As an EOS Implementer, I work primarily with business owners and leadership teams. One thing that I have noticed is that every organization either has had or will have people issues. Some are big. Some are small.
Every team is somewhere on a continuum from weak to strong. Where is your team?
Dealing with People Issues in Your Organization
Here are a few nuggets to think about:
- Everyone knows the elephant in the room. It's only a matter of time until the team is healthy enough to call it out. Until it's addressed, the team and the company suffer.
- The team is usually better able to handle it than the leader may think. I often go into a session knowing that we're going to address a people issue, such as someone's real role in the organization or even their title. Usually the leader is quite anxious about it and it always goes better than expected. Again, everyone already knows the issue.
- Teams that trust each other perform better. Without trust, there is rarely any healthy debate about anything, which results in less optimal decisions that are usually controlled by the most domineering person.
- The magic to creating and maintaining a great team boils down to few basic things:
- Fanatical attention to core values—Everyone must have the company core values and receive regular feedback on them.
- Clear accountability—The 5 key roles of every function in the organization should be clearly documented on an accountability chart and be visible to everyone.
- Objective measurements—Wherever possible, identify metrics that can be reported that show whether someone is meeting expectations.
- Open and honest feedback on the previous 3 bullets, with a focus on the greater good of the company.
In 2009 I discovered how the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) could help me build strong teams in the companies I was managing. Now I have committed my career to helping others achieve their goals and dreams using EOS.
Next Steps