Most EOS clients have recently finished their annual planning sessions (most in December and January).
Component: Traction
The Quarterly Conversation
Are you having quarterly conversations with all of your direct reports? One of the most powerful things you can do is to stay on the same page with your people and help to make little course corrections along the way. Above and beyond your regular weekly meetings, day-to-day interactions and annual performance reviews, I recommend you follow this practice.
The Same Page Meeting
A quick message to all business partners and anyone that has a visionary/integrator relationship.
Business Accountability – Do What You Say
Business accountability in simplest terms means you do what you say you are going to do as a business. In contrast, the norm today is to over-promise and under-deliver. Dates and times mean almost nothing. Many companies can’t even hit within the time range they communicate. Charging above the quoted price has become so common, many of us have just come to expect it.
Business Deadlines = More Traction
The acronym “S.M.A.R.T.” is a filter to create goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. Each is important to setting goals but it’s the last one, “timely” that creates the urgency necessary to achieve a goal. And, nothing ensures timeliness like a deadline. Setting and then meeting business deadlines creates traction, and traction is the real test of an effective, cohesive leadership team. Without traction people are just spinning their wheels.
Solving Business Problems – Start With This Discipline
How often have you sent emails or left voice messages for team members, asking them to solve business problems without considering what else they are working on? In the rush to solve business problems, well-intentioned leaders and managers sometimes create unnecessary chaos and work for themselves and their direct reports. Have you ever solved what you thought was an important business problem only to realize you had created an even larger one by over-reacting or reacting too quickly? Or have you ever diverted key resources away from higher priorities to solve things that weren’t as important?