DOUBLE YOUR BUSINESS
DOUBLE YOUR BUSINESS
How should a business owner self-implement EOS?
For anyone set on self-implementing and who believes it is a good fit, my advice is twofold. First, bring your leadership team to see me for 90 minutes at no charge. I will show you what the end of the implementation journey should look and feel like, giving you the "box top" of a jigsaw puzzle. If you don't know what the completed puzzle looks like, it's nearly impossible to put it together—like trying to solve a puzzle with all the pieces flipped upside down.
Second, understand that you likely have more influence over what your team says, thinks, and does than you realize. Many business owners or CEOs cannot imagine that they might intimidate their leadership team members. It's challenging to drive meaningful change as the leader because, about half the time, we are the problem. An outside facilitator helps in two ways: it allows you, as the leader, to work alongside your team as an equal, and it makes it easier for you not to constantly switch between roles.
What are the common mistakes business owners make when using EOS tools?
One common issue: the "smorgasbord" approach to using the foundational tools of EOS. These tools include the Vision/Traction Organizer (VTO), the accountability chart, rocks, the two-part meeting pulse (quarterlies, annuals, and weekly Level 10 meetings), and a well-structured scorecard throughout the organization.
When I ask a client, "What does your accountability chart look like?" and they reply that they haven't done it yet, I remind them that this is the first step. A vision without traction is just a hallucination. To gain traction, you need to clarify who is accountable for what. For example, when creating a VTO, if it's unclear who is responsible for marketing and sales, and the visionary is declaring, "We'll reach $100 billion in five years," the team might hesitate to push back. They might be thinking, "Maybe we can get to $400 million, but $100 billion is unrealistic."
Not running Level 10 meetings weekly, or believing they can be done monthly instead, is another issue. After 17 years of EOS implementation, I've learned which tweaks are harmless and which will harm you. The biggest danger is a lack of simplification and over-complicating the process. I've seen 15-page VTOs, when it should usually be a two-page strategic planning document that clarifies the company's vision and the plan to achieve it. Occasionally, there might be a three-page version if there's an extensive issues list, but 15 pages only create confusion. These are the pitfalls to avoid.
What qualities should an integrator have?
Many integrators believe that because they are integrators, they aren't allowed to have vision. I hope they do have vision. When hiring my integrator, we specifically looked for someone hardwired to think about the future. Being too execution-oriented wouldn't work for our early-stage entrepreneurial company. We didn't need a chief operating officer from a large corporation focused solely on squeezing out an extra 0.1% of profit. We needed an executor with some vision.
There is a spectrum for both visionaries and integrators. Integrators need focus, discipline, comfort with accountability and the ability to drive accountability—even upward to the owner or visionary. They must have tough conversations and get into the muck, whereas many visionaries want someone else to fix problems. Sometimes, both the visionary and integrator avoid solving issues, expecting someone else to handle them. When discussing this in a 90-minute meeting, I often hear a visionary unsure if they are a visionary or integrator. Most of the time, the rest of the team just laughs because they know the answer.
How can business owners assess a candidate's open-mindedness and commitment to continuous growth?
When interviewing candidates, I look for open-mindedness and a readiness to grow. To assess open-mindedness, I might ask, "Do you have any strong beliefs about people, the world, or how to run a successful business that you'd like to share?" I want them to have strong beliefs, but I would follow up with, "What would you do if you were presented with evidence that challenged that belief?"
For assessing readiness to grow, I ask, "What do you do in your free time to keep your skills sharp? How do you make yourself better?" If they have children, I might ask, "What do you do to promote learning and growth in your family?" I'm looking for signs that they value continuous improvement. If they respond with, "I don't read books" or "What do you mean by sharpening the saw?"—that’s not a good answer.
How can business owners benefit from mastermind groups?
My marriage to Kate is the best mastermind I'm part of by far. She is the best person I know and has helped me become a much better person than I was before meeting her. In the EOS implementer community, Gino, Don, and I formed what we call the original T Group. "T" stands for traction. This group of three implementers worked together to hold each other accountable to be great implementers.
Today, there are hundreds of T Groups in the EOS Implementer community, each with three to eight members. They meet regularly to drive accountability and solve problems together. We also have a Slack channel with various discussion threads where people post urgent questions, like when they're about to go into a session. Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" is probably the book I've heard Gino quote the most, besides Dan Sullivan's, Pat Lencioni's, and Vern Harnish's work.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.*
