The Right Way to Help [and Develop] Leaders

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We all hear about what great leaders are. Leaders set the course, inspire, drive progress… and transform employees into future leaders.

But that last one, in particular, sounds simple and yet it’s perhaps the most misunderstood part of being a leader. Why? Because people confuse coaching with advising (yes, the difference is more than just nuance).

Meet the Coaches of Coaches??

Meet Cheri Kuhn , a Certified EOS Implementer? and Coach for EOS Worldwide who has conducted over 200 EOS sessions for her clients. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Cheri about leadership transformation, finding personal success, and how not to overcomplicate EOS.

This week’s newsletter is based on Episode 1 of the Confessions of an EOS Implementer , a podcast where I sit down with a different EOS implementer to discuss their unique story of the companies they transformed using the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).

The Role of a Leader?

Teaching, advising, coaching… Aren’t leaders supposed to do it all?

Yes, but each of those things are different and do not work in the same way under every circumstance – they’re not synonymous and you shouldn’t treat them as such.

Advising means answering someone’s questions using your own experience and know-how. Coaching is creating other leaders, by fostering an environment for growth.?

In other words, it’s catching a fish versus teaching to fish.

Many leaders, out of the good of their heart, go out of their way to help their teams and will sometimes even join in on the shop floor. Others will be ready to give advice on whatever their team is working on, even when it may not be necessary.

Here's Cheri's take on the potential side effects of advice-giving:

“‘If we don’t give them the answer, they’re going to fail.’ Really, what we’re saying with [this mindset], is we don’t think you’re good enough to do this on your own… And when you let that sink in, it’s pretty unsettling. I don’t think any of us would openly admit that we think our people aren’t capable enough.”

The real role of a leader to facilitate transformation, create space for development, and nurture growth. It’s not about providing the answer. In fact, solving problems for your team can have the opposite desired effect.

By taking over and solving problems for your team, you are denying them the very journey you took to become a leader – the journey where you learned to figure things out on your own. And worse, you’re also taking away the potential failures through which resiliency and practical lessons are learned.

Balancing Wins & Failures and Building Resilience?

Failure and adversity are essential for growth and learning, in leadership roles and beyond. Cheri and I both agreed that people need to view failure as a stepping stone for improvement, rather than just a setback.

And to be clear, we’re not talking about constantly failing or missing your Rocks. “We never advocate not expecting excellence. We should expect excellence, but we should also allow people to fail forward, learn from that, and get better.”, says Cheri.

Even if you trust your team and they get it, want it and have the capacity (GWC), they will occasionally fail – it’s natural. And if you’re doing everything else right, the failures will be followed with wins and success, which is equally important in building confidence and validating one’s abilities.

But how do you balance wins and failures? How do you build a culture of accountability while at the same time allowing grace?

By prioritizing learning and by “seeing failures as an opportunity to fix things and showing others that the work is in the effort, the reward is in the effort.”

Leaders should have a growth mindset that recognizes the value of effort and perseverance, as opposed to being fixated with a person’s natural talents. Once again, Cheri comes through with some great advice:

“We have to start rewarding efforts over just innate abilities or people will be locked into thinking they're either smart or they're dumb – understanding that their brain is really elastic and you can actually get smarter.”

The true failure lies in not learning from mistakes or losing the confidence to step out of your comfort zone again. It's failing to take risks and not realize that failure isn’t absolute, it isn’t black and white.

People fail for all sorts of reasons, including when they put too much on their plate…

The "Rock Buffet"?

In last week’s issue, we talked about the 8 common pitfalls leaders fall into when self-implementing EOS – one of which was overcomplicating the EOS implementation and failing to prioritize core elements.

If, as a leader, you are unable to simplify your Core Values and Core Focus to the bare minimum, then you are, at least, partly to blame for your team’s inability to succeed.?

“Make sure that you are not adding complexity just to add complexity. The weekly scorecard is not the junk drawer in your kitchen, where you put every single thing that we want to look at. But that's what some teams want to do. They want to put everything on the scorecard.”

By making everything important, you’re making nothing important. An example of this can be the “Rocks Buffet” conundrum, where your team is going to see all that they’re supposed to achieve and set too many quarterly Rocks – which usually ends poorly for all involved.

Similarly, weekly scorecards are not sticky notes on the fridge. Instead of putting everything on there, find out which measurables feed into weekly activities (and how).

EOS Tools aren’t Just Guidelines, They’re also a Compass

Narrowing down Core Focus, Core Values, and the different measurables for any company is easier said than done.?

I fell into this trap when we implemented EOS the first time at our company ... we had 10 core values, way more than we should’ve had and definitely more than we needed.

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed and struggling with simplification, know that it takes some time, but it gets easier – becomes second nature even.

In fact, with time, EOS tools become a compass, instead of mere guidelines, that tells you whether you’ll achieve your organizational goals or not.

“You feel confident that if my scorecard is 80% green all the time, I am going to hit those numbers I set up on my VTO. That one-year plan is going to come to fruition because my scorecard told me it was.” - Cheri Kuhn, on the Confessions of the EOS Implementer podcast

It’ll work… Just try not falling into any of these common EOS pitfalls – that’ll put a dent on the progress.

P.S. Want to work together? Here are a few ways:

1/ Already running on EOS? I am putting together a small vetted group of business leaders who operate on EOS. Apply for the Spring Cohort here . (only open to Visionaries, Integrators and Core Function Leaders)

2/ Need an Integrator or Core Function Leader expertise without the FTE budget? Schedule a Zoom with me here to learn about Talent Harbor’s fractional leaders for businesses operating on EOS.

3/ Are you an EOS Implementer and want to be a guest on our show? Submit a guest form here.

4/ Vetting Certified EOS Implementers and want to know who’s the best? Send me a DM.