“What gets watched gets done.”

J. Paul Haynes – Entrepreneur

Mr. Haynes started his first venture in 1988 and his talents have brought forth a string of successful businesses. Now a professional engineer at the helm of a successful business is not overly rare but an engineer who also has outstanding sales, strategy, operational, and motivational skills stands within a very small, select group.

His presentation to a local business group was a delight. He switched effortlessly between the key aspects of the firm’s success, describing each clarity and candor, and then helped other businesses by realistically describing how to sell into large organizations. What I found most intriguing, however, was his statement about how to keep everyone aligned and focused in high-growth businesses. He said, “What gets watched gets done.”

Visible Steps

Over coffee he shared the story of how his philosophy developed over his career. In high-growth businesses, he explained, the long-term goal may shift but what is most important is to break down the plan into a precise picture of where you need to be at the end of each quarter. Accomplishing small steps ensures continued progress toward the firm’s objectives.

Probably learned, in part, from the high-level coaching he received while water-skiing competitively, he sees breaking down large goals into component elements as fundamental. Also important is the ability to make the achievement of these smaller steps easily visible for both those performing the function as well as those overseeing the enterprise. His management team discusses the status of all outstanding projects in about an hour since he believes tracking progress related to the plan shouldn’t absorb the entire week.

Haynes considers no organization capable of concentrating on twenty different things at the same time, so as a result limits the focus to a few priorities. As a practical guide to follow for bringing goals down to the quarter, he espouses the work of Verne Harnish.

Quarterly Direction

In his rapidly evolving industry, each year contains a host of major industry shifts. As a result, the typical annual assessment/bonus cycle is too coarse a tool to direct staff activities. He finds assessing individuals each quarter not only allows a higher degree of oversight but also allows targets to be adjusted mid-course to affect the current year's performance. In turn, bonuses are presented quarterly to remind all of the connection between work done well and the company’s success.

Software Management

In a software development environment, he stresses realistic expectations are needed to deliver on time and retain talented people. Managers must understand how people really think and act, for example, the extra time needed to unload and reload complex software elements from the minds of developers as they are distracted to handle unrelated software issues. This 'distraction' of key development resources represents a significant loss of efficiency and must be minimized. His solution: create a "no interrupt" zone for a portion of their week to ensure development progress continues and support or other obligations are still satisfied within a reasonable time-frame.

This talented entrepreneur focuses the overall strategy down to clear structures to guide talented individuals. He believes the overhead associated with managing an enterprise should be kept low and watching each quarter’s outcomes ensures the year’s success. His practical and elegant management approach yields demonstrated results and serves as an outstanding model of effective leadership.