Let Your Team Make Decisions

When I talked with Jim Coyle recently, we got into one of the ways experience can work against you.

Jim has spent 15 years as an EOS Implementer®, and he admitted that he has a tendency to jump in when he thinks he knows the answer. And that makes sense for someone with that kind of experience. When you’ve seen the same type of issue play out enough times, you can see where a team is headed and want to help them get where they want to go faster.

Jim has learned to catch himself before he does too much of the thinking for the teams he works with. He realized that when he gives them the answer, it’s an easy way out and they never learn to work through the issue and make the call themselves.

If you keep doing that, your team never learns the skill of working through hard things, and they end up depending too much on one person.

It takes discipline to hold back when you already know what you would do. Strong leaders create space for their team to think things through and make their own calls.

Focus Points
“Today you have to decide to be the leader that your company and your people deserve.”
- Jim Coyle

Impact Moments
12 Companies, Real Impact ft. Jim Coyle

Jim Coyle has run 12 companies, from restaurants and contracting to real estate development. Then he found an early copy of Traction and became EOS Implementer #16.

Christine Watts and I sat down with Jim to talk about those years, including the mistakes he made along the way, why he started coaching other EOS Implementers, and the work he’s done to preserve what experienced Implementers have learned.

Jim has some great stories, and he doesn’t hold back on the messy parts.

Maz Prompt of the Week

Ask: Show me the open issues on my team. Which ones have been open the longest, and are there any that do not have an owner?

From My Desk
Who Actually Belongs on Your Leadership Team?

I recently worked with a CEO of two companies whose leadership teams had grown to 11 people at one company and 8 at another. With fewer than 30 employees overall, he knew the structure wasn’t working.

In my latest article, I break down how to use The Accountability Chart® to decide which Seats your business needs and who really belongs on your leadership team.