Before a leadership team begins its EOS journey, we ask each member of the team to rate the company from 1-10 (with 10 being best) in answer to three questions. The second question is, “How aligned is your organization around the company’s vision and plan?”
The average answer to that question is 4, and it’s not at all unusual for the owner/Visionary to offer a score several points higher than anyone else on the team.
There are interesting parallels between cancer in a human body and cancer in an organization and it all has to do with what’s going on at our core. Just as corrupting cancer cells attack the healthy cells and core functions of the body, something just as cancerous attacks healthy team members and the core of our business.
Serious damage will occur if we don’t detect and treat the cancer early.
Effective issue solving is a huge factor in running a successful business. Some company issues seem monumental and can stifle progress because of their perceived magnitude.
In almost all small businesses, owners have dual roles in their companies. Sometimes many more. This can be problematic. It’s like the kid who owned the basketball in a pickup game who, if they didn’t get their way, could always resort to “it’s my ball and if we don’t do it my way I am going home.”
It’s no secret that most people cringe when they hear the words, “let’s have a meeting.” Most meetings are awful.
When I first took the helm of our third-generation family business, I ran some pretty awful meetings. I knew I had to get the team on the same page with everything that was happening on a day-to-day basis, so I scheduled the leadership team to meet for 2-3 hours every other week.
Entrepreneurs tend to be extroverts. It’s easy for them to talk out issues and make decisions quickly. Introverts, on the other hand, process information internally, by sitting with it for a while. They can be excellent listeners and deep thinkers with keen insight that provides creative solutions. But it’s often not easy for introverts to discuss issues thoughtfully until they’ve been able to process their thoughts on their own first.
