10.10-10.11 Traction – Get a Drip On Your Business

Five Common Frustrations

1. Lack of Control: you don’t have enough control over your time, market, or company
2. People: you’re frustrated with your employees, customers, vendors, or partners. They don’t seem to listen, or understand you, you’re not on the same page
3. Profit: there is not enough of it
4. The Ceiling: your growth has stopped. No matter what you do, you can not get to the next level. You feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to do next
5. Nothing’s Working: you’ve tried various strategies and quick-fix remedies, but none have worked for long. You’re spinning your wheels and you need traction to move again.

Chapter 1: EOS (Entrepreneurial Operation System)

It is a holistic, self-sustaining system that addresses the 6 aspects of your business. Master the elements of EOS and you’ll able to integrate them into a powerful framework that will help you gain traction and realize the vision you’ve always had for your company. Successful business operates with a crystal clear vision that is shared by everyone.

VISION

Successful business owners not only have compelling visions for their organizations but also know how to communicate those visions to the people around them. They get everyone to see the same clear image of where the business is going and how it’s going there. Focus everyone’s energy toward one thing and amazing results will follow.

PEOPLE

Successful leaders surround themselves with great people. You can’t build a great company without other’s help.

DATA

The best leaders rely on a handful of metrics to help manage their business. The data frees you from the quagmire of managing personalities, egos, subjective issues, emotions, and intangibles by teaching you which metrics to focus on.

ISSUES

The obstacles faced to execute your vision.

PROCESS

It is your WAY of doing business. Successful organizations see their way clearly and constantly refine it. When you apply the process correctly, it works like magic, resulting in simplicity, scalability, and profitability, and you can bring your company to the next level.

TRACTION

The most successful leaders are the ones with traction. They execute well and they know how to bring focus, accountability, and discipline to their organization. The traction is typically the “weakest link”, the inability to make a business vision a reality is an epidemic.

Chapter 2: Letting Go of the Vine

If you are not happy with the current state of your company you have 3 choices: Live with it, Leave it, or Change it. For the change, you need to know the following beliefs:

1. Building a True Leadership Team: this book advocates a healthy leadership team approach, where you build a team of people that define the company’s vision with you. Select your leaders wisely. In your company, the only answer is your leadership team needs to parent everyone to greatness.
2. Hitting the Ceiling is Inevitable: reaching the natural limits of your existing resources is a byproduct of growth and the company continually needs to adjust its existing state if it hopes to expand through the next ceiling. The ceiling is on 3 different levels: Organization, Departmentally, and as an Individual. Growth is your only opinion, most companies strive for external growth, but internal growth also leads to future greatness. You and your team need to employ five leadership abilities to reach the next level [Simplify the organization, Delegate and elevate, Predict both long-term and short-term, Systemize, and Structure your company the right way].
3. You can only run your business on one operating system. You must have one abiding vision, one voice, one culture, and one operating system. This includes a uniform approach to “how you meet, how you set priorities, how you plan and set vision, the way you communicate with employees”. EOS is an OS that puts everyone on the same page. You must be Open-minded, Growth-oriented, and Vulnerable: you need to be open to new and different ideas. You know your strengths and weaknesses and let other people who are more skilled than you in a certain area take charge. You can not embark on this journey if you are not willing to be vulnerable, eliminate the facade with your leadership team, and invite openness and honesty.

Chapter 3: The Vision Component

Most entrepreneurs can clearly see their vision. The problem is that they make the mistake of thinking that everyone else sees it too. Clarify your vision and you will make better decisions about people, processes, finances, strategies, and customers. Entrepreneurs must get their vision out of their heads and down onto paper. Share the vision inside the company so that everyone can see where the company is going and determine if they want to go there with you. By getting everyone on the same page, you’ll find the problems get solved more quickly. To learn how to create a strong vision, you must first answer the 8 important questions:

1. What are your CORE VALUES? They are a set of vital and timeless guiding principles for your company. Those values define your culture and who you truly are. When they are clear, you will find they attract like-minded people to your organization. Once they’re defined, you must Hire, Fire, Review, Reward, and Recognize people based on those values.
2. What is your CORE FOCUS? Establish your company’s core focus and not let anything distract you from that. It should come from the company’s core and you must stay laser-focused on it.
3. What is your 10-Year FOCUS? What is your long-term target? Where do you want your organization to be a decade from now?
4. What is your MARKETING STRATEGY? [Your Three Uniques: what makes you different, what makes you stand out, and what are you competing with] [Your Guarantee: a guarantee is your opportunity to pinpoint an industry-wide problem and solve it, this is typically a service or quality problem. You must determine what your customers can count on from you. Besides, your guarantee forces all the people in your company to improve upon it. Thus improving customer experience] [Your Proven process: what you need to do is capture the proven way in a visual format to guide the sales team. It shows on 1 single piece of paper and illustrates your proven process. With each step, from the first client interaction to the ongoing follow-up once your product or service has been delivered.] [Your Target Market: identify your ideal customer, who are they, what are they, and know their demographic/geographic/psychographic characteristics]
5. What is your 3-Year PICTURE? With the 3-year picture clear in mind, you can more easily determine what you have to do in the next 12 months to stay on track.
6. What is your 1-Year PLAN? Bring your long-range vision down to the ground and make it real, which means deciding on what must get done this year. LESS IS MORE. The EOS approach is going to force you to focus on a few goals rather than too many. By doing that, you will actually accomplish more, this is the power of focus.
7. What are the QUARTERLY ROCKS? Once the 1-year plan is clear, you need to narrow your vision down to what really matters: the next 90 days. You should determine what the most important priorities (ROCKS) are in the coming quarter. Discuss and conclude what has to be executed in the next quarter to put you on track for the 1-year plan, then, in turn, puts you on track for the 3-year plan, then the 10-year plan, etc.
8. What are your ISSUES? Identify all the obstacles that could prevent you from reaching your targets. The sooner you accept that you have the issues, the better off you’re going to be.
9. Shared by ALL: Now that you have completed your Vision Component, the foundation for the rest of the EOS process is set. 2nd part is to share your vision with your employees. How to communicate the vision in three events: [Have a company meeting and unveil your clearly defined vision] [Every 90 days, have a short meeting with all employees. Share success and progress, review the vision, and communicate newly set company ROCKS for the quarter] [Each quarter, as you set the ROCKS in each department, conduct a complete review of the vision as a team]. People need to hear the vision 7 times before they really hear it for the first time.

Chapter 4: The People Component

It all comes down to getting the right people in the right seats. The right people are the ones who share your company’s core values, and fit and thrive in your culture. They are people you enjoy being around and who make your company a better place to be. The 2nd EOS tool PEOPLE ANALYZER (CORE VALUES+PEOPLE ANALYZER=RIGHT PEOPLE). The right seat means that each of your employees is operating within their area of greatest skill and passion inside your company and that the roles expected of each employee fit with his unique ability. One of the obstacles in gaining traction and achieving the vision is that roles, responsibilities, expectations, and job descriptions are UNCLEAR due to structural issues. To break through the ceiling, you must make sure you have the right structure in place to get to the next level. That leads us to the ACCOUNTABILITY CHART, the ultimate tool for structuring your company the right way, defining roles, and clearly identifying all of the seats in the organization. UNIQUE ABILITY+ACCOUNTABILITY CHART=RIGHT SEATS

1. RIGHT PEOPLE: when you have the answer “What are our core values?” you have the ability to define the right people for your organization.
2. PEOPLE ANALYZER: it is designed to clarify whether you have the right person in place or not.
3. RIGHT SEATS: make sure all the suitable people are in the right seats, and operating to their unique abilities, and clearly in line with their roles and responsibilities.
4. ACCOUNTABILITY CHART: the most impact of any EOS tool, it forces its users to view their organization in a different way and to address people’s issues that have been holding them back for years.

Chapter 5: Data Component

The 3rd essential component of gaining Traction. Only factual info can provide the basis for productive discussion and decision-making.

1. SCORECARD: anything that is measured and watched is improved. The scorecard should cause an organizational shift, your leadership team will become more proactive at solving problems because you have Hard Data that not only points to current problems but also predicts future ones. By solving the problems, you’re assuring them that you’re on track with your vision.
2. MEASURABLES (everyone has a number, there are 8 advantages to everyone having a number): [Numbers cut through murky subjective communication between managers and direct reports. A kind of communication tool between managers and direct reports, creating the basis of comparison, unemotional dialogue, and results] [Numbers create accountability, accountability begins with clear expectations and nothing is clearer than a number] [Accountability people appreciate numbers. Wrong people in the wrong seats usually resist measurables, while the right people in the right seats love clarity. Knowing the numbers they need to hit, they enjoy where all are held accountable] [Numbers create clarity and commitment] [Numbers create competition] [Numbers produce results, what gets watched improves] [Numbers create teamwork, camaraderie, and peer pressure] [You solve problems faster, when an activity-based number is off track, you can attack it and solve the problem proactively. In addition, the use of hard data cuts through emotional opinions].
3. With the vision clear, people in place, and data being managed through a scorecard, you’re creating a transparent organization where there is nowhere to hide. Any obstacles that stand in the way of achieving your vision will be apparent, your job is to remove the barriers and solve the issues holding you back.

Chapter 6: The Issues Component

Having the discipline to face and solve your organization’s issues as they arise. It’s human nature to put off making a hard decision. The better you are at solving problems, the more successful you become. Following are the two EOS tools to wield against obstacles holding your company back.

1. The Issues List: It’s normal to have issues, a vital first step is creating a workplace where people feel comfortable calling out the issues that stand in the way of your vision. [The Issues List in your Vision/Traction Organizer=V/TO, the issues can be shelved beyond 90 days. It will include issues such as new product ideas, key employee issues, tech needs, office relocation, capital needs, the need for HR policies, etc.] [The weekly leadership team issues list, the time frame on those items is much shorter. Those issues must be tackled at the highest level, in your weekly meetings.] [The departmental Issues list, these issues are on a more local level. The issues must be tackled during the weekly meetings.]
2. The Issues Solving Track: most teams suffer from different challenges when solving issues. Here is a simple tool that will allow you to resolve your issues: [Identify – clearly identify the real issue, because the stated problem is rarely the real one. The underlying issue is always a few layers down. You must find the root of the matter, by batting the issue back and forth, you will reach the true cause. Remember, the root problem may have multiple symptoms] [Discuss – the discussion step is everyone’s opportunity to say everything they have to say about the issue, you get everything on the table in an open environment where nothing is sacred. Upon the completion of the discussion, all of your options, data, ideas, solutions, and concerns will be out in the open.] [Solve: the solve step is a conclusion or solution that usually becomes an action item for someone to do. The item ends up on the TO-DO LIST and when the action is completed, the issue goes away forever.] [The 10 Commandments of Solving Issues: Not rule by consensus, Not be a weenie, Be decisive, Not reply on secondhand info, Fight for the greater good, Not try to solve them all, Live with it/end it or change it, Choose short-term pain and suffering, Enter the danger, Take a shot]

Chapter 7: The Process Component

1. Documenting Your Core Processes: identify your core processes – break down what happens in each one and document it – and compile the info into a single package for everyone. Your team needs to identify and agree on what to call your 6 to 10 core processes, those processes typically include the following [HR process is the way you search/find/hire/orient/manage/review/promote retain, and fire people] [Marketing process is the way you get your message to your target audience and generate interest in what you do and prospects for your sales people] [Sales process is the way you convert a prospect into a customer] [Operations process is the way you make your product or provide your services to your customer, normally 3 core processes within operations ‘project management, logistics, warehouse, distribution, service technicians, account management, service delivery, production, QC, customer service’] [Accouting process is the flow and management of all monies coming in and going out] [Cutomer-retention process is the proactive way that you take care of your customer after products/services have been delivered, and the way you retain customers so they continue to come back and send you referrals]
2. Document EACH of the Core Processes: the accountability chart comes into play. You need to document the steps in the process at a very high level, with several bullets under each step. Make sure everyone is following the process, helping them become consistent and efficient.
3. Package It: the titles of core processes become your table of contents. Each documented process in Step 2 becomes one of your sections. You can put them in a binder or company intranet. On the cover put your company name followed by the word ‘WAY’, like “The Elite Company Way”
4. Followed by All: when everyone follows their process, it is much easier to manage, troubleshoot, identify, and solve issues. The clear lines of process enable you to let go and gain more control. You must ensure that everyone follows ONE system, and manage all of them to make the adjustment. The business becomes more scalable, and you can add more customers, transactions, revenue, and employees while reducing complexity.

Chapter 8: The Traction Component

Action is the process of doing. Gaining traction means making your vision a reality. Now your vision is clear, you have the right people in the right seats, you’re managing data, you’re solving your issues and you’ve defined your way of doing business and everyone is following it.

Mastering organizational traction is the final piece of the puzzle. The first five components were essential before tackling this component, without them, it may lead to the wrong direction. When the first five components are strong, you will take off in the right direction – toward your vision. The ability to create accountability and discipline and then execute is the area of greatest weakness in most organizations.

Now you need to bring discipline and accountability to the organization: 1. everyone must set specific, measurable priorities. 2. You must meet better at an organization. These two essentials are called: Rocks and a Meeting Pulse.

1. ROCKS: with a clear long-term vision, you need to establish short-term priorities that contribute to achieving your vision. You will establish the 3-7 most important priorities called Rocks that must be done in the next 90 days. Your company has Rocks, leaders have Rocks, and your employees will have Rocks. With the increased intensity of focusing on a limited number of Rocks, people will accomplish more, the way you move the company forward is one 90-day period at a time.
2. MEETING PULSE: Well-run meetings are the moment of truth for accountability, to gain traction, you’ll probably need to meet even more than you presently do. The meeting pulse is the company’s heartbeat. A meeting pulse with a specific agenda throughout your departments will keep your company healthy. [The 90-Day World: 3-year picture, 1-year plan and a 90-day world. The 90-day idea stems from a natural phenomenon – that human beings stumble, get off track, and lose focus roughly every 90 days. So you must implement a routine throughout the entire organization that creates a 90-Day World] [The Weekly Meeting Pulse: taking the vision down to the ground, we are narrowing in from quarterly to weekly. Once the quarterly priorities are set, you must meet on a weekly basis to stay focused, solve issues, and communicate. The weekly meeting pulse is your opportunity to make sure that everything is on track. It creates a consistent cadence that keeps the organization in step]

Chapter 9: Putting It All Together

Now that the context is clear, mastery of all Six Key Components is within your reach. Mastery means that you and your leadership team understand each tool and have implemented it properly.

The combination of strengthing the Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction Components is what makes the real magic occur. This book started from the premise that successful entrepreneurs have a habit of strengthening 6 components of their business, and to the degree that you can do so yourself, you will build a great organization.

As a result, your frustrations regarding control of your time and business will diminish. Frustrations about employees will fall away coz you are surrounded by the right people in the right seats. You will finally break through the ceiling, you will transform your everyday business, and ultimately, you will realize your organization’s vision. STAY FOCUSED IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.