Last year, for example, one manager organized a specialized sales program to put a product into a new market, adding a couple of people to run it, and it brought us revenue we wouldn’t have had otherwise. In another segment we took a risk and were able to increase prices by half a point. And we trained five more Six Sigma black belts, enabling us to have more cost-reduction projects. All these came out of dialogues; I didn’t suggest them.

Sometimes, on the other hand, you have to put the pressure on. Say somebody clearly isn’t going to make his targets and doesn’t have a good excuse. I might say, “So what are we going to do? I’ve got to report to Wall Street at the end of the quarter, and I can’t just walk away from my commitments. Maybe I should bring you along when I go to the press and say, ‘Here’s the guy who’s responsible.’ No? Well, how about this: You’ve got fifteen thousand stock options (I always know how many they have), and you’re a member of the 401(k). Your team members also have options and 401(k)s. If we miss our estimate and our stock drops ten or fifteen percent, doesn’t that have any impact on you and the others?”

So I make it a personal challenge: if you don’t accomplish your objective, if you don’t do what you said you were going to do, you are hurting yourself and your teammates. Usually the man will break his chops to make the numbers.

Taken from: Execution The discipline of Getting things Done