I am sitting in a session with a client and we are making sure to flush out all the issues.
The sales and marketing director is going through his list as I write them up on the board. He finishes his list by saying, “And I need to be on the Issues List as well.” This gathered a few looks but I told the group that we had bigger fish to fry so we were not going to dive into solving any of the issues just yet.
Many of my clients talk about the struggle they’re having with getting agreement on their team. They say things like “my team is just not on the same page” or “I need to build consensus with my staff.” When I hear this, my answer is always the same: you don’t need agreement, you need commitment. Here’s what I mean…
Hey Ms./Mr. Visionary, is your company getting everything it needs from the Visionary Seat? Not sure?
Start with these questions to find out:
The foundation to a healthy team = trust. The fabric of all organizations = teams. So, the more trusting your teams are, the healthier you will be as an organization.
I just did what Ms. Shultz taught you in your dreaded geometry class: if A = B and B = C, then A must equal C. It’s one of the tenets of sound logic.
For most companies, this question doesn’t have an easy answer, but it’s usually something like this: “I guess pretty good? My team seems to like me.” Over the years, I have heard versions of this answer many times – but only from companies not running on EOS®! It’s scary how many things are wrong with that answer, not least of which is the belief that being liked is an indication of strong leadership and management skills. These leaders and managers clearly don’t have a way to measure how they are doing.
With a company running on EOS, the answer is completely different.
Do you know how many people are directly affected by the work you do? I ask leadership teams this question and they usually answer with the number of people they employ – 75 or 100 or 120.
“How about your vendors, employees’ families, and all your customers?” I ask. Some light bulbs start turning on, and they’ll guess a couple thousand.
Even a couple thousand is a low number. Your work and your team make a huge difference. A number of years ago, my team crunched some numbers and determined that the average company of 100 employees directly affects 10,000 people. This includes all of your staff, your families, your vendors and partners, your customers and their teams, and then all the work you do in the community.
