The Secret to Building an Effective Leadership Team

Hi there??, thanks for dropping by. I learned a ton scaling Hunt A Killer to $205M and wanted to document and share those lessons here. We talk about business management (EOS!), talent optimization, and workplace culture. Click the “subscribe” button above to receive notifications when new articles drop.

“Vulnerability” has always had negative connotations, both inside and outside the workplace. In fact, the word itself comes from a Latin verb that means wound… as in to wound someone.

Over decades, vulnerability (or lack thereof) became the symbol of Stoic, stone-faced professionalism. Showing emotions on the job? You better not.

Fortunately, we’re finally warming up to the idea of vulnerability in the workplace, and particularly, amongst leaders.?

Today, leaders who foster a culture of trust and true vulnerability invite coworkers to feel safe, be more creative, and ultimately, be more successful.?

But how do you create such an environment?

This week’s newsletter is based on Episode 2 of the Confessions of an EOS Implementer , a podcast where I sit down with a different EOS implementer each week to discuss their unique story of the companies they transformed using the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).?

Vulnerability and Trust in the Workplace

Vulnerability is probably the least understood and the most important part of building a good team. - Adrian Dayton Esq. ?

Vulnerability and trust go hand in hand in the workplace. Together, these two qualities build the foundation for any high-functioning relationship.

Embracing trust and vulnerability also changes how we perceive conflict and how we respond to disagreements.? Teams that put up walls view disagreements as a threat. Teams that don’t, view disagreements as an opportunity to build even more trust.?

The value of vulnerability is that it enables coworkers to feel empowered to be honest and share ideas, feedback, and solutions without the fear of judgment.

And as the Visionary or Integrator, you need to lead by example so the rest of your Senior Leadership Team (SLT) can feel comfortable following in your footsteps.

EOS Tools for Building Trust

From a distance, the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) can seem only systematic, calculated, and quantitative. After all, it is a system designed to improve accountability – words that aren’t generally associated with vulnerability.

But a core pillar of EOS is commitment, which leads to accountability, which leads to trust. Trust is the foundation for creating an environment where vulnerability becomes natural.

EOS has many tools designed to help build trust and vulnerability within members of the SLT and the greater organization. These tools are part of the Trust Builders? framework, which consists of 10 ways to build and maintain trust within your team.?

The framework includes basics such as the Meeting Pulse as well as quarterly and annual team-building exercises like the Personal Histories Exercise.

Most of these are conducted throughout the EOS implementation at various points but, the following three exercises are the most important for building trust.

1. Level 10 Meeting

The Level 10 Meeting is not just a productivity tool, but also an exercise in radical candor.

At the end of each Level 10 Meeting, participants rate the meeting on a scale of 10 (hence the name). This completely flips the power dynamic and becomes a powerful vehicle for honesty.?

Why does everyone go to meetings? They go to meetings because their boss asked them to and if they don't show up and perform, they'll be fired, so everyone is at the meeting.?

The level 10 meeting structure flips that upside down.?

Now the boss has got to perform. Because if everyone gives low scores, what everyone's saying is, you just wasted our time and the company's time. - Adrian Dayton Esq.

Checks and balances are important in every relationship, and the weekly Level 10 Meeting is the perfect opportunity to exercise those powers and never let complacency creep in.

2. One Thing

One Thing is an EOS team-building tool that involves positive and constructive feedback, in the form of two questions:

• Your greatest contribution/trait to the organization
• One thing to start or stop doing for the good of the team

In approximately two hours, every team member learns more about what the rest of their team thinks about them than they might have known from years of casual interactions.

From a third-person point of view, this exercise might sound scary or traumatic even, but it’s meant to be done with the utmost respect, kindness, and compassion.?

3. Issues Solving Track?

When a company has a problem they are unable to address and talk about (for whatever reason), it becomes an even bigger problem – or as we say in EOS, an issue.?

An issue is not a singular problem that can be quantified, instead, it’s what causes (multiple) problems within the workplace.

The Personal Issues Solving Session is an exercise to identify the issue, that is, the root cause of problems that team members are not talking about.?

This tool provides a three-step process called the IDS – Identify, Discuss, and Solve and prompts the team to work through whatever personal issues they are having, through a structured conversation.

What Destroys Trust

Trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets – and it's the company asset that paves the way for effective collaboration, communication, and conflict resolution.

But it can erode, and sometimes in the process of building it. The following three things are the biggest culprits:

1. Empty Promises

If one member of the team falls short of their objectives, it can create a bottleneck for the entire organization.

EOS is designed to mitigate by identifying issues early and bringing attention and resources from the whole team to resolve.

But if leaders are not following words with actions, or failing to raise issues early and often, members of your team cannot depend on each other and then vulnerability ceases to exist. They stop communicating, collaborating, and most importantly, start treating core functions of the business as silos.?

This is a much bigger problem, one that EOS alone cannot solve.

2. “Brutal” Honesty

“I tell it like it is…”

But do you really need to? Weaponizing honesty is one of the most damaging things leaders can do in any environment. Brutal honesty can be hurtful, even without intent.

Leaders and employees must make a conscious attempt at understanding boundaries to ensure an honest statement does not become an insult.

Or as Brené Brown, researcher professor and renowned vulnerability expert puts it, “Vulnerability minus boundaries is not vulnerability.”

3. Selfish Conduct

Leaders who prioritize personal interests over the organization’s greater good break down trust within the organization.

When other leaders identify a pattern of self-serving behaviors (even if it's just one leader), they are less likely to share and collaborate and instead become guarded around each other. After all, as a team, you’re supposed to be “one for all, all for one”.

More importantly, when the Senior Leadership Team starts putting up walls between each other, the effects are rarely self-contained. Instead, the consequences reverberate throughout the entire organization, affecting everything from morale to the bottom line.

You Can’t Have Vulnerability without Buy-in

It all sounds great in theory but does it translate as well in the real world?

Yes, but there’s a caveat.

You have to have buy-in. I've got a lot of great clients. I work with a lot of great leaders, but some of them have not yet bought in fully to the idea of vulnerability. The idea is that it will actually make them stronger to open up and show some of their weaknesses. Adrian Dayton Esq.

Self-preservation is one of the strongest instincts we have, and vulnerability goes directly against it. And all the exercises above will not work unless everybody is equally committed.

Bringing your Senior Leadership Team on board may not be easy... but as Dan Sullivan says: “There’s either going to be long-term suffering, or short-term suffering. You choose.”

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 and professional staffing 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.