It is time, once again, for me to quote gapingvoid, a company focused on culture design: 

“Your future self is more important than your present self.” 

This statement made me smile. Why? Because as entrepreneurs, it is easy to focus on our organizations. As a Visionary, it is easy to focus on our next great idea (okay, the next 15 great ideas!). We are usually so absorbed in these endeavors that we forget about ourselves.

I had coffee with a business associate yesterday, and we both chuckled at the memory of an old business cartoon captioned, “No one ever went to their grave saying, ‘If I’d only gotten one more contract!’” The point in all of this is that we owe it to ourselves, our organizations, our families, and our friends to spend time focusing on ourselves.

There are lots of ways to work on your future self; it all depends on which aspect of your future self you want to work on. Today I am focusing on a Clarity Break™.

The purpose of clarity breaks is to take time to work “on” ourselves rather than only “in” the business. Schedule some alone time, get out of your office and home, take a deep breath, and clear out all the mental clutter. That may mean finding a quiet corner in your favorite coffee shop; or a picnic table at a local park; or any other comfortable place where you can be alone. And alone includes no electronics—so put that cell phone on airplane mode. Better yet leave it in the car.

Sit with a pad of paper and a pencil, and jot down whatever comes to mind. This is not a time to judge what comes to mind, simply write it down and see where it takes you. Sometimes this is where I find my best idea, or remember a “to do” that I missed. And it’s also a time when I clear out the head trash that is distracting me.

How often should you do this? Well it depends. I recommend at least every two weeks. Personally, I notice the effect when I don’t take a break every week. This is a time to work on you, and you deserve that. This time creates safety and stability, and you need that to focus on your future.

So pull out your scheduler, pick a day and time, and where it asks if you want to set this as a recurring meeting—hit ‘forever.” It’s time to create your future self.

Want more ideas on how to shape your future self? If you’d like to pick my brain, ask questions about clarity breaks, or learn more about EOS^®, please fill out the consult form below to schedule a time to talk with me. Take the time to work on you. Shaping your future self with clarity breaks can bring you direction, refined purpose, and a better overall work-life balance.

Communication is the response you get from people. Let’s think about that for a moment. 

When we talk about communication, we generally focus on how we communicate, what we communicate, when and where we communicate.

That is all well and good, and I’m not suggesting we stop considering those aspects of our communications. Today, however, I would like you to think about another facet of communication: the essence of communication is the response you get.

I recently saw a statistic on my LinkedIn feed that said 46% of people leave a meeting having little understanding of the information they heard. I don’t know the source of that percentage; however, the number is startling and disconcerting. And it led me to wonder what each of us can do to ensure that statistic is not representative of our communication skills or prevalent in our organization. 

So here are five thoughts for your consideration:

1. The burden to communicate clearly always falls on the presenter, not the listener.
   
2. Be present; don’t allow your mind to wander as you talk with people. Take three deep breaths before you respond.
   
3. Slow down. People don’t hear what you say, they hear what they think you said. Our brains interpret what we hear and automatically make subtle changes in the message.
   
4. Listen to understand. Don’t listen to vote.
   
5. Ask great questions. The answers will add clarity to your communications and help you appreciate what people heard.

The next time you make a presentation or have a one-on-one conversation, pay attention to the response you receive. It may be just the feedback you need to be an even better communicator than you are today. It certainly helped me!

Do you want to talk more about communication strategies and the role it plays in EOS^®? I invite you to complete the contact form below to schedule a 15-minute consult with me. I can speak to the importance of communication both as a business owner and as an EOS Implementer™. Communication is a crucial part of the EOS^® process. Let’s use it to make sure our message is heard and understood.

What the heck is “AMB”? 

I’m so glad you asked. It is an acronym for “Always Measure Backwards.”

This is a concept I learned as a member of Strategic Coach. And it is a concept I teach and practice with the Leadership Teams with whom I work, but I haven’t consistently practiced it in my own business.

As entrepreneurs and business owners, I hope you routinely measure the progress you are making in your organization. You may have a wall chart tracking monthly sales, or perhaps you look at a balance sheet at the end of the month to evaluate cash flow.

If you are running your business on EOS^®, then I know you are measuring progress weekly with your Scorecard, and checking the health of your organization in your leadership team weekly Level-10 Meetings™. And the same tools are in place at the departmental level.

It is important to recognize that the only way you can determine if you are making progress in your organization is to measure that progress, regardless of which management system you use.

And the best way to evaluate your progress is to measure backwards.

It is easy to fall into the trap of looking at a sales goal each month, for example, and focusing on how much more the sales team needs to sell to achieve the annual sales goal. That leads to questioning ourselves, criticizing our colleagues, and maybe even feeling disappointed if last month wasn’t as great as the previous month.

In that example, you are measuring where you thought you would be rather than measuring your progress. If, however, you measure backwards, you will identify progress and maybe even identify some areas where opportunities lie. So, staying with the monthly sales goal example, celebrate the fact that your team increased sales 17% last month. That’s progress. That shows where your sales team is right now based on where they started.

Oh, and in case you are wondering—I’m improving my ability to AMB in my business, too! How about you? 

If you’d like to discuss your AMB efforts or challenges, or just have questions about EOS^®, please use the contact form below to schedule a time to chat with me. I would be happy to share my story as a business owner who implemented EOS^®, and how I’ve used AMB with my clients’ businesses to gain a better understanding of trends and progress. 

Let’s always measure backwards in order to always move forward in our businesses!

Remember the old joke, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer was, “One bite at a time!” The same punch line holds true for solving your organization’s issues.

There are three types of issues common to all organizations:

1. A true problem that needs to be solved
2. Information that needs to be communicated and agreed to by the team
3. An idea or opportunity that needs feedback, brainstorming, insight, and/or a green light from the team

Sometimes a leadership team encounters a true problem that needs to be solved, but the issue appears enormous. Perhaps there are multiple potential root causes, or the issue simply feels impossible to solve. The tendency is to take the easy way out and give up. I encourage you not to do that! 

Instead, give a marker to the person who brought the issue to the team and send him to the whiteboard. Have that person clearly state exactly what he needs from the team—what “solved” looks like. We call this starting with the end in mind. The leadership team doesn’t need the 20-minute story. They need to know what is needed for the greater good of the organization.

Then, start asking questions about the issue, and have the owner of the issue start listing the answers on the whiteboard. Keep asking questions until everyone fully understands the root cause of the issue.

When an issue appears enormous, tracking the answers on the whiteboard will help the team determine if there are multiple root causes, each of which is an additional issue. Start listing those on the right side of the whiteboard for another time. And stay laser focused on the root cause of the issue the team is solving right now.

This approach requires two things: First, the leadership team must focus on solving the primary issue. Second, they must have the persistence to commit to it.

That takes discipline and an understanding of the process to keep everyone focused, but an EOS Implementer can help. When tackling those discussions one bite at a time, a root cause is identified, additional issues are flagged for later, and solutions to the issue are brainstormed.

If your organization has issues that need to be solved, I can help. Please use the contact form below to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation with me. We’ll lay the groundwork so you can begin solving your organization’s issues one bite at a time.

The goal of every leadership team is to achieve alignment. Organizations that are truly aligned have created so much clarity that there is little room for confusion, disorder, and infighting.

How can an organization achieve alignment? I’m glad you asked! Here are five steps every organization can take:

1. Make sure everyone understands their position and how they will create the greatest value for the company.
   
   The leadership team builds the organizational structure that defines where the company is going. They also define the accountabilities for every position within the structure—think of it as “if the seat could talk.” They ensure every team member understands the lane in which they are best suited to swim and how they will create the greatest value for the organization.
   
   
2. Create the organizational culture that delivers consistent outcomes. 
   
   Leadership teams who invest the time to discover the organization’s personality will create alignment within the organization. And that’s when a leadership team can surround themselves with people who will drive greatness in the organization.
   
   
3. Create the habit of measuring organizational health weekly. 
   
   Accountable team members appreciate numbers because they create an esprit de corps with everyone pitching in to ensure organizational results. Another way to think of this is to practice Pearson’s Law: “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.” 
   
   
4. Create consistency throughout the organization.
   
   Develop your organization’s playbook, your “way of doing business,” and help every team member follow the playbook. This will ensure your organization functions uniformly and delivers the desired outcomes.
   
   
5. Understand the role of leadership.
   
   Leadership teams must understand why they are in a position of leadership. Patrick Lencioni makes this point perfectly on page 105 of his book, The Motive: “We can talk all day about what we’re supposed to do, but if we don’t understand why we’re leading in the first place, none of it will make sense.”
   
   

Aligned organizations have the courage to look into every corner of the organization and flush out the elephants in the room, identify the internal teams that do not play well together, and look for the enhancements they can make.

Are you interested in learning more about how to achieve alignment in your organization? If so, let’s talk about it over the phone. You can schedule a time with me using the consult form below. When all parts of your organization align with the whole, magical things happen. Let’s outline a plan that helps you get it done.