When your company’s leadership team is meeting to resolve a people issue and the employee’s manager is about to talk with her or him to solve it, make sure the manager leaves the meeting with three examples of unproductive behavior that has been noted by members of the team.
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.
After a full and productive Annual Season with my clients, I’m always left reflecting on some common themes. This year, what resonated most was the relationship between members of a leadership team and a company’s Issues List. That reflection led me to a question every leader should ask:
“What verb describes how I most frequently impact our company’s Issues List?”
Nobody talks about the elephant in the room. It’s too uncomfortable. “It’s too embarrassing,” you think, “If I bring that subject up, then everyone will know about it.” But here’s the thing – people know about the elephant in the room, and ignoring it is causing more problems than it’s solving.
In 2010, Gino Wickman shared some of the great lessons and observations he had gleaned from implementing EOS® with hundreds of entrepreneurial leadership teams. In reflecting on my years as Gino’s business partner and Integrator of EOS Worldwide and my own experiences working with leadership teams, it felt appropriate and timely to confirm and restate those same great lessons.
To be an effective business team, every member must be bold enough to enter the danger, engage in constructive conflict and repair the damage.
