It Takes A Mirror

Most companies and teams I meet with are missing something significant and are aware that there are gaps. There have been very few instances where I have a session and the team I am meeting with thinks that they are perfect. There have been zero sessions where a team actually is perfect. There is always room for improvement, evolution, and growth.

I was meeting with a brand new client. He was a self-implementor of the EOS model, so he knew quite a bit about it already. He had a decent-sized company and quite a bit of ambition. What really struck me was how much he loved his leadership team. He originally brought me in just to meet his leadership team. The new client and the leadership team expressed that everything was going great. They were all in agreement with their values and goals.

During this first session, the power of EOS was exposed to them. Sure, the boss had been self-implementing some EOS methods, but having a trained professional guide the session illuminated the most important and fundamental aspects of EOS. Throughout my time with them, I was able to figure out a root issue among the team: there was nobody on the leadership team that everyone else felt they could completely trust.

Trust, especially trust among leaders, is a crucial part of any successful business. It was a jarring realization when the team came face-to-face with this issue because they thought everything was perfect. All it took for the problems to come to the surface was a mirror being held up to them. When I was able to reflect what I saw back to them, there was no denying the underlying issue of a lack of trust.

“One of the transformations that happens to companies when they implement EOS is that they create a leadership team that trusts each other.” (Trust and Done) Why? The process commands it. When the head of ops commits to creating a training video to prevent onsite injuries, the rest of the team believes she will get it done. Why? Because, week after week, month after month, she has followed through on her commitments to the leadership team.

EOS is more than simply following the steps; it’s a commitment to the process AND to one another. One of the best parts about my role is that, in an open and honest L10, we can discuss sensitive issues like trust (or a lack thereof) without judgement. We get to the heart of the issues, find a solve, commit to it, and move on.

What’s your leadership team’s biggest challenge?