When a business leader decides to bring EOS® into their company, one of the most important choices they make is who will walk alongside them in that journey. Self-implement? Jeremy Hardern makes a case that you should really hire a professional. The Implementer you choose matters.
A good Implementer is more than a facilitator who flips through the pages of Traction. They’re not there just to run your meetings or teach you the tools.
A true Professional EOS Implementer® does something harder—and far more valuable. They challenge you. They hold up the mirror. They help you face the uncomfortable truths about your leadership, your team, and your business.
They are rigorously trained. They eat their own dog food—run on EOS. They are challenged by us OG’s to get better, to serve with integrity in our weekly training calls, and our Quarterly Collaborative Exchanges, in our Cohorts and “T-Groups”.
Can an employee who helps you self-implement EOS be that brave? Possibly practice as much?
Plain, unvarnished truth telling is the moment when the work gets real.
The Courage to Enter the Danger
Great Implementers don’t dictate answers. Instead, they create the space for you to discover the truth yourself. And when you see it—when you finally admit what must change—your Implementer is there to help you act. They draw on their own experience of being in the trenches of leadership and share how they’ve walked through similar struggles.
But let’s be clear: that takes courage. Every time an Implementer asks the question no one wants to ask… every time they refuse to let a leadership team stay in denial… every time they push for accountability when it would be easier to look away—that’s courage.
And it’s not courage for courage’s sake. It’s courage for the sake of the people who depend on you. Because every leadership team decision ripples outward.
The Ripple Effect of Leadership
When a leader gets healthier, stronger, and more focused, their company gets healthier too. And when the company grows stronger, every employee feels it. Jobs become more stable. Careers grow. Families thrive. Communities benefit.
That’s the ripple effect of EOS. For every one employee, there are five more people counting on them—spouses, kids, parents, friends, neighbors. The Implementer who has the courage to help you face reality is ultimately serving not just you, but all of them.
That’s why it matters who you choose as your Implementer.
Choosing Your Implementer
If you want someone who will keep things comfortable, you can find that in an employee. If you want someone who will simply keep your meetings on track, that’s not that hard to do.
But if you want an Implementer who will challenge you—who will push you to be the leader your people deserve—then choose someone with the courage to enter the danger.
Think you need to spend for a more experienced, higher-priced OG? Sure, for a lot of companies with the budget, that makes sense.
But if budget is tight, are you tempted to go it alone, because it costs a bit of money? Even the newest Professional Implementer is someone I’d bring into my business. And, they guarantee your satisfaction, or you keep your check.
And to my fellow Implementers reading this: remember the weight of our calling. It’s not about us. It’s about the leaders we serve, the employees they lead, and the families and communities who depend on those employees.
Let’s be brave enough to tell the truth, to stand firm, and to help leaders do what they already know needs to be done.
Because when we do, businesses flourish, leaders grow, and lives change for the better.