Execute!

A coworker of mine took this course last semester and it is always fun for me to come to an assignment that he had talked about. This week it was about the ability to execute. I have a feeling this was one of his favorite topics, he talked about it quite often and still talks about it. As discussed in A Letter for Garcia the ability to execute is an incredibly valuable attribute that most do not quite have or understand. I agree that this is a great attribute, but I do struggle a little when the conversation turns to complaining about people who do not have this ability. First off it is typically a hypocritical conversation, and while the article argues that this is a very old problem and that modern excuses are not to blame I have to disagree to an extent. Many people receive mixed signals throughout their lives. Students are excellent examples. A student will have many teachers throughout their life, each teacher will manage their classroom a little different. Because of this it is natural for students to become very good at clarifying what exactly is being required. The teacher finds it annoying, but the student finds it just as annoying when a teacher doesn’t clearly define expectations. It is easy to sit in the seat of the task giver, you already know what you want (or what will be acceptable), and if that task giver isn’t fully competent the tasks they assign may very well be confusing. I once wrote a paper thinking I knew exactly what was expected only to have it given back with a big D+ written in red on the cover page. I was baffled! As I read the comments I came to the conclusion that my understanding of the teacher’s instructions were quite different than the teacher’s interpretation and sadly there was nothing I could do about it.

Nevertheless! I still stand by the idea that this is a great attribute to have, I just feel like there needs to be a certain level of “knowing your audience” to be most effective at implementing this attribute.