“The Peter Principle” is a term coined by Laurence J. Peter in 1969 to describe the recurring phenomenon of employees being promoted to – and often beyond – their highest level of competence. While hilariously illustrated in the comic strip Dilbert, both versions of the television show The Office, and the movie Office Space – the consequences for a small, entrepreneurial company aren’t funny at all.

When we begin implementing EOS with a company, we always ask the leaders to commit fully to the journey ahead – the journey to become their very best as a leadership team. One of the specific things that requires is to take responsibility for everything that you and your fellow leaders have created in your organization. Like a lot of things in EOS, that sounds easy – but it’s hard and very rare.

What we’re talking about is avoiding the blame game, which is so common in lean, fast-moving organizations. Most readers of this blog know the feeling well – you’re sailing along, growing and prospering, and then all of a sudden you hit the ceiling. You’re stuck or derailed by a major problem, or by hundreds of little ones. It’s frustrating and scary – and when you’re frustrated and scared your emotions can get the better of you.

Before a leadership team begins its EOS journey, we ask each member of the team to rate the company from 1-10 (with 10 being best) in answer to three questions. The second question is, “How aligned is your organization around the company’s vision and plan?”

The average answer to that question is 4, and it’s not at all unusual for the owner/Visionary to offer a score several points higher than anyone else on the team.

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” - General George S. Patton  

Over the last eight years, I’ve helped 100 entrepreneurial leadership teams create and execute more than 300 “strategic plans.” Not one of them wanted a beautiful plan – they all wanted more traction. In other words, they wanted to properly focus the organization on the right stuff, and to instill more discipline and accountability so that everyone actually executes on the company’s vision and plan. 

A few months ago I published a blog post entitled Too Small To Make a Difference? The point of the article is that everyone in a business matters—from the owner to the newest “front line” hire. I further suggested that entrepreneurs work hard to engage everyone in the EOS process, including the use of Rocks, Level 10 Meetings, and Scorecards throughout the organization. 

When my clients are struggling with that concept, I’ve found that a painstaking approach to clearly and simply defining these tools really helps. Because try as we might, entrepreneurial leaders and managers often over-complicate things.