The Lumberjack Story Have you heard Steven Covey’s Lumberjack story? It’s about two lumberjacks, one young and strong and one old and experienced. They’re competing to see who can cut down the most trees in 8 hours, and the young and strong one is confident that he will win. During the competition the young lumberjack hears the older one stop every hour. When the whistle was blown to signal the end, the young lumberjack was so confident that he had one he walked to the podium and climbed up. The older one approached the podium looking much less tired than the younger one. The time had come for the winner to be announced, and to the younger one’s disappointment and shock, he was not named the winner. He turned to the older lumberjack and asked “How can this be? I heard you taking breaks every hour while I worked continuously.” The older

I have yet to meet a leader in an entrepreneurial company who hasn’t had some (or a lot) of moments of feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Do you sometimes react like your stresses are life-and-death? Most of us do, and it sucks the energy from our minds and bodies. How would you handle stress if you were really dealing with life-and-death situations and decisions, like ICU nurses do? A new study performed at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center supports the growing body of good research demonstrating that mindfulness training decreases the response to stress. They studied members of the medical school’s ICU, who participated in an eight-week mindfulness-based training, which included meditation, breathing exercises, yoga and gentle stretching. Study participants completed a questionnaire about the stress level before and after the eight-week training. Researchers also collected saliva samples to study the biomarkers of stress reactivity. The findings are startling. At the end

High performers love to be challenged and coached! If you want your high performers to truly excel and be loyal to you and your company, make sure you are a great mentor and coach for them. If you don’t, they will be out the door in a heartbeat. I learned this early in my career when I mentally trained elite athletes – including 31 Olympians, a few Olympic teams, and a professional sports team. The athletes who sustained greatness over a long period of time, always thrived by taking on big, new challenges and either really appreciated, or loved to be coached by people they deeply respected. Truly high-performers continually seek out who and what can make them better. If you follow football, Tom Brady is an illustrious example of this! After three decades of not only coaching executives to become high-performers but also teaching leaders at all levels how to coach

I just returned from my quarterly meeting with all of my fellow EOS Implementers. My single biggest takeaway? How much effort has gone into the tools helping Integrators develop as leaders and build an incredibly strong Visionary/Integrator relationship. In EOS, the Visionary and Integrator are part of a so-called “dynamic duo,” each playing an important role in the success of the organization. It’s important to be able to work together. But when things get busy, too often I see this relationship start to get out of alignment because they try to manage it through L10 meetings, hallway conversations, or late night phone calls. For individuals new to either role, the top two questions I see you struggling with are: Integrators: How am I supposed to know everything and manage the Visionary? Visionaries: Since I have no LMA and I’m being told to stay out of the business, what do I do now? The good news? You have a partner to work through

I’m a huge supporter of well-established company cultures. When an organization starts working with me to implement EOS, understanding the core of who their company is lays an incredible foundation for success. But beyond those initial discussions, maintaining a consistent company culture can sometimes be a struggle. I had the opportunity to sit down with some past EOS clients of mine, Mark and Brian, who co-founded a website-building company called BizStream. Their company culture is grounded in the same things many companies are: having fun, working hard, and working together. They hosted a great collaborative trust-building event a couple years back (watch the video to learn more!), but I want to talk about some of the tactics that set them up for success before, during and after that event. If you’re looking to actively engage your employees in your company’s culture, these tips are for you. Be Highly Intentional Like any