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I am often on LinkedIn and my observation is that the “EOS Life” starts to look like a beach chair and an out-of-office reply. That’s not how I see it. EOS Life is doing what you love, with people you love, making a huge difference, being compensated appropriately, with time for other passions. Of course, all of the above can get you a week or two off for a vacation. Great, but wait, there’s more. I press upon my teams that the EOS Life should happen 30+ weeks every year. Take this for an example. A client moves an 8-hour session a few weeks before I travel to see them. I don’t rearrange my whole schedule around it. I protect the day off mid-week, even on a work trip, to give me “time for other passions”. Sightseeing and relaxation in another state. A huge clarity break that I did not have planned. Nothing flashy. The result is just a business that isn’t running me, where ideas flourish. One of the major reasons this happens is because of the intentional guardrails I put in place. |
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When I started my business in 2020, I set a 10-Year Target that had nothing to do with revenue. By 2030, I wanted to be living at least part-time in Montana. I’m an outdoorsy girl, and that’s where I feel most like me. This fall I bought land there. I have four years left to finish the plan, and I check every decision I make, personal and professional, against it. The 10-Year Target is a section or question within the Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO). The V/TO does the same thing for your business. It’s two pages made up of eight questions, and it filters every “should we?” |
Signals You’ve Drifted Outside Your Guardrails• You hired someone for their skills and never checked them against your Core Values. • Sales said yes to something operations can’t (or shouldn’t) deliver. • You took on a customer outside your target market because the lead was there. • Your margins are shrinking, and nobody can say when you started doing “a little of everything.” • Your V/TO was the result of an offsite but hasn’t been discussed since. |
Get Back on Track• Create a marketing strategy for your product, resulting in doing what you love every day. • Create Core Values so you can work with people you love every day. • Create long-range thinking and a Core Focus that shows the huge differences you are making in the lives of others: employees, customers, and the communities you serve. • Create a marketing strategy, revenue and profit forecasts that allow you to compensate your employees and yourself appropriately. • Create your quarterly rocks 4 times a year to reach the 1 year goals to continue to unfold into your 3 year picture, resulting in a business that you run and you have created time for other passions. Clear guardrails give you and your people what is wanted most: consistency, clarity and a reason to believe in where you’re going. You and ALL your employees deserve the EOS Life 30+ weeks a year. Go design the plan. This month, pull out your V/TO. What conversations can you have with your employees to tie their work to your greater good (V/TO). Help them see the ways they too can have the EOS Life through buying into the shared Vision of the company. |