It is common for growth-minded companies to focus on the straightaways to their goal. What do I mean by “straightaways”? I think of straightaways as a company’s desire to get from point A to point B — for example, from $2.8 million annual gross revenue to $5 million, from one location to three locations, etc. And then saying, “Go”.

Focusing on the straightaway has us moving as quickly as possible to achieve the growth we desire. In all likelihood, that will not get us to the outcome we want for our companies. What will get us there is creating a pathway that identifies and tracks the steps it takes to get from point A to point B.

Think of these steps as the loading and unloading zones delivery trucks follow. The local office supply store may make 50 deliveries in a single day. If all the driver knows is that there are a lot of boxes to deliver, he or she will simply pile all the boxes into the truck and drive as fast as possible for eight hours. And the deliveries may not be made. There is a possibility that not all the boxes for each customer will be delivered, or perhaps the driver will pass a customer’s location and have to return later in the day. And there is a real chance the driver will return to the warehouse and discover the seven boxes for one customer remain in the back of the truck – oops!

If, on the other hand, the office supply store focuses on the unloading zones and creates a process for making 50 deliveries in one day — i.e. defining the geographical order for the deliveries, equipping each truck with a GPS unit, entering addresses into those GPS units, and providing the driver a checklist to track the deliveries and monitor the system — those 50 deliveries may take only five hours. This leaves additional time to delight more customers and creates the desired outcome of increased annual gross revenue.

In the world of EOS^®, we call those unloading zones Core Processes – the sequence of events that enable people in a business to do what they do. Core Processes establish rules, guidelines and expectations that your Leadership Team and employees follow. Once you identify your Core Processes, the appropriate manager documents the details in a simple, high-level bulleted list using the 80/20 rule.

The 80/20 rule is documenting the 20 percent of the processes that produce 80 percent of the results. It ensures you keep things simple and only cover the basic steps that your employees can easily understand and follow. After you’ve trained your employees on your Core Processes, you can implement unloading zones throughout your company.

I welcome the opportunity to talk with you further about EOS^®’s Core Processes and how establishing unloading zones in your company can make your business run more efficiently. If you’d like some one-on-one time discussing your particular situation, please fill out the consult form below to request a free, 15-minute phone call with me. I’m confident that establishing Core Processes in your company will result in effective systems that will grow your business.

As leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs we juggle numerous projects, deadlines, requests for our time, ideas, Rocks, and hundreds of other things every day. We can feel overwhelmed and stressed by lengthy to-do lists, looming deadlines, and being out of focus. Strengthening the Six Key Components™ of our businesses help us effectively and efficiently manage the daily issues and challenges.

That said we might struggle to manage our time well, stay on track and be productive.

Enter the assistant — an actual seat on your Accountability Chart™, someone within the company that can assist you, a virtual assistant, or maybe even a technology solution that automates a task.

A skilled assistant can take a number of day-to-day and periodic activities off your plate so that you can focus on what you do best. If you have completed the Delegate and Elevate™ exercise, perhaps there are tasks you don’t like to do (even though you are good at them), as well as tasks you don’t like to do and are not good at doing. This is the first place to look in order to free up some of your time.

Here are some other ideas for consideration:

• Can someone sort your incoming email and handle the routine ones so you can address the most important communications? For example, someone could handle unsolicited resumes and inquiries about exhibiting at an upcoming trade show. They could clean out all the junk emails, such as the opportunity to share in the $76 million dollar inheritance you can get from an unknown, deceased relative in a country 22,000 miles away.
• The same process can also apply to daily mail.
• Perhaps you can sort the stack of papers sitting around your office into two piles—the items only you can address, and the routine matters someone else can handle, such as filing, shredding, or copying.
• Let someone else handle your schedule.

Do these ideas sound scary? Yeah, they did to me too. I have to admit, however, that hiring an assistant when I was CEO of a large company saved me at least one day a week. My assistant and I had a 10-minute meeting each morning — a quick check in to see what the day’s priorities were — and then we both went to work. When I finally hired an assistant, I stopped yelling, “Help!”

It can be hard to pass the reigns of even the easiest tasks onto someone else, but doing so lets you transition from working “in” your business to working “on” your business. When you delegate some of your daily mundane tasks, you can focus on the bigger, more crucial projects that require your attention. A management system such as EOS^® can give you the tools and processes necessary to make important yet sometimes difficult business decisions such as this. EOS^®was instrumental in growing my business when I was a CEO, and I’m confident it can help you, too.

Please fill out the consult form below if you’d like to talk with me further about EOS^®or hiring help for your business. No one likes to feel unproductive or like they are drowning in their own administrative tasks. And you shouldn’t have to. Let EOS^®be your life preserver so you can break through the ceiling and focus on growing your business.

Consensus is a four-letter word. Not by letter count, of course, but by its intention. I teach every leadership team this concept at the start of Focus Day™, our first session together as the team begins their EOS^®journey.

Too often when we look for team consensus, it means we are going to wait until everyone agrees. That can become evident through a variety of team behaviors. Sometimes team members engage in passionate discussion with the goal of changing a colleagues mind. Or maybe a team member makes an impassioned plea to gather more information before making a decision. I’ve even seen team members politic in order to gain “votes” for their position.

Then, our decisions usually are too late and often equally disagreeable to everyone. The result? No one believes the decision will achieve the purpose of the discussion, whether it will solve a problem, or move the company forward, or redesign the company logo.

When it is time to make a decision, especially a tough one, make sure everyone weighs in — agrees and disagrees — on the topic. Make sure you are making decisions for the greater good of the organization.

And now the team exits the meeting as a united front, with everyone supporting the final decision with a strong voice. No one has the right to second-guess the decision behind the leadership team’s back. No one has the right to say, “I told you so” if a different decision for the same topic is necessary at a later time. This is what it means to be a cohesive, healthy leadership team.

One final point – if someone has to break the tie, that someone is your Integrator.

In a perfect world, everyone would be in 100% agreement with every decision needed in your business. But when you get strong leaders in a room, they are bound to have differences of opinion. EOS^®provides the foundation and processes necessary to help you work as a team to make the right decisions for your organization and stand strong with them. 

I welcome the opportunity to talk with you more about EOS^®and the importance of making good, confident decisions. Please fill out the consult form below to request a free, no-obligation phone conversation with me. We can discuss your company’s challenges, your current process for making decisions, and how EOS^®could help. Decisions are often not easy to make, but that is why you are the boss. EOS^®can give you the framework and background to make your decisions a four-letter-word every time.

During our quarterly session, I facilitate a thorough review of each section of a company’s V/TO™. The goal of the review is to make sure the Leadership Team is still 100% on the same page with the company’s Vision. This often leads to a robust discussion among the Leadership Team members. Sometimes the discussion focuses on clarifying a statement or section of the V/TO™ so everyone agrees with what the words mean; other times the team tweaks a bullet point, or their quarterly growth requires refining the geographic definition of their Target Market.

I add a new question to the Core Value review at about the second quarterly session with a Leadership Team. The question is, “What are you doing to take your Core Values to a higher level?” I ask this after I ask the team if they are hiring, reviewing, and firing based on Core Values.

Culture is a mindset, not a memo. And it is important for Leadership Teams to examine their Core Values and determine additional ways in which they can grow and progress to a state that further develops their company culture.

Leadership Teams can advance their culture by periodically celebrating when an individual or a team demonstrates a Core Value. Companies are well served when Leadership Teams practice the culture they expect their employees to exhibit.

Leadership Teams add value to their company’s culture when they look for more ways to promote their Core Values. Is the team sure they practice the Core Values outside the four walls of the organization? How about starting to work with vendors who share our Core Values? Or letting our customers know what our Core Values are to help them understand what it means to work with our team?

One of the Leadership Teams with whom I work posted their Core Values on their website. Next, they re-phrased each Core Value as a question, which then became a major segment of their customer satisfaction survey. This allowed the Leadership Team an opportunity to see if their employees lived their Core Values beyond the four walls of the company.

Here are some other ideas to level up your Core Values:

• include in slides projected at company meetings
• insert as constant reminders in employee badges
• tape on the outside of each Leadership Team members’ office door
• bind into proposals you give clients
• promote regularly in vendor relationships
• add to your new employee applications
• print on employee review documents
• post in your conference room

Are you leveling up your Core Values or is it business as usual? Establishing your Core Values is an important first step in defining your culture and your goals, and living them each day is the second. So if you need help defining your Core Values or learning about what Core Values have driven other successful businesses, I would be glad to help you.

Please fill out the consult form below to schedule a free, 15-minute phone consultation with me. We can discuss your company culture, what’s important to you, and how to practice your Core Values inside and outside the walls of your business. There is no obligation or commitment as a result of our discussion. I’m a firm believer in the EOS® process, and I’m looking forward to helping Leadership Teams level up their Core Values in every aspect of their business.

One of the first tools EOS Implementers™ help a Leadership Team create is an Accountability Chart™. After it’s created, Leadership Teams generally spend the next 30-60 days refining their Accountability Chart so it accomplishes three things: (1) it represents the structure that will get them to the next level; (2) it creates simplicity and clarity; and (3) it identifies who is accountable for what.

During our two Vision Building™ sessions, the first question we ask is “Is this the right structure?” Our goal is to get each member of the Leadership Team to answer “yes” so they are all on the same page. One member of a Leadership Team with whom I work consistently said “no,” and provided vague reasons for the response.

Over time, that particular team member described the early days of the company — when the company was comprised of three people. And they all wore multiple hats, doing whatever it took to grow the company. And they all talked to each other and planned and brainstormed — every day. And all three of them knew exactly what the founder/CEO was thinking and envisioning.

Now, there are 50 employees in the company. Now the three original players all have different roles and accountabilities. Now this team member is the leader of one of the company’s five divisions, with direct responsibility for 10+ employees. Now there is not enough time for daily discussions and brainstorming sessions with the founder/CEO. And now the team member, without realizing it, tells the Leadership Team the root cause of the Accountability Chart issue is — “we aren’t a family anymore even though we pretend we are.”

It is not uncommon for leaders to refer to the entire team as family, especially in the early stages of the company when a few people wear all the hats. It sounds reasonable, because as leaders we want our team to know we care about them, that they aren’t a number on an assembly line. However, there is a problem here — our team exists to achieve a shared vision through accountability and great service. They are not a family. And we cannot treat them as family. Why?

Because each person on your team may have a different perspective of what it means to be a family, which could lead to misunderstandings, resentments, and downright displeasure. Sometimes a team member doesn’t live up to the company’s shared vision. Perhaps they are not the right person or they aren’t in the right seat. And a leader may have to help that employee grace the doorstep of another employer where they will be the right person in the right seat. In a family, we don’t fire someone for not accomplishing their chores.

So the next time you think about your company as a family, I implore you to rethink that position. And remember, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon caring about your people. Honestly caring about your team is one hallmark of a great leader. Genuinely caring about your people and being committed to them is vital and non-negotiable.

Would you like to learn more about determining the right structure for your company? EOS^®’s Accountability Chart is one of the tools to do that, and I would love the opportunity to tell you more about it. Please fill out the consult form below to request a free, no-obligation phone call with me. I’m looking forward to learning about your business, your challenges and discussing how EOS^®can help you grow your team.