No Apology Necessary
During this year’s busy Annual Planning season, one of my clients was moved to tears while reflecting on the past year. He was recounting a “personal great”, and filled with pride for his daughter while sharing a few of her significant accomplishments. He struggled to finish the story, and ultimately needed to take a short break to compose himself. Throughout this touching, heartfelt moment, he kept apologizing to his team for being so emotional.
Accountability – To Be or Not to Be?
Those familiar with EOS know that an Accountability Chart crystallizes roles and responsibilities for everyone in the organization. It’s built by focusing first on the right structure for the organization – identifying the major functions (seats) necessary to execute on the company’s vision over the next 6-12 months and then carefully defining the five roles the owner of each seat must obsess about every day to be successful. Only then can you focus on getting the right people in the right seats. It’s a simple tool that clearly defines the things for which every single person in the organization is accountable.
It’s Just an Issue…
This is a phrase professional EOS Implementers use frequently. It helps leaders keep things in perspective, avoid unnecessary drama, and focus on resolving Issues (rather than lamenting their inevitable existence). The following story reminded me just how important that discipline is…in business and in life.
Are You Running in a Straight Line?
My high school cross country coach, Chuck Lucas, was a legend. He and his teams won more than twenty league championships, countless district titles and two state titles – my senior year and the year following. There were lots of reasons “Coach Luke” was effective, but one was remarkable. He saw things other coaches never saw.
The Joy of Letting Go
Back in March – while checking in during a session – one of my clients said something profound. This founding entrepreneur and Visionary reminded me what building a great organization is all about. It’s worth repeating.
Is That a Rock?
Rocks are just priorities — the 3-7 most important things you must accomplish in the next 90 days. Company Rocks are priorities for the company, departmental or team Rocks are priorities for your department or team, and Individual Rocks are priorities for you. As simple as that sounds, it’s easy to over-complicate Rocks.
Five Steps to Achieving Organizational Accountability
In the last four years, I’ve asked several hundred leaders from nearly 100 entrepreneurial companies to rate the level of “Organizational Accountability” in their companies from 1-10, with 10 being best. The average response?
Making the Case for Results
Are you really focused on Results?
Are You Getting What You Want From Your Business?
When you think of where you want to take your business 5-10 years from now, is the picture clear? Or are there challenges, obstacles and hardships that blur the image?
Business Vision – Where is Your Business Taking You?
To say my dear grandfather is a “serial planner” is something of an understatement. A high-school math teacher and slide-rule expert, his love of details, structure and discipline is legendary. Whenever he travels anywhere, friends and family receive copies of a detailed itinerary well in advance, carefully hand-printed on a pristine sheet of – you guessed it – graph paper.