I’m a long-time member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization. It’s called “EO” for short, just one letter away from “EOS”…easily confused, I know – but two distinct organizations. EO is member-led. There is support staff – but much of the value of EO is generated by its members who serve in various leadership positions. In EO, we say “We are more like a gym than a spa.” When you purchase a gym membership, you essentially purchase the right to work out at the facility. You pay for the privilege of doing the work. At spas, customers pay to receive services. Massage, assisted stretching, facials, saunas, hot stones…you name it – these services are delivered to the paying customer without them doing much if any of the work.
This gym/spa metaphor applies to EOS as well, I think. If you are implementing EOS in your business, you are doing the work of stepping outside the day-to-day operation, getting your leadership team all on the same page with your Vision, and translating that Vision down to the ground in terms of setting and achieving quarterly Rocks, weekly To-Dos and daily execution, day in and day out. No one can do this work for you – it’s up to you to get it done, with consistency, focus and energy.
If you join a gym, but never show up and exercise, your physical fitness will not improve. Similarly, if you read TRACTION, set some meetings on your calendar, but skip them or execute them poorly, the fitness of your business will not improve either. Sometimes we need a coach – to hold us accountable, to nudge us along the path as we develop new habits and rituals that increase our fitness over time.
In EOS that “coach” role is called Implementer. Building new habits may be simple, but they’re not always easy – especially when these habits must be built not just by the entrepreneur, but also by their leadership team. Hiring an EOS Implementer to help you install EOS as the operating system for your business will greatly enhance the likelihood of the associated habits “sticking,” and taking root within your organization. It will also accelerate the rate at which this change happens.
It’s been said that if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go with others. I would add that if you want to go far AND fast, go with others AND use a coach. Only you can do the work required to get more out of your business. Hiring an EOS Implementer will greatly increase your odds of success, and the pace at which it happens.