If you want to know how healthy a business really is, don’t ask to see the financials first. Ask to see the Issues List.
I’ve been running EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System) sessions with leadership teams for years, and I’ve learned that the Issues List tells me more about the true state of a business in five minutes than almost anything else. The number of issues on it. The types of issues on it. How long they’ve been there. Whether the team is willing to put things on it at all.
It’s one of the most underappreciated diagnostic tools in the entire EOS framework — and most teams have no idea they’re sitting on a goldmine of information about themselves.
What Your Issues List Is Actually Telling You
Let me walk you through some of what I see, and what it typically means.
Too many tactical issues? EOS hasn’t been implemented effectively.
When a leadership team’s Issues List is dominated by tactical, operational, day-to-day problems — a vendor who keeps dropping the ball, a process that keeps breaking, a recurring customer complaint — that’s a signal. It tells me the organization is still running on personalities and heroics rather than systems and structure. The leadership team is still doing the business instead of leading it.
A well-implemented EOS company pushes tactical issues down to the appropriate level. The leadership team shouldn’t be spending their time in the weeds — those issues should be getting solved by the people closest to the issue, in their own Level 10 Meetings, on their own Issues Lists. When tactical issues keep bubbling up to the top, it means the accountability structure isn’t working yet.
Issues that keep coming back? You’re solving symptoms, not root causes.
One of the disciplines EOS teaches is IDS — Identify, Discuss, Solve. The “Identify” step is the one most teams rush. They see the symptom and jump straight to a solution. But the real issue — the root cause — never gets named, so it never actually gets solved. It just comes back next quarter wearing a different hat.
If you look at your Issues List and see the same categories of problems showing up again and again, that’s not bad luck. That’s a signal that your team hasn’t yet developed the discipline to get beneath the surface.
A short Issues List is almost never a good sign.
This one surprises people. You’d think a short Issues List means things are going well. Sometimes it does. But sometimes a short Issues List means the team doesn’t feel safe putting things on it. Or the leader has — intentionally or not — created a culture where raising problems feels like complaining, or like weakness. Or, more often than not, you simply set your goals too low. There’s no productive and healthy tension created to grow faster, get better. You’re simply coasting.
A healthy leadership team should always have issues. That’s not a failure — that’s what growth looks like. The question isn’t whether you have issues. The question is whether you have the clarity, the trust, and the discipline to surface them and solve them. And if you’re coasting, how long should that last? Grow or die. Which are you doing?
Old issues that never get solved? That’s a culture problem.
The age of issues on your list matters too. If something has been sitting on your Issues List for two or three quarters and it keeps getting bumped or avoided, pay attention to that. Either the issue is unclear — it hasn’t been identified correctly yet — or there’s something about it that the team isn’t willing to confront.
In my experience, the oldest issues on a leadership team’s list are usually the most important ones. They’re old because they’re hard. They’re hard because they involve people, or money, or a decision that someone doesn’t want to own. But those are exactly the issues that, when solved, unlock the most growth.
Mostly strategic issues? Now we’re talking.
When I sit down with a leadership team and their Issues List is dominated by strategic questions — market positioning, org structure for the next stage of growth, a big opportunity they’re trying to decide on — I know something important: this team has done the work. They’ve built the systems. They’ve put the right people in place. They’ve freed themselves up to actually think about the future.
That’s the goal. That’s what a healthy, well-running EOS company looks like at the leadership level. Not no issues — but the right issues. Issues that are worthy of the leadership team’s time and attention.
How to Use This Insight
Next time you’re preparing for your L10 meeting or your quarterly/annual planning session, before you dive into the agenda, take five minutes and just look at your Issues List. Really look at it.
Ask yourself:
- Are these issues strategic or tactical?
- Are any of these showing up for the second or third time?
- Is this list a true reflection of what’s actually going on in our business, or are there things we’re not saying?
- Are we solving root causes, or are we putting bandaids on symptoms?
- Are we coasting? Have we set our goals too low?
What you find will tell you a lot — not just about your business, but about your team, your culture, and how effectively you’ve implemented EOS.
The Issues List isn’t just a place to park problems until your next meeting. It’s a window into the health of your organization. Learn to read it, and you’ll lead your business better.
Want to know what your Issues List is really telling you? I’d love to sit down with your leadership team and take a look.