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"EOS"
A common debate leadership teams have when setting Rocks is deciding whether something that is your day job can be a Rock—for example, things such as training, sales activity, reducing the AR balance, establishing the budget for the year, or employee reviews.
The question to ask yourselves is, is it DNA? If it’s DNA that means it’s automatic, consistently being done, and everyone’s comfortable that it’s going to be done. Here’s a rule of thumb: Until it’s habit and consistent (DNA), it should probably be a Rock.
Not to pick on any one person here, but this comes up a lot when setting a sales-related Rock. The common response is, “I’m going to do that anyway.” Frankly, in my experience, most of the time it’s an excuse for not wanting to be held accountable to the expectation. Another rule of thumb: If a majority of the team wants it to be a Rock, it’s a Rock.
Simply ask yourself the following: Is it one of the three to seven most important things that must get done? If the answer is “yes” and you’re saying you’re going to do it anyway, then make it a Rock.
“… I once had a pet pine squirrel named Omar who lived in the cotton secret and springy dark of our old green davenport; Omar knew that davenport; he knew from the Inside what I only sat on from the Out, and trusted his knowledge to keep him from being squashed by my ignorance. He survived until a red plaid blanket – spread to camouflage the worn-out Outside – confused him so he lost faith in his familiarity with the In. Instead of trying to incorporate a plaid exterior into the scheme of his world he moved to the rainspout at the back of the house and was drowned in the first fall shower, probably still blaming that blanket: damn this world that just won’t hold still for us!” Ken Kesey, “Sometimes a Great Notion”
Our world is forever changing and it’s moving faster every day. Whether we like it or not, we must move with it and make a change. It can be a bit unnerving to move from the “cotton secret and springy dark” of our comfort zone, but sooner or later we are forced to make a change. Despite the possibility of being squashed or the probability that we’ll suffer some discomfort, we must move on.
Why not embrace change and move forward while there’s little urgency to do so. In other words, let’s not wait for someone or something to create that urgency by putting a “plaid exterior” over us. Better to take the broader view (V/TO™), explore the changes that make the most sense (Clarity Break™) and then go for it.
The world won’t hold still for us. But, don’t blame the blanket and don’t rush to the rainspout. Explore the options and create something better than the “old green davenport”.
Jay Shepard’s Gruntled Employees post of 12/31/11 calls the Annual Employee Performance Reviews The Dumbest Managerial Tool Ever. He offers four compelling arguments for this point of view. They mostly center around the reviews not being done in an appropriate time frame – when praising or criticizing employees behavior, its best done when both you and the employee will remember the incident. We couldn’t agree more. Just remember to praise in public and criticize privately.
EOS suggests one more idea which you should find useful. Every manager should have a quarterly conversation with all their direct reports. This would go a long way towards avoiding the traps Jay talks about in his post.
What would you talk about quarterly? We suggest that the conversation should center on how well the employee is living the company values and how well they are doing their job. Both pieces are important.
Companies implementing EOS use a simple paper and pencil tool called the People Analyzer to provide feedback to employees on how well they are living the company values. You can download a free copy here.
The example shown in the graphic uses EOS Worldwide’s values and shows the simple idea of rating the employee a “+” if they demonstrate the value most of the time, a “-” if they almost never demonstrate it, and a “+/-” if its 50/50. The BAR is the minimum acceptable rating.
Its simple and direct. The first time you use it, you can compare how the employee rates themselves vs how you rate them. The gap is what the conversation is about. In later quarters you can focus on just one value and why it is important and how it plays into this employees role, etc.
Next week, I’ll write about the other half of the People Analyzer, called “GWC”, which provides simple feedback on how well the employee is doing their job.
Do you provide feedback on values in your company?
I was in a Starbucks this week and noticed Howard Schultz’s book Onward. He is the CEO of Starbucks, and the book’s subtitle, How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, prompted the idea to send you this video.
Are you protecting your company’s soul?
This has come up several times in sessions that I’ve led over the past few months. Reflecting back on why goals or rocks weren’t achieved during the prior year or quarter, leaders have realized that they, their boss or peers wasted time doing “dumb stuff”. What was so powerful in these sessions was that leaders were willing to call each other out.
What is “dumb stuff”? Here’s a short (but not all inclusive) list:
- Playing out of position – time spent on activities outside the 5 major roles for your seat as defined on the Accountability Chart;
- Carrying everyone else’s “monkeys” – enabling people to skate by doing their work instead of holding them accountable for their commitments and results (reference One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey);
- Talking around issues instead of identifying the Root Cause (reference IDS);
- Chasing opportunities that are outside your Core Focus (reference your V/TO);
- Cramming 20 ounces of toothpaste into a 12 ounce tube – making commitments to organizations and people outside of work or family that you can’t possibly keep;
Sometimes doing “dumb stuff” is a blind spot. You get yourself so deep into the weeds that you don’t even realize that the work you’re doing has little to no impact on moving your business forward. You’re frustrating yourself and others.
If you and your team haven’t discussed “dumb stuff”, this would be an excellent time of year to have the discussion. Be open and honest. Start by calling each other out on why weekly “to do’s” aren’t getting done. Help each other stay focused and hold each other accountable. You’ll stop doing the dumb stuff and start doing the right stuff!
The rule that 20% of the people do 80% of the work or business is widely known. Focusing on the 20% that returns 80% of the result is the lesser known rule, but far more impactful on a business – and your experience.
EOS employs the second rule throughout the system. In short, everything is reduced to the essentials – the highest priorities. Focusing on more increases complexity and often impairs achieving the desired outcome, so why make it harder?
When you are choosing what your company does, pick one thing you can excel at and become the master of it.
When you define your marketing message, pick the three things about you, that when taken together, make you uniquely more valuable than everyone else, and communicate those three things in every sales call.
When painting your 3-Year Picture, pick the 5 to 15 things you want most for your business 3 years from now. In your 1-Year Plan, choose the 3 to 7 most important goals that move you a third of the way towards realizing your 3-Year Picture and, in the next 90 days, the 3 to 7 most important priorities (Rocks) for moving a quarter of the way towards achieving your goals.
With your processes, document the few essential procedural steps to do everything that is repetitive. With job descriptions, define the plus or minus 5 roles/responsibilities for each seat. Leaving the non-essentials undefined allows individuals to bring creativity to the process or seat.
It’s all about prioritizing and simplifying. If you’re not doing this, I strongly encourage you to start now. Start living the 20/80 rule.
No body talks about the elephant in the room. It’s too uncomfortable. The boss goes ballistic if you mention that subject to her.
Its too embarrassing. If I bring that subject up, then everyone will know about it.
An EOS colleague and friend of mine, Rip Tilden, remembers his mother reminding him,- “People know”. He calls it his mother’s greatest leadership lesson. It’s true in your family and its true in your neighborhood.
It’s also true in your business. Let’s face it. There are very few secrets in most small companies. Everybody already knows about it.
If it’s that employee that you can’t bring yourself to terminate for poor performance, everyone knows about him already. They are probably upset with you for not doing anything about him and expecting them to work harder to compensate for him.
If it’s that personal friend of yours, or your family’s, you haven’t been able to talk with about the significant money that is owed your company, everybody knows. Everyday that this continues, you lose respect in their eyes. That person is not your friend if you can’t discuss this issue directly with him.
What elephant is in your room? What aren’t you dealing with? Resolve to do so now. You are hurting, not helping, your company more every day that you wait. If you want a great resource, read Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott. If you want to talk about it, let me know. Good luck.
When I use the word “commitment,” many interpret it as commitment to the company, team, or cause. That’s not at all what I’m referring to here. Of course everyone on your leadership team is committed to the company (I hope). The question is, is each person on your leadership team committed to every decision you make every time?
Do You Have 100% Commitment When Resolving an Issue Every Time?
Another way of saying 100% commitment is “buy-in,” “on the same page,” or “agreement.” Without 100% commitment on every conclusion, you’ll have the same issues come up over and over. You will end up with side conversations that are unhealthy and lack crispness, which takes more effort to achieve results. You simply won’t have a united front on your leadership team.
One simple step to achieve 100% commitment and to make sure that every member on your leadership team buys in is to simply ask. At the end of IDS (click here to see the issues solving track), ask each member of the leadership team if they are all committed to the decision. The reason you might not ask most of the time is that you’re afraid to ask or you’re trying to rush to get through the agenda. It’s vital that you do it every time.
Not all members are going to agree or they might have gone a different way if it were their decision, but if they’ve been heard and they can genuinely live with it, support it, embrace it, and help drive it, then you truly have commitment.
“A man ordinarily has time to do all the things he really wants to do.” Anonymous
Have you ever said to yourself “if only I had the time, I would do _______. “ If – fill in the blank – is something you really want to do, why aren’t you doing it now? Is the issue really a lack of time? Or is the issue that you really don’t want to do it and “lack of time” is a convenient excuse? After all, everyone uses the “I don’t have time” excuse, so we’ve grown accustomed to using it ourselves.
Each of us faces choices every day. When we choose to do what we really want to do, we’re not kidding ourselves. Choice is a variable. The “want to do” can be an act of kindness or an act of selfishness. Either way, we’re making a choice. We’re taking control and driving the bus.
Time, on the other hand is a constant. Our lifespan may be a little longer or shorter than others on the planet but each day we have 24 hours, no more, no less. Our lives are finite. So, we can’t save time, lose time, make time, buy a little more time or go back in time. And, time spends itself, so we can only choose what to do or not do with the 24 hours that we have each day. So, when we think that we have no choice and that time dictates the things we must do, we’re putting ourselves under the bus.
Think of time as a resource, not a limiter. Choose wisely. Use the resource and believe that you are doing things because you choose to do them.
When you face some issues with your team, emotions may flare and that can become a hindrance to resolving the issues. Take a moment to view this video for some tips on how to guide your team through the emotions to a positive conclusion.
