Get a Grip on You Business: Intro to EOS

Get a Grip on You Business: Intro to EOS

 

 

Michelle Bertram:

We just got off of our collaborative huddle call yesterday, which is a group of advisors and professionals with a goal to always continue to learn, which is the mark of a true professional, right? Someone who continues to learn after they know it all. 

 

The topic yesterday was something that I think is going to hit all business owners because oftentimes we get so busy working in our business that we’re not enjoying it the way we once did. 

 

Sometimes it almost feels like you hit a ceiling and you just can’t get past the growth. Our discussion yesterday was all about that. It’s on the EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system, and the book called Traction and how it helps business owners. So we have Jim on with us today. He’s an EOS implementer and we just want to talk about this. So Jim, why don’t you tell me a little bit about EOS and what that’s all about.

 

Jim Palzewicz:

Yeah. Thanks, Michelle. Appreciate your having me on. EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system is a business management system for entrepreneurial businesses. So just like you have an operating system for your computer, you need one for your business. 

 

Unfortunately most of us business owners just kind of put our own together, cobble something together, out of a book or a seminar we went to or something. So the EOS is a complete proven system of simple, yet very practical tools to help you get what we call VTH. 

 

VTH stands for vision, traction, healthy. So vision is getting your leadership team and eventually your whole company on the same page with where you’re going, how you’re going to get traction, improving discipline, and accountability to help you achieve that vision. Then healthy is helping your leadership team become a functional, cohesive, healthy team. Most leadership teams aren’t taught how to do that. And then as goes the leadership team, so goes the rest of the company to where you get everybody on your team clear on the vision, more disciplined and accountable to make it happen and healthy, cohesive, functional culture and team.

 

Michelle Bertram:

Yeah, I think as you’re talking, a couple of things just stood out to me. That makes sense. Especially with the vision. In Habbakuk, in the Old Testament, there’s a scripture that says write the division down so people can run with it. And I think that’s really what you’re trying to do with the leadership team is get everybody on the same page so that you can get going in the same direction with traction, which I think is really key.

 

Then there’s that health. Another book I was reading this morning talks about this life cycle where there’s always going to be some stress in your life because you have to have it. It’s what produces us to move, but you have to have rest too. And if you’re all in stress and never at rest then you are not protected nor productive. 

 

So, there are two things I think are in that I read the book Traction and it really highlights that. So why not? You know, I know there’s a book on it too in the system, but can you tell us a little bit about the author and how he developed the system, wrote the book, and why.

 

Jim Palzewicz:

It’s interesting because anybody reading the book, the first thing they’ll tell me is there’s nothing new here, and that’s true. I mean, it comes from Jim Collins’ Good to Great where he talks about getting the right people in the right seats on the bus, and Stephen Covey from First Thing’s First talking about how to prioritize and focus on a few things. 

 

Not everything is actually done. Patrick Lencioni, a great author on team health, right? His five dysfunctions of a team and how do you build that healthy team? So Gino is just a master with his family. Businesses are putting these ideas into practice and creating a system and tools that any business can implement to help them manage their business better.

 

Michelle Bertram:

And what I liked is things can be so overwhelming and the book talks about when he was interviewing business owners, it’d be like this 130 some lists of issues that kept coming up. But then he broke it down into six areas that if you focus on those six areas, everything else kind of falls into place. Is that right?

 

Jim Palzewicz:

Yeah, that’s exactly it. You know, unfortunately, many of us business owners are just addicted to that adrenaline of showing up every day and putting out dumpster fires all day, you know, and feeling, wow, that was a great day. I got a lot done.

 

But we’re not moving the business forward. We’re just keeping it going day to day. So Gino discovered that to the degree that you can master these six key components of a business, all those hundred and 50 issues just kind of fall away because they’re really symptoms of deeper issues that get solved once you work this model and system. 

 

So real high level, right? The first one we already talked about vision. Getting everybody clear on just where you’re going to do and how you’re going to get there. You’re great people on your team really want to know that. 

 

People. You need great people. That’s the second component and that’s different for every organization. We help companies find what a great person looks like for this company by getting the right people in the right seats because that’s really hard, right? That’s a lot of work.

 

Michelle Bertram: 

That’s a big challenge.

 

Jim Palzewicz:

Yeah, it is. Jim Collins even says, I’m paraphrasing him, but everything’s just really hard in business if you don’t have the right people in the right seats. So that’s the second component. Do a lot of work on that. 

 

The third component is data. Just boiling everything down into good, hard, solid data because the data never lies and we get away from the stories and the beliefs about what’s happening. It’s like, all right, here are the facts. 

 

The fourth component is issues, and we all have issues, and issues are not only problems and frustrations and challenges, but also new opportunities and ideas. Successful companies are just really good at solving or taking advantage of their issues. So we help companies to become master issue solvers, right? No more bandaid and twine and kicking it down the road for a week. Let’s solve it once. All for the greater good of the company. 

 

The fifth component is process. Not many business owners I know are excited about systemizing their business, but you have to get it out of your head and on a paper and train people to buy into it and follow it. 

 

Finally, the sixth component is traction. That is all about discipline and accountability. A lot of people want more accountability, but feel it’s really hard because they have to manage people. 

 

EOS is really a system for accountability where data and priorities set the accountabilities. So then everybody knows if you’re doing it or not, rather than you having to micromanage.

 

Michelle Bertram:

Yeah, I liked that point. I read the book Traction and, you know, being a small business owner, it’s something that I think for smaller business owners, you can almost take it. 

 

There are a lot of tools in the book Traction that you can take and start implementing or utilizing yourself. And we find a lot of business owners, you know, especially the smaller business owners, they’re kind of the EOS, you know, do it yourself. They get the book and start implementing it. 

 

Then we have the other end of the spectrum where maybe your business is growing too much. You have too many employees, too many things on your plate and you know, you need to do this, but you really, as the business owner, kind of need some help. Someone to walk you through it. 

 

That’s something that you do a lot, Jim and I want you to talk about that.

 

Jim Palzewicz:

Yeah, so Gino Wickman, by design, wrote the book to guide people because you know, the first step is always the hardest. So totally cool to just jump in and start playing around with these tools. 

 

For smaller companies that don’t have a leadership team, you know, under 10 employees, that can be a great way to go. What we find though, for larger companies with a leadership team that want to grow and seriously wants more profit, more control over their business. 

 

Using a trained implementer like me is going to be the fastest way to just get there because we can get you in a matter of months, get your leadership team that healthy and cohesive and running much tighter and running the business. 

 

Then there’s this middle ground. Maybe you’re not ready for that, but you want more than the book.

 

A counterpart of mine has created a workshop series to basically help guide owners who are self-implementing by helping them with questions and adding more coaching to actually get the tools implemented in the right way. 

 

Anytime you’re implementing a system, if you implement it 95% of the way, you’re probably not going to get the results. You really got to implement the whole thing. So there are a number of ways that you can go and do that depending on how big you are as a business and how much time you want to take too.

 

Michelle Bertram:

That’s why as a collaborative huddle here, we’re really excited to be able to provide this workshop because it gives you that in between and access to any of the advisors in the huddle. 

 

So whoever sent you this video, right? Your advisor, your banker, your CPA, can help you walk through some of those workshop questions that you can go through and do the online class. 

 

Or, if you really need this, then there’s that tool as well, but we wanted to make it available as much with the book and try to do it that way and give you some guidance to go by and there are certain things I do that I’m like, you know, I just, and that’s where you have a Jim or an implement or come in.

 

So you’ll see here, we’re making this online workshop available for all of you through this collaborative group. Whoever sent you the video will give you a code where you can actually access the first workshop at no cost. 

 

The first one is called, Get A Grip. Get it? We need to figure out where we’re at, that’s the whole get a grip and we’ll go into all the concepts that Jim and I talked about today more in-depth and give you a little bit more view of what this is. 

 

Then from there, if you want to continue with the online workshops, we’ll talk about how that works. You can do each one of them at your own pace, you know, just pay us for each additional workshop as you go.

 

Whoever sent you this, you’re kind of talking through those issues with them as you go through it. And we can always connect you with Jim too. If you’re like, man, I just need somebody to do it, then you can connect with Jim and he will come in and help you through the process. 

 

But the first step, if you haven’t done it yet, go buy the book Traction from Amazon, just get it, take a read, take a look at it, and then register. 

 

There are a couple of these classes coming up. CLICK HERE to view the upcoming classes.

 

It’s free to attend this one and just ask for the code from whoever sent you the video and you can get on, watch the Get A Grip video of the first workshop and then go from there.

 

I know that Jim and I, and everyone who is part of our Collaborative, whoever sent you this video, really want you to succeed as a business owner. Not just in profits, but in having a good, balanced life and enjoying what you’re doing. That balance between work and rest and being able to enjoy it. 

 

So thanks for sharing Jim. I appreciate it. CLICK HERE and check out that online workshop. We’ll talk to you again soon.

 

Jim Palzewicz:

All right. Thanks.