Build a Stronger Company From the Inside Out

Business vs. busyness… one letter makes a world of difference.

As a founder, owner, or leader of a company, do you want to be fully engaged in building a successful business? The alternative – to be encumbered by success-defeating busyness. If you look back over the past weeks or months, and can honestly say that you have been busy but aren’t seeing positive results in your business, it’s time to take stock of where you’re applying your efforts. Are you working on growing your business, or are you stuck on the hamster wheel of daily operations?

Let’s consider your business in light of the six key components of the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®): vision, people, data, issues, process, and traction. As an EOS® Implementer, I help leadership teams strengthen each component and build a stronger company from the inside out.

So, clear your desk, silence your phone, and let’s have a chat about something we both care deeply about: your business.

First on the table is vision. I would love for you to be crystal clear on what success looks like and for your employees to have that same clarity. So, let me ask you:

• Do you have a well-defined vision of what you want to achieve, and can you articulate it concisely and powerfully?
• Have the people who work for you grabbed hold of that vision with both hands, and are they working toward it collectively?

Speaking of people, I would love for you to be leading a team where everyone is excited to contribute, looks forward to coming in each morning, and is the best person you can imagine for their job. If a person comes to mind who doesn’t fit that picture, remember that neither of you is happy with the current situation. So:

• How much is this person costing you in terms of lost productivity, lowered morale, aggravation, and the like?
• If you truly want the best for this person, how long are you going to let them suffer before either moving them to an appropriate seat in your own company, or releasing them to pursue success at another company?
  

We move next to data. Here, I would love for you to know exactly which actions drive success in your business, and know that you’re doing those actions so you get the results you are after. With that in mind:

• Can you identify the top actions that drive cashflow, profitability, customer acquisition, etc. in your business? (Most of us track results!)
• Does everyone know who is responsible for each of those actions, and how much they need to do every week to drive the results you want?

You might be seeing some of your business issues more clearly at this point, and there are probably more to uncover (don’t feel bad – it’s true for every company). I would love for you to have such an open and honest culture that you’re able to identify every challenge and obstacle. This leads me to ask:

• Have you been applying a bandage to an issue to avoid finding a long-term solution?
• How many times do you want to wrestle with an issue before you get to its root and solve it for good?

Let’s move on to process. I would love for you to capture the best way to do things in your business. After all, this is your intellectual property – own it by documenting it in such a way that others can be trained to do things right! Plus, defining a process makes it easy to update later on. That being said:

• What are the Core Processes in your company? What’s the right way to do things?
• Where do those processes go off the rails, and why? Is the gap in your process, or in performance?

Finally, we have traction. I would love for you to get the most important things done day to day and month to month so that you systematically build your company. As one of my clients said: “I want my job to be about forest management, not forest fires!” To that end, consider:

• Have you identified a handful of priorities to focus on completing this quarter? (We understand that when everything is important… nothing is important!)
• Do you have a pulse; nay, a cadence that everyone follows to ensure that the most important things get done?

Strengthening these Six Key Components in your business will do much more than just expand your customer base or increase your revenue – it will help you build your business from the inside out, so that you become a better, healthier, more impactful company. That’s real business growth!