That's in Matthew 6.33. And that's what he was trying to say. You know, Paul said it too in Philippians 3.13. He said, This one thing I do, I press towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of Christ Jesus. It's it's very focused, very ruthless prioritization, and that's what we have to do. That's important to us. You know, Noah spent 120 years building an ark. He ignored every other good project for 120 years because that was the number one thing. That was the thing he had to do. That was his top priority. So this week you might want to look at that and maybe kill or delegate three good activities to protect a great activity or a great assignment, right? So you you want to label everything, all all of the things that you have on your plate, you need to label them, label them in one of four ways. Either label it as do it now, label it as schedule it, label it as delegate it, or label it as delete it, right? So that's what you need to do. So you ought to delegate or kill three good projects to protect one great one this week. All right. Number two, number two, crystal clear goals are OKRs. Now, what's an OKR? You may be asking. You know, you've heard me talk about KPIs, key performance indicators. Well, now I'm talking about OKRs. OKRs is objective key results. So the objective, that's what you want to achieve. Uh it's it's inspirational, it's it's it's it's qualitative, it's quantitative, it's memorable. And then the KR of OKR is the key results. How can you prove you achieved it? What's the measure? What's the quantitative value that tells you that you have achieved what it is that you're wanting to achieve? Those are OKRs, objective key results. So you want to be able to create those and have those crystal clear goals. Um, you know, the golden rule is objective equals direction. And then the key results in the OKR, the key results equals the distance traveled in that direction. So it kind of lets you know that you're on your way. You know, when you've got vague goals, they're like telling an Uber driver, you get into the car, you tell the Uber driver, and you just say, Yeah, just take me somewhere nice. Well, I got to tell you, you may wind up at White Castle for your dinner. And so you you've got to be more specific, and and you'll know when you arrive at that destination because you know exactly where it is and you know what you got to do to get there. So maybe convert your top three goals in 2026 to maybe you know, create more of an OKR and do that by the end of the week. Just create that. What is that objective key results that you need to track whether or not you're gonna hit that mark? Okay. Uh so you want to look at that. You know, uh, make sure that you have this um uh thing down. I I think it's important. I think we've talked about it enough so you understand. All right, number three, weekly rhythm of accountability. You know, the Bible says that confess your sins one to another. Uh it also says in Proverbs 27, 17, in the ISV version, it says, iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens a friend's character. You know, really elite teams, they meet weekly, not annually, not quarterly. They meet every week. It's not long meetings, but the primary purpose is to make sure that there is accountability that things are getting done. You know, the early church, the Bible says that they devoted themselves day by day. We're talking about in Acts chapter two, day by day. They devoted themselves. They were accountable to each other to get the work of the kingdom of God done. You know, you need to schedule a uh eight consecutive Mondays and make sure you have a kingdom like a scorecard. You know, it's just a 15-minute meeting. And all you're doing, and that has to be like non-negotiable, you got to have it every single week. And you get into this rhythm of this weekly meeting of accountability, and it really helps the team. It really helps you as the leader. You know, so world class execution runs on a on a really on a seven day heartbeat, right? Not on annual reviews. You know, it's like a Formula One pit crew or an NFL team. Every Sunday, you know what they do? They review the game or the race they were just in. They just they they review it, they look at it, they look at the data. And they begin to adjust for the next game, for the next race. So that's what you have to do. That's what happens with accountability. You know, make sure you have this scorecard review. Maybe you can color code it, red, yellow, green, you know, um, you know, just do something to make sure you have accountability. Make sure that you have accountability. All right, number four, radical, and I mean radical transparency. You know, the Bible talks about in 1 John 1, it says, walk in the light as he is in the light. You know, in the kingdom of God, there there is no darkness. It's all available, it's all open to us. There's and there should be no hidden agendas. There should be no darkness. Let's be transparent. You know, Jesus' public ministry, everything he did was in the open. You know, even when he washed the disciples' feet, he did that in the open. He didn't hide it. And I think if we're going to be true, truly, truly great leaders, I think we have to be transparent. You know, like the book of Acts, you know, every miracle, every failure, every offering, you know, they all knew about it. You know, so my encouragement would be to create some kind of a uh a digital dashboard, we'll call it, uh, so that every project, every project owner, what the status of that project is, make it visible. Because then that helps the whole team, all the employees to celebrate when you when you hit those milestones. And I think that's great. So you create this shared dashboard this week. Do it this week, so that every project and owner is visible to everybody. Because let me tell you, secrets kill execution. You know, if you're gonna be a part of that elite team, uh, and there's not a whole of them out there, and that's what we're about. But if you're gonna be a part of that elite team, you got to really operate with full visibility. You just have to. You know, mold, mold, you know, mold likes to grow in dark places, but when you shine light on it, it kills it. And so transparency is so important for execution, for execution. Uh the goal as a company is to have customer service. And this is what Sam Walton said. Sam Walton of Walmart. He said the goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary, and we get there through execution every day. Every day. All right, number five. Number five. Um, number five is um the one metric that matters, okay? The one thing that's necessary. You know, Jesus uh, you know, told Martha, because Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Martha was up about doing a bunch of work and, you know, cleaning dishes and all that kind of stuff. And she went to Jesus and said, Can you tell Mary to get up and help me? And Jesus looked at her and he said, you know, she's chosen that one thing that's necessary. And at any moment, uh, there's one thing that's driving, that's driving almost everything else. You need to know what that is, and you need to be the one in control of what that one metric is that matters. You know, it's like the wise men, you know, we're getting close to Christmas, right? It's like the wise men following that one star. They ignored every other light, every other star until they got to Bethlehem. So you've got to figure that out. You've got to identify what your current one metric is. And then you got to post it where you can see it every day. You know, it's kind of like a pilot. You know, when they take off, they are focused. They are very singularly focused on one gauge, and that is the altitude gauge. Everything else is secondary until they get up to a cruising height. You know, so if you're focusing on too many metrics, it's like trying to watch 47 different TV channels at the same time, right? So, like, for example, maybe at Airbnb, um, maybe their metric is, okay, how many numbers of nights do we book every day? That's a key metric. You know, that may be their key metric, you know, and why? Well, because that directly ties to revenue. You know, that that is a direct relation to their avenue. So, you know, early on in that business, uh, they obsessed over how many, how many host signups and booking conversions they had, you know, and uh I think that's important. So it it's not about ignoring the other data. It's just about having a laser focus to create momentum by focusing on that one metric. What is it that moves the needle for you? What moves the needle for you? That one metric, that's important. All right, number six, bias for action. Bias for action. In other words, work at looking for action. Okay, action. Listen, speed beats perfection nine times out of ten. Now, what am I saying? What I'm saying is this don't wait for perfection. We talked a little bit about it before. Don't wait for perfection before you execute. It's important that you speed, that you get it done. Take action. Don't sit back and wait. Yeah, will you make some mistakes? Absolutely. But the biggest mistake you can make is to do nothing and not execute. You know, perfection, uh perfectionism, you know, again, I'll use the Ferrari. You know, it's like the Ferrari that never leaves the garage because the owner is always polishing it. You know, that doesn't do you any good. You got to take action. You gotta take action. Take action. So that's that's that is that's the that's the key. And so you've got to have this systematic follow-through for that. You know, 90% of execution fail uh failure is because there's no follow-up, there's no action. You know, follow-through, action. It's the glue. And without it, even the best plans fall apart. You know, so you've got to have that follow-up when you're doing your execution, that follow-up of action. So that's important. All right, number seven, just two more. Number seven, culture. You got to have a culture of kingdom ownership. You know, uh the Bible talks about that when we talked about the the uh servants and uh that they they did business with the talents that their owner uh left them. And at the end, Jesus says, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. So execution dies when everybody thinks, well, that's somebody else's job. You know, Genesis in chapter 1, verses 28, it says, God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth, subdue it. And then he said, You're to rule over all the fish of the sea and all the animals on land and you know, all the birds of the air. He said to rule over them. So what he was trying to do is he was delegating dominion uh when he was doing that. Ownership. He was giving them an ownership mindset. And ownership mindset means actively ruling and multiplying uh in what God gave them at that time. But that's the mindset that we need to have. We need to own it. You know, it was Adam that named the animals. He tended the garden. He he was exercising delegated authority when he was doing that, but he was doing it, he took ownership of it. You know, it's like a property manager for maybe a luxury estate. You know, the owner's not there, but you maintain it, you improve it, you protect it as if it's yours. You know, uh uh the the Navy SEALs, they're big about every member on that Navy SEAL team, whatever, whichever team it is, they are big on making sure that every single member on that team owns the mission. They own it. Not just the leader, but all the team members. So if you have a blame culture, it's like a leaky boat. Man, you got people pointing fingers, it's their fault, their fault, their fault. It's like it's like being in a leaky boat where everybody points to the hole, but nobody's plugging the hole up, right? So you're gonna sink. So you've got to make sure that you have this culture of ownership that's in your business. And then finally, number eight, um, you need to have this systematic follow-through. Systematic follow-through. You've got to follow through. And as a leader, your word, your word is your bond. Just simple, honest words with follow-through is going to build character. You know, it it's so important. It's like the parable of the two sons, though, in in the Bible. You know, the one son, uh, his father told him to do something. He said no, but then he he did it. And that was better than the one son that yet said, oh yeah, yeah, I'll do it, but then he didn't do it. You know, so you've got to have the systematic follow-through in your personal life. You know, Matthew 537 says, you know, but let your communication be yay, yay, nay, nay, for whatever is more than these cometh evil. So, in other words, let your yay be yay, your nay be nay. In other words, just follow through and make sure that you do that, you know. So think about this: the gap between who you are and who you can be, that gap is execution. Because execution is the muscle. It's the muscle that turns vision into reality. Execution turns what if into what is. You know, I liked Ray Kroc, the guy that started McDonald's. He said the quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves and then executing them every single day. So that is so important. It's so important. You know, execution isn't the sexy part of leadership, it's the essential part. You know, vision gets the applause. Everybody loves vision, but the execution is what's going to get the results. So this week, pick one thing you've been planning and then just do it. Well, it's not 100% ready. Don't wait for it to be 100% ready. Just do it, execute. Because in the end, the world doesn't reward dreamers, it's going to reward doers. So you got to go execute. Great leaders aren't remembered for their brilliant strategies. They're remembered for what they finished. Execution is how you turn someday into a legacy. So ask yourself, what one project will I finish this month that my future self, that my future self will thank me for? And then start it today. Lord, I humbly come before you today and ask for your divine wisdom and understanding upon the heart of those who have downloaded and listened to this podcast. Lord, help them to become people of execution and not mere talkers, but doers. Help them, Lord, not just to be good leaders, but help them to become great leaders. And in the name of Jesus, I ask. Amen and amen. Now I want you to know, I want you to know this, that I believe in you. Every single person that's listening to this podcast, I believe in you. Why? Because God created you. There are seeds of greatness in you. God has a destiny for you. And because of that, God's put those seeds of greatness in you. Well, that looks like all the time we have for this week. So I appreciate everybody who has downloaded the podcast today and listened. But until next time, remember, Jesus is Lord and He wants you blessed.

SPEAKER_01: 32:41

Thank you for tuning in to this week's Christian Business Concepts Podcast. Go to Christian Business Concepts.com for more information and resources. Be sure to check out other podcasts that will help you take your business and your personality to a whole new level of success.