Implementer Posts
Anchor Down or Anchor Up?
Imagine a speedboat on a glass-smooth lake on a calm, sunny day. The captain guns the throttle and the boat takes off. Except it doesn’t, because the captain forgot to raise the anchor. Instead of cruising rapidly across the lake, the boat lurches in fits and starts as the anchor skips across the bottom of the lake. That’s what it’s like when a Leadership Team doesn’t have the right people around the table. Getting the Right People in the Right Seats across the Leadership Team is like raising that anchor. The business just takes off. In this Blog I am going to talk a little about what it means to be part of a Leadership Team. And the answer might not be what you think. In Focus Day (the first session I lead with a new client) one of the first things we do is define the structure of the
Culture Wins – What the Baltimore Orioles are Teaching Us
Why do the Os have the most wins in the American League and what can we learn from them? Is it about money? Heck no. They’re the third lowest team payroll in all of baseball. The Mets have the highest payroll and were all but out of the playoffs on August 1. The Orioles are the winningest team because general manager Michael Elias and field manager Brandon Hyde rebuilt the team to a standard of right people, right seats. Right people, right seats, ya gotta have both. But which is more important? Right seat is someone that gets and wants and has the capacity to do their job well. Statistically, on the field, the Os are dramatically better than in recent years, yet they’re still only seventh out of fifteen American League teams in combined pitching and hitting. On the other hand, right people are people that live the company
It’s still a gift, no matter how badly-wrapped!
Insights from those who know us are always gifts, no matter how badly-wrapped they may be! It is truly an honor to work with leadership teams who want to be their best. I’m fortunate to count those blessings weekly. Despite leaders’ focus on being their best, there are times when a well-intentioned colleague sharing an honest insight will land a stinging blow. Even I may land a stinging blow when I expect it’s a known issue I’m sharing. It is at those times that I take a deep breath and remember that even well-behaved people, when surprised, may act badly. We won’t always know when we are about to give this type of “gift”—an insight that is in their blind spot—to a colleague. Because we see it, we expect surely they must see it, too. We don’t find out we are hitting a raw nerve until we see the look
Cracking the Code of Core Values: Your Secret Sauce for Authenticity and Progress
In the world of EOS, one of the most important parts of your business’s success is clearly defined core values. These guiding principles shape a company’s identity, driving its culture, decision-making, and overall trajectory. As businesses evolve, it becomes important to check in on your core values to ensure they are still genuine drivers of growth or mere placeholders. Does your team have “accidental” or “aspirational” core values? If your answer is “yes” or even if it’s “I don’t know,” it might be time to give EOS a try. Does Your Business Have “Accidental” Core Values? “Accidental” core values, as the name suggests, are the beliefs that have naturally emerged within an organization due to its history, processes, or initial success. While these values may have played a pivotal role in getting the business to where it is, they might not necessarily contribute to further growth or advancement. A classic example
5-5-5, It’s a conversation, not a review
In order to be a great boss, you have to know what’s going on with your team. It is difficult to support them if you don’t know what is going on. In an earlier post, I wrote about driving accountability with the LMA tool. Some of the pieces in the accountability puzzle are providing clear direction, clear expectations, and consistent communication. This is going to surprise some people, but the easiest way to find out what’s going on with your team is to simply have a quarterly conversation with them. I know, I know… it is a novel concept. Notice I called it a conversation. It is not a review. It is much less formal than that, perhaps over lunch. Even though it is informal, it still makes sense to work from framework. It will help provide consistency and clarity. EOS has a tool, we refer to as the 5-5-5, that helps
Bad Apples Spoil the Bunch?
Have you ever heard the phrase “One bad apple spoils the bunch”? Have you ever thought about why that is? I mean, if all the other apples are fine, why does one ruin it? Is this some extension of entropy, where the tendency of the universe moves toward disorder? I think about entropy a lot, especially when looking at my desk or my closet, and sadly I would say that both of those “systems” are constantly moving toward disorder. But I digress. So, if one bad apple can spoil a bunch, could one good apple improve a spoiled bunch? Or put another way, could one human-friendly chicken improve a flock of human-scared chickens? Yep, I just used entropy to talk about chickens. Didn’t think I could do that, did you? Anyway, here’s what is happening. As I’ve mentioned, I recently inherited three very sweet, human-raised chickens. Whenever I come up to the coop, they come running up to me. They