So, your leadership team has mastered EOS®. Awesome! And you’ve rolled out EOS or are ready to share the journey with your entire team. Great!

But is the rest of your company really ready?

The Leadership Team of an EOS® run business has the awesome responsibility of transferring the knowledge, energy and alignment achieved in the session room to its entire organization.

The hard part is, when rolling out EOS®, you cannot just check the box.  Rather, you must seek to truly engage people. Many EOS rollouts fall short in execution and integration because of one of the following reasons:

• Low energy in the transfer of EOS process from leaders to employees
• A Leadership Team isn’t 100% bought into EOS themselves, and therefore undermines their own rollout
• The sheer amount of information causes more confusion than clarity on the EOS process
• The Leadership Team doesn’t take time to address questions and concerns from the team before throwing everyone into Level 10 Meetings, forcing Rocks and assigning Scorecard numbers to everyone

With these pitfalls in mind, how do you get them excited, engaged and wanting to implement EOS themselves?

In our experience, Leadership Teams need to show up exhibiting the following qualities to maximize the effectiveness of rolling EOS out to their team:

1. Vulnerable – As leaders, you are bright people, but if you’re going to hit your 1-Year, 3-Year and 10-Year Targets, you’re going to need contributions from everyone on the team. Acknowledge this to the group (that’s why they’re here!), and ask for their questions, concerns, and feedback as you share the V/TO and Accountability Chart with them.
2. United – EOS is only going to give you what you want if you’re leadership team is fully bought in. Consider having each of your LT members share their individual EOS experience with the whole team during the rollout (Rocks you’ve completed, progress you’ve seen so far, Issues you’ve solved, your own skepticism with the process that has been completely converted to enthusiasm, etc.).
3. Positive – There will likely be some trepidation in the room, and that’s completely normal. Team members may wonder why this meeting has been called, how their jobs will be affected, how their lives will be changed with the implementation of EOS, etc.  Remember to bring the positive energy throughout the rollout.  This is an EXCITING day!  It’s about the present and future of the company.  This level of transparency in sharing where we are and where we’re going is an awesome thing, and remember to rally around those points throughout the session.

Regarding EOS Rollout length, we’ve found success in anywhere from 2-4 hours.  Remember, managing ENERGY is much more important than managing TIME.

A recent client in manufacturing rolled out EOS to its team of 1^st and 3^rd shift employees at 8am.  It was important to keep in mind that the 3^rd shift had been up all night working, so a 3-4 hour rollout was not fair or reasonable for them.  So, they blocked two hours, and we actually finished a few minutes early.  Other clients anticipate a full half day slotted so team members have all the time they need for questions and departmental huddles to determine their next steps.

While you’re going to have skeptics, acknowledging and embracing how they might be feeling will help ease their minds.  If you’re still concerned about skepticism or the success of your rollout, consider hiring your EOS Implementer or a third-party facilitator to help.

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You’re not leaving the house looking like that are you? Chances are you may have heard that question sometime in your life. Now with the pandemic and many of us staying home day in and day out, who cares what we are wearing anyway? The answer is, emphatically, YOU!

Now why does that matter? There is a link between what we are wearing and how we are performing. In a 2012 study, students were asked to don a white lab coat and perform attention-related tasks. Students who were told they wore a “doctor or scientist” coat performed at a higher level than the students who were told they wore a “painter’s” coat. The embodied cognition captures the influence that clothing has on our performance. Think about when a professional athlete, medical personnel or anyone now wearing PPE puts on the uniform. For many, it is transformational.

Yet, for some individuals putting on a uniform may not be enough to transform into the role of a higher performing self. While listening to a podcast on this topic, I resonated with the woman who needed to hear the click of her favorite bracelet to feel confident and ready for work. Like an audible talisman.

Why am I writing about this during the COVID-19 crisis? Because we are now in a time where many of us are not following the routines and habits that have led to our current roles and performance level.  Many of us have experienced tremendous losses of freedom with predictable routines disrupted and our boundaries between work and home blurred if not evaporated altogether.

We are sheltering in place away from our colleagues and our typical routines. Kathy Kolbe, founder of Kolbe Corporation that provides assessments based on natural instincts, explains that success is defined as freedom to be yourself. When we are performing our tasks and following our routines without any friction, in our MO, the work and the day seem effortless. But thanks to the pandemic, we may have lost this freedom and have experienced increased friction and emotional stress.

Now ask yourself an honest question: are you wearing sweatpants every day? With the rise of Zoom and the like, Walmart has reported an increase in sales of shirts but a decrease in sales of pants. Is the comfort of sweatpants stopping you from being your best self?

Routines and habits often dictate success. So, its time to return to the rituals that once surrounded and supported your success. Set an alarm, workout, get fully dressed in whatever you once wore to be your best at work. Yes, your computer or phone camera can only see you from the waist up. However, if you normally wear a blazer for work, toss on your favorite blazer and put on some pants to not just play but “be” the part you need to be confident. And maybe before clicking the button to “join with video,” don’t forget your favorite lipstick or wristwatch to feel complete and ready to do your best.

Simply put, it is best to maintain as many rituals as possible regardless of where you are knowing when your day is over, you can slip back into whatever makes the rest of the day better.  For me, it is tossing an apron around my neck to get dinner ready for my family or putting on my favorite running shoes take my puppy for a walk. Still, no sweatpants.