Rocks are one of the most valuable tools in the EOS Process™, and every Rock needs to be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. But it’s not always clear what it is you need to measure when reporting on your Rock. Do you base it on the activity that went into the Rock, or on the outcome of the Rock? Let’s say your leadership team needs to hire a new sales leader and get the person onboarded as soon as possible. As your team begins to make the Rock SMART, you need to write the Rock so that on the due date, you can simply say that it’s done or not done, and all be on the same page with the answer. But how do you determine whether the Rock is done or not? Handpicked related content: Don’t Know If Your Rocks Are On-track? There are two approaches to setting the

At the time this article goes live, most companies are halfway through Q1. If you’re not halfway done with your Rocks, you have some catch-up work to do. If you don’t know whether you’re on-track or off-track, you have a bigger issue to figure out. Most of the time, you know exactly where you are in your progress towards completing your Rocks. In general, your Rocks are pretty straightforward and it doesn’t take a “rock-et” scientist to calculate your weekly progress for your Level 10 Meetings™. But not every Rock is that simple. Every once in a while, you find yourself owning a Rock that feels larger than life. Not only is it a challenge to plan out your progress, you have no clear understanding whether you’re on-track or off-track. These Rocks are dangerous, because you can be off-track and not realize it until too late. But there’s a helpful EOS® tool that

The year is off to a great start for your company, but is your leadership team back to your old ways again? With the beginning of a new year comes new business goals. Whether it’s course-correcting from missing last year’s goals, or building on last year’s successes – the new year is a great time to reevaluate and decide the most important priorities for the year. Without an operating system for your business, how do you keep your business goals front and center? In a recent introductory meeting with a leadership team, I asked them what about their most important goals to accomplish this year. I heard different answers from each of the leaders in the room. Yikes. While the spirit of goal-setting was there, without an operating system for their business, they were quickly falling back to their old ways. It’s like Groundhog Day every year: it’s the same

What is the single most critical thing your leadership team needs to be more successful? A two-year study by Google revealed that the greatest predictor of a successful team is the trust among the team’s members. Teams that trust each other are more effective, and teams that lack trust never seem to gain the Traction® you might expect them to. Even when a team is full of high-performers, a lack of trust will hold back their success. Teams That Trust If your organization is running on the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, you probably won’t be surprised that “rock star” team members alone aren’t enough to achieve success. You need to have the Right People in the Right Seats—team members who Get It, Want It, and have the Capacity to do the job. These people have more than mere skill—they also fit your company’s Core Values and Vision. As your team runs on EOS®,

Congratulations! You made it to the end of 2018. Whether your business broke all-time sales records or nearly bottomed out, you’re here. And that’s cause for celebration. It’s fitting that the year ends with promises of peace and joy, and glad tidings to all. There is no better way I can think of than to end a year by spending time by the fire with my wife, watching as the silent snow descends upon the treetops. Time slows down as the year winds down. It gives me the space I need to reset before jumping into the new year. As you read this, I’m spending the week getting together with close friends and family. My wife Jill and I have carved out intentional time to be close with the people we don’t get to spend much time with. This truly is a time for peace on earth, enjoying family and

One of the toughest types of issues to resolve in any business are people issues. People issues are incredibly difficult to acknowledge and address, because they are always emotional. Even if you know the issue is there, you may not have a language for addressing it in a healthy and honest way. And if a member of your team is involved, it can feel especially impossible to deal with. The only way to effectively address—and resolve—a people issue in your company is to identify its root cause. If you don’t get to the root cause, the best you can do is treat the symptoms. But the symptoms are just signposts to the real issue, and the problem will continue to impact your team and your company. In the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, we use the People Analyzer™ to identify and address the root cause of a people issue. But to get to the