“I just can’t seem to get my team to follow through on their commitments.”

“We have planning sessions and then the minute a crisis hits, the plans go out the window.”

“We talk about issues, but never seem to decide anything.  We discuss the same issues at the next meeting.”

It’s common for CEOs and Executive Leadership Teams to say and hear these kinds of laments.  In fact, most teams have many of the same problems:

• Strategies and plans that never get off the shelf
• Long meetings resulting in commitments that are never implemented
• Lack of accountability to deliver results
• Slow momentum and suboptimal performance

So what’s a CEO to do?  How do you take your Leadership Team from meeting to momentum?

A starting point is to implement a standard process to discuss, decide, and do. One method that has gained wide acceptance among many smaller companies is an Entrepreneurial Operating System called “Traction”.  The idea was pioneered in the book of the same name by Gino Wickman.

The Traction methodology imparts the following discipline around Leadership Team meetings and momentum:

• Standard time/length for Leadership Team meetings
• Standard agenda for Leadership Team meetings
  • Segue – time to transition from the work of the day to the business of the meeting
  • Review of Key Metrics – gain insight into how the business is performing
  • Review of Rocks – assessment of progress on key business priorities
  • Report on To Do’s – check in on follow ups/commitments made in the previous meeting
  • Discuss – identify, discuss, and solve issues impeding business performance or progress on business priorities
  • Meeting evaluation – how’d we do?

Key Metrics and Rocks are indicators of business success; issues result in decisions that move the Leadership Team and the organization forward.

I implemented the Traction EOS in my company several years ago.  It drove better accountability and decision-making throughout the company, resulting in significant improvement in results.

Traction is just one way to address the kinds of challenges you may be experiencing with your Leadership Team. To learn more, check out Wickman’s book.

If you’d like a deeper diagnosis of your team’s challenges or a place to vet ideas and vent frustrations, contact The Bailey Group. We’d love to talk with you.