When I first stepped into the CEO role, my instincts told me to grip tightly, know everything, and hold the reins of every decision. After 24 years in nonprofit leadership, I believed success meant personal overcommitment, constant involvement, and ownership over every detail. That mindset worked – until it didn’t.
Discovering EOS
Early in my tenure, a trusted colleague, Lara, handed me Traction by Gino Wickman. The book introduced the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) – a simple, practical framework that instantly resonated.
Excited, I shared copies of What the Heck Is EOS? with my team, and we jumped into self-implementing. For two years, we gave it our best shot.
The result? Limited, inconsistent progress, if that…
Where We Went Wrong
Looking back, our self-implementation faltered in five predictable ways:
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Not Letting Go of Control I understood EOS in theory, but emotionally struggled to release decision-making. My grip slowed us down.
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Cherry-Picking Tools We used some EOS tools (L10 Meetings, Rocks, Accountability Charts) but ignored others. Without full adoption, progress stalled.
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Avoiding True Delegation The “Delegate and Elevate” tool was familiar but not practiced. Leaders, myself included, stayed in the weeds, creating bottlenecks.
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Building Around People Instead of Functions Roles were defined by personalities rather than business needs. When someone left, so did their part of the structure.
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Lack of Cascading EOS didn’t really rolled beyond the leadership team. Vision, priorities, and discipline didn’t reach the rest of the organization.
The Turning Point
After two frustrating years, our momentum had evaporated. Then a friend, and donor, sent me another copy of Traction, this time with a promise: If you commit, I’ll fund a real launch with a professional implementer. That changed everything.
What a Professional Implementer Made Possible
The next two years, working with an EOS Implementer, changed everything.
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Expert guidance and discipline ensured we weren’t just “trying” tools—we were embedding them. These become the foundation for developing skills and leaders.
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Meetings became productive, focused on solving root issues with the Issues Solving Track. Yes, we actually made decisions, as imperfect as they often were.
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Vision cascaded, accountability deepened, and functions mattered more than personalities. Staff understood their role in moving the organization forward.
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Collaboration improved, discipline strengthened, and the organization finally unlocked its best performance.
The Lesson Every CEO Needs to Hear
EOS is simple. Implementing it is not. As CEOs, our first instinct is to control. But the real work and growth comes from letting go. Self-implementation taught me that without discipline, expertise, and willingness to empower others, EOS will stall. Actually, any system will stall.
Hiring an Implementer accelerated our success and gave us the structure we desperately needed.
Final Takeaway
Commit fully. Trust the process. Invest in guidance.
When embraced across the organization, EOS – or any new organizational operating system – doesn’t just transform systems, it transforms leaders, teams, and entire companies.