“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” ― Confucius   Your success will be defined by your team’s ability to compartmentalize and prioritize. Use the EOS Process® to clarify, simplify, and prioritize your vision. When you do that, you’ll find that everyone in your organization will be clear on where you want to go and how you want to get there. Everyone will be disciplined and accountable in executing your vision, gaining consistent traction in achieving it, and advancing as a healthy, functional, cohesive team. When I help my clients clarify their 10-Year Target™, 3-Year Picture™, 1-Year Plan, and quarterly Rocks, they often ask me why it’s important to progressively define their vision. What’s the point? I realized that the best way of understanding an answer to their question while watching a documentary about a master sculptor. Selecting the Stone: The first thing a sculptor

“Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.” – Bill Gates A coach keeps their client accountable. They act as a necessary sounding board and advisor to shape key skills.  A great coach expands their client’s thinking. One of the key roles and capabilities of an EOS Implementer is that of a facilitator.  Facilitation is the process of helping groups understand their common objectives, discover solutions, and assist them to plan how to achieve their goals.  Above all, a facilitator works to bring out the best of the group and to help them be more effective. The art of facilitation is a craft that is honed over roughly 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery. There is, however, a way to expedite the path to mastery. Your journey to facilitation mastery can be enhanced with the guidance and

My brother Tyler and I were one of Gino Wickman’s, the founder of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), first clients. If I were to guess, we were in the first three to sign up for a program that Gino at the time called the Virtual CEO. We knew Gino before he even branded his process EOS! I was rereading Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business over the Thanksgiving holiday and was reminded that we were mentioned in the book a handful of times. Now that I am a Certified EOS Implementer, I thought it would be nice to have a document that summarized the excerpts where we are mentioned to share with my clients, prospects, and colleagues. Below provides the details and pages of where we were mentioned in the book, Traction. Featured Traction Mention from Pages 51-52 Alongside two other partners, brothers Tyler and Jonathan B. Smith founded a small technology business designing high-end websites with back-end web applications. Once

I often get asked, “What is the #1 most important factor that leads to a successful EOS® engagement?” The lead domino for a successful implementation is a healthy team above all others. I can go so far as to estimate that a team’s success or lack of traction can be 70% attributable to team health. Healthy teams are functional, cohesive and are willing to ask the tough questions and deal with the most challenging issues. In Order to Get Healthy, You Have to Enter the Danger One of my clients calls me the “truth teller.” I believe my duty as an EOS Implementer is to ask the difficult questions. I want to be known as the “trusted partner” who has the courage to address the “sacred cows.” Playing this role is not always easy or fun. As a Traction Coach (EOS Implementer) I am sometimes uncertain and a bit anxious before “entering the danger.”

We did a “deep dive” on the EOS Core Process documentation and implementation process at our most recent Quarterly Collaborative Exchange (QCE). It was a great opportunity to hone my EOS Implementation skills on the path to EOS Mastery. Mike Paton, one of a few EOS Masters in the group, shared a great process for helping clients get their core processes documented and followed by all. It was no surprise to me that his process is a simple tool to produce real simple results. The process is as follows: Simplify – Distill your core process down to its component pieces. Write it Down – Take an initial stab at getting it documented. Agree – Be relentless about simplifying it and ensure that all of the stakeholders agree and align. Train – Teach your company the process to ensure it is followed by all. Measure – Trust your team to follow

Prediction: The Five Leadership Abilities™ Prediction,  you and your team’s ability to predict, is one of The Five Leadership Abilities.  To master the discipline of prediction is to overcome the feeling of being stuck, overwhelmed, and frustrated.  Your ability to predict will help you avoid “hitting the ceiling” and break through it. When we describe prediction, we refer to both long and short term.  Long-term prediction is your ability to plan 90 days and beyond.  On the other hand, short-term prediction depends on your ability to compartmentalize™ and prioritize all of your daily and weekly issues.  If you do not predict, you and your team will end up directionless.  Issues will pile up and remain unresolved.   To fail to predict is to set yourself up for disaster. A Personal Story I will share a personal story that invokes prediction in its purest form: I have flown millions of airline miles,