An EOS client of mine made me aware of this Netflix Culture Power Point deck. It was created by Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, and Patty McCord, Chief Talent Officer at Netflix from 1998 to 2012, and has been viewed more than 5 million times. You can read the Harvard Business Review article (which also contains the PPT deck) authored by Patty McCord here. She summarizes five of the central ideas that she and Hastings were focused on when they and a few other colleagues created the deck. Few could argue with the success of it given the success of Netflix. It is great food for thought for any company. You should read her article as well as page through the deck. See my observations below the slide deck.
Journey Stage: Exploring EOS
Lombardi Time
Earlier this Fall, I went up to Green Bay, WI to see the Bears play the Packers on a Monday night. My son and I made the trip with my wife’s brother and his son, who live in the LA area but somehow are huge Packers fans. When we arrived at the stadium on Sunday afternoon for a tour, I took this picture:
What Makes You Glow?
We had a great moment in a recent client session. The team was working to define their Purpose, Cause or Passion. When you get that right, it gives everyone in the company a clear statement of “why we exist.” At its best, this becomes the emotional heart of the business. It’s not something most of us are trained to think about, let alone put into words, so leadership teams often struggle to get it right.
EOS before there was EOS
In this short video, Steve Jobs talks about managing people at Apple. I am pleased to see him espouse the same principles we talk about when implementing EOS with companies. I should not be surprised at this since we always tell all our clients that EOS is based on timeless management principles; they have been around for 100 years and they will be around for 1,000 more.
What Are Your Three Uniques?
Many leadership teams spend thousands of dollars each year on unfocused sales and marketing efforts that end up not being effective because they never really established a clear strategy and goals when they first began the process. One of the most important parts of defining a marketing strategy for a small business is to determine what are your “Three Uniques”. Known in the marketing world as the differentiators of a business or its value proposition, the Three Uniques for a business are what makes your business different. They also determine what makes your business stand out from the rest and who your competition is. If you were to line yourself up against your competition, you may share some of the same characteristics in terms of services and focus, but no one else should have the same Three Unique that your business does. When you’ve defined your Three Uniques, it means that you’ve defined what makes you unique and special to your ideal customer.
Do You Need a Clarity Break™?
Most leadership teams are overwhelmed, tired and too busy just keeping up with their day to day routines to think about the future. Leaders who don’t take time to think about the business outside of busy work and meetings have a difficult time solving problems and aren’t able to lead as well as others who take a “time out” on a regular basis. As business coaches, or EOS Implementers™ teach, if you aren’t taking a regular Clarity Break™, you’ll have difficult envisioning the future and your leadership skills will be limited.