When I introduced Good News at the start of one session, my client, a sharp, no-nonsense operator who had built her company through sheer will and long hours, gave me a look. Not hostile. Just tired. The kind of look that says: “Seriously? We drove here for this?”
I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Sometimes it’s a subtle shift in posture. Sometimes it’s a glance exchanged across the table. And once, memorably, an actual eye roll.
The unspoken message is always the same: we have real problems to solve. The Scorecard is waiting. The Rocks aren’t moving. The Issues List is long. Can we please skip ahead and get to work?
I get it. I really do. These are busy, driven people who didn’t get where they are by spending time on things that don’t matter. But here’s what I’ve come to believe after years of sitting with leadership teams running on EOS: Good News is not the warm-up act. It’s actually load-bearing. Skip it, and something essential quietly walks out the door.
The Business Case for Business Good News
When high performers regularly account for their wins, they build the confidence and energy to keep tackling hard things. When they don’t, even objectively capable teams begin to feel like they’re failing.
Business Good News in the weekly Level 10 Meeting makes the practice of accounting for wins communal. Think about what would happen when a leadership team gets fully accountable to their Rocks, moves the needle on their Scorecard week over week, and closes the loop on critical To-Dos, but never pauses to notice. The momentum is real, but it’s invisible. And invisible momentum doesn’t compound.
Teams that consistently recognize wins build confidence, momentum, and trust among themselves.
When your leadership team is focused on Vision, Traction, and Healthy, the three components that sit at the heart of the EOS model, they’re not just executing better. They’re becoming a team that believes it can keep executing. Good News is part of how that belief gets built and reinforced, week after week.
The Human Case for Personal Good News
Personal Good News does something different, and arguably even more foundational.
Everything depends on trust, and you build it by getting to know each other as whole people. Not someone who owns a seat. Not the Integrator who’s always pushing back, or the Visionary who keeps changing direction. A whole person.
When a colleague shares that their daughter just got into college, or that they finished their first 5K, or that a family health scare turned out okay, something quiet happens in the room. You stop relating to them purely as a function. You stop seeing them only through the lens of their seat. That shift is small in the moment but massive over time. It’s the foundation on which honest, productive conflict can eventually rest.
This is exactly why the People Component in EOS isn’t just about having the Right People in the Right Seats. It’s also about those people actually knowing and trusting each other. Accountability for getting To-Dos done and keeping Rocks on track works when people aren’t just tolerating one another. The Meeting Pulse works when people actually want to show up.
Personal Good News is also an important weekly question: “What is good in your life right now?” Asked consistently, this question helps teams recognize progress and stay connected as people. Teams that only focus on problems can lose momentum over time.
What’s Really Happening in the opening Five Minutes
What happens in those first five minutes matters. When it’s working, the room changes. People stop performing. The Visionary who walked in distracted lands in the room. The Integrator who’s been carrying the weight of a tough quarter lets their shoulders drop slightly. The team, which has been a collection of individuals since they last gathered, becomes more of a team.
Every Level 10 Meeting that begins with Good News is rehearsing a posture that is the groundwork for everything that follows. This is not rose-colored glasses. It’s not toxic positivity. It’s not a corporate pep rally dressed up in EOS language.
It’s team formation. It’s a confidence lever. It’s a trust builder. It’s the slow, weekly shaping of people who know how to see what’s working, know each other as humans, and trust each other enough to keep showing up and do the hard work together, the real work: solving issues, moving Rocks, hitting the 1-Year Plan, and ultimately living out the company’s Core Values in how they treat each other along the way.
So yes, we start with Good News, even when seemingly more urgent matters tug at us. Building confidence and connection is actually building capacity to move the needle on all the challenges that await us as a leadership team.
Build Trust Before You Tackle Issues
Good News isn’t small talk. It helps healthy teams build trust, strengthen relationships, and solve real Issues together.
Ready to strengthen your Level 10 Meeting from the very first five minutes? Schedule a 90-Minute Meeting to see whether EOS is the right fit for your leadership team.
You’ll experience how EOS helps leadership teams strengthen trust, improve accountability, solve Issues, and gain Traction together. You’ll also see how the Meeting Pulse helps teams stay aligned, focused, and connected week after week.
