Leadership Framework #2: EOS

January 09, 2023

"Decisions are simple when issues are clear"

-Mike Paton, President EOS Worldwide

When a leader can describe the real problem they are having in 1 sentence, with no commas, a clear issue has been identified. Once identified in this fashion, decisions to solve these issues are clear.

In this second edition of Relentless Pursuit Newsletter for 2023, we will continue our review of common leadership frameworks. The purpose of this series is to educate every reader, both leader and follower, of proven strategies to lead as we are all asked to Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way!

LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK #2: Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)

EOS is a set of concepts, and tools, designed to operate small businesses between 10-250 employees. The purpose of EOS is to organize a business by clarifying it's vision, aligning all employees to common goals, and establishing a framework to tackle the hundreds of tasks, challenges, and opportunities faced each day in business. The EOS system provides visibility to business leaders by organizing activity into the following six components.

  1. Vision: A simple, and memorable, description of where a business is going. Ex; To be the acknowledged leader in _____ (specific industry niche), to deliver unrivaled value to customers by ____, or to create a platform where sellers and buyers meet to accomplish ____. The first step is having a vision, the next and more important step, is getting everyone in a business to understand and relentlessly pursue the vision.

  2. People: Tools to recruit, retain, and develop the best team to effectively pursue the business vision.

  3. Process: This is the secret ingredient in a successful business. A strong process includes a business system where core procedures are documented, standardized, and consistently executed.

  4. Issues: A structured way to identify, work, and permanently eliminate issues that arise - both good and bad!

  5. Data: Simplify all the data in your organization to 5-15 indicators that truly drive performance. Use this data as the objective, free from feelings, opinions, and personalities, to know what a business really is performing.

  6. Traction: Traction is the EOS tool to make a vision real, by driving visibility, discipline, and execution into an organization so that all team members will participate and leaders can monitor, and modulate, progress in real time.

EXAMPLE: With more than 170,000 companies running on EOS, examples of success are abundant! Check out this article that shows how EOS has made an impact by classifying and creating a system to tackle issues (Crimson Building Company), thriving in the integration of an acquisition (Realty Austin), and enabling growth by putting the right people in the right places (National recruiting company) in these 25 examples.

LEARN MORE: Learn more about EOS Here

TIP: Establish principles to simplify the way you solve issues

As Ray Dalio frequently reviews in his book Principles, life is so full of things coming so fast that it can feel like a blizzard, an unlimited amount of unique issues hitting you in the face. When you encounter, and solve, one issue write down the criteria used for making that decision so when another issue comes along like it, the new issue will simply be "another one of these" as opposed to a unique snowflake of an issue.

Stay Productive.

Joe House