Burnout is no way to start the New Year. 

And yet, so many business leaders start out their year this way. Q4 is often a sprint to the finish line, and Q1 feels like you need to hit the ground running after the holidays. 

Burnout is caused by a feeling of spinning your wheels but getting nowhere in your business. Does this sound like you? A lot of business owners will be there at some point in their careers, but with the right tools, burnout can easily transform into breakthrough. 

In this blog, we’re going to get you energized for the year using proven tools that will help you get on track and gain Traction toward your goals. Now is the time to get your priorities straight and set the right benchmarks to measure your success. 

Defining Your Values 

The first piece of your vision (called the Vision/Traction Organizer or V/TO in the EOS® ecosystem) is your values. In Gino Wickman’s book Traction, he outlines eight questions you need to ask that will help you craft your vision for your organization. The first question is the most important—what are your core values? The sooner you can get these down on paper, the faster you and your team can get aligned on the things that truly matter.

What are your Core Values? 

Core values are 3-7 timeless guiding principles. You should hire, reward, fire, review, and recognize team members based on these values. You may have a vague idea of what your organization values, but your employees don’t. This can lead to disunity, which in turn leads to—you guessed it—burnout. 

This exercise is done best with your leadership team, and the process can take several hours. Here are a few pointers to help you get started defining your core values: 

• Think of 3 people in your organization who, if you could clone them, could lead you to market domination. 
• Go over the names and list the characteristics that these people embody (for example—hard-working, get the job done on time, treat each customer like a family member, etc.) 
• Your core values are somewhere in that long list. Narrow it down—draw a line through ones that are unimportant or combine ones that are similar. 
• Narrow your list down to somewhere between 5-15. 
• Now it’s time to make some tough decisions. Through discussion and debate with your leadership team, narrow these core values down to 3-7. 

It may take some time, but this step is vital for honing in on your vision. Your values are part of who you are as a company. Take a look at this real-world example of core values from one of our clients, Hughes Integrated:

• Relationships first
• Continuous growth
• Strategic focus
• Know your stuff
• Proactive problem solver

These values can be expounded upon (in fact, we at EOS® encourage you to create a Core Values “speech” that you can present quarterly to your employees—more on that later), but they speak for themselves as-is. They are easy to remember, which means they are easy to teach to stakeholders of Hughes Integrated including employees, new hires, and partners.

Piecing Together Your Vision: The Questions You Need to Answer to Bring it All Together 

Defining your Core Values is an important step in piecing together your vision—it may take several hours or even days. But once you and your leadership team are aligned on your Core Values, you can move on to the next phase. There are seven more questions you need to answer that can help you gain Traction® going into the year. 

What is your Core Focus? 

It’s easy to get distracted by new opportunities at every turn. However, chasing after every “shiny new thing” is a recipe for burnout. Identifying your Core Focus keeps you honed in on your goals. 

Your Core Focus is like a mission statement. To define your Core Focus, you need to address two areas: 

• Your reasoning for being: Why does your organization exist? What is its purpose, cause, or passion? 
• Your niche: This is your “What”? That one thing you’re driven to being the best in the world at? 

Your purpose, cause, or passion can be a big, bold statement (ideally stated in 3-7 words) that has an “ah-ha” effect. For example, the purpose of Hughes Integrated is to “honor God by helping others grow” through marketing strategies that create loyal customers.

Your niche is what you do best—it should be simple. It’s what you sell or provide to your customers better than anyone else. For Hughes Integrated, their niche is relationship-driven marketing—helping organizations build relationships with prospects and clients, not just sell to them.

Whatever it is, it’s what you do best—and it should only be one thing. Hughes Integrated sells websites, branding, and content, but those are all part of their “sweet spot,” which is a relationship-driven strategy. Keep it simple, and keep it clear. 

What is Your 10-Year Target? 

Where do you want your organization to be 10 years from now? That’s what this section of your vision will answer. This is your time to dream big—we’ll get to the shorter-term goals you need to get there later. 

For example, McKinley, a property management organization, had a 10-year target of 20,000 multifamily units owned and/or managed by their company. Your target should be specific—it can be a revenue target, a certain number of units sold, even an amount of referrals from happy customers. It should be a motivating number—one that will drive other pieces of your vision, like your marketing strategy, 3-year picture, and 1-year plan (more on those later!) 

What is Your Marketing Strategy? 

Crafting your vision is all about creating clarity and a direction forward. Your marketing strategy is a clear direction on who your target market is, what you sell them, and why it matters. This is important because many business leaders, especially small businesses, try to be all things to all people, believing that casting a wide net will get them more customers. But that’s not the case. When you cast a wide net, you dilute the quality of what you actually sell and inevitably stretch yourself too thin. 

Your marketing strategy hones in on marketing your niche. Not everyone is going to want to buy what you sell—but the right people will, if you speak to them the right way. Your marketing strategy includes: 

• Your target market 
• Your 3 uniques
• Your proven process
• Your guarantee 

Let’s look at an example of a marketing strategy for a financial advising company to give you an idea of what yours should look like. 

• Target market: 55+ males who own or run their own business, planning to retire between 65-70; net worth of $1 million+ 
• Three uniques: 1) A team of Certified Financial Planners, 2) Tax mitigation strategies for business sale, 3) Fractional CFO services for local business owners 
• Proven process: 1) Discovery call, 2) Build your financial roadmap, 3) Implement strategies, 4) Adjust and monitor as needed
• Guarantee: 100% complimentary and no-obligation discovery call

What is Your 3-Year Picture? 

Now we’re going to bring the Vision down to the ground with the goals that will drive you toward your 10-year target. Your 3-year picture is just that—a vision of where you want to be three years from now. This is where you outline not only what you want your revenue and profit to look like three years from now, but also what the organization itself will look like. Will you have a new office, more employees, or a hybrid work structure? These details are also important to help paint a picture of who you will be in the future as you gain Traction® toward your 10-year target. 

What is Your 1-Year Plan? 

As you may have noticed by now, we started long term, high level and we are getting closer to the ground as we set goals and gain Traction®—because once you have the big picture in mind and on paper, it’s easier to set individual goals to help get you there. The 1-Year plan is the next piece. This is where you bring your long-term vision to the ground and make it real. 

Your 1-year plan should have 3-7 goals for the year. Try your best to keep it within this range. If you have too many goals, nothing will get done (when everything is important, nothing is important!) Make these goals attainable and measurable—for example, hire 2 more accountants, retain 80% of floor staff, or hit a net profit of $1 million. 

What Are Your Quarterly Rocks? 

Let’s break down your goals even further. Rocks are the 90-day world of EOS®. They are the big, important things that need to get done this quarter that drive you toward your 1-year plan, which drives you to your 3-year picture, etc. For example, if you want to hire 2 more accountants, your Q1 rock might be for your CFO to meet with a few different recruiters or business consultants. Rocks help you gain Traction quarter by quarter so you don’t lose sight of your annual and 10-year goals. 

What Are Your Issues? 

Every organization has them—Issues. These can be ideas, opportunities, or obstacles that get in the way of reaching your targets weekly, quarterly, and annually. EOS® has developed systems that help you identify, discuss, and solve issues so they don’t go unchecked. Issues might get solved in a Level 10 Meeting®, but some Issues are solved with a quarterly Rock. Regardless, Issues need to be solved. 

The Last Discipline: Shared By All 

After you’ve built your V/TO, the last thing you want to do is put it in a folder and file it away. A V/TO is a living, breathing document that all of your employees should know about. It should be highly visible and easy to find in your organization’s digital drives. It should be referenced frequently at quarterly and annual meetings. 

Be ready for employees to challenge the V/TO and ask questions. Not everyone in your organization will share your vision right away—they just need to hear it consistently (at least 7 times) to internalize, understand it and actually want to be a part of it. Their questions may even help you further refine your V/TO for the betterment of the company. 

Find Your Breakthrough in 2025 

There’s a light at the end of the burnout tunnel. When you have solidified your values and clarified your vision, you can move into 2025 with more confidence that you can meet your business goals. 

With an EOS Implementer on your side, you can take your vision and values even further. I’d love to meet with you to discuss your 2025 goals and how I can help get you there—because answering these eight questions is just the beginning. Schedule a free meeting with me today to get started.