At EOS we teach that you can’t build a business on multiple operating systems with multiple languages. Your language must be intentional and conscious. When you use consistent language on a daily basis with your team, it reinforces your company culture and helps your team to bond. 

It wasn’t fun. Alex (my business partner) and I took our annual Clarity Trip™ in the Smoky Mountains, following the Appalachian Trail. We planned to do 76 miles over 6 days. We did it, but it rained for five of those days.

On our longest day of 16 miles, it rained 5 inches. So, slogging along in wet boots with water up to our calves on the trail, we debated stopping after about five miles. However, that would have added four or five miles to each day we had left; we would have had to quit early. We wouldn’t have reached our goal.

Seth Godin wrote a post recently called "The Illusion of Control." As with all Seth’s posts, it prompts great thoughts.

The gist of the post is that we delude ourselves when we tell each other, tell our children, tell our employees, tell our management team that we have control over the future. We don’t. Plain and simple.

All we can control are our actions. The things we choose to do. If we choose wisely, we can greatly influence the future. But that is all. Just like with your cholesterol. What you eat will influence whether your bad cholesterol goes up or down. Not what the exact number is. And exercise, of course.

“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. 

The Elephant in the Room. The Sacred Cow. The skeleton in the closet. Every company has certain issues that they avoid bringing up at all costs. Sometimes the issues are too uncomfortable to confront. Or the same issue has been discussed many times in the past and still nothing is being done about it. Sometimes it’s because we’re afraid that someone will get personally offended just because we brought it up.

The issues that are most often avoided are people-related issues. Someone is underperforming, but because they’ve been with the company forever, their lack of performance becomes the norm or status quo.