Optimizing Business Management with EOS and the 5 Leadership Abilities
There's no denying the complexities that come with managing the ins and outs of any long-term care pharmacy: everything from remaining compliant with federal, state, and local regulations to making sure that pharmaceutical supply chains run smoothly. But every modern avenue of business has its difficulties. The onus of addressing them, of course, falls squarely on the shoulders of pharmacy leaders.
If you’re seeking a framework for more efficient business management, look no further than the Entrepreneurial Operating SystemTM (EOS). Here, we'll cover the background and essential principles of EOS, such as its 5 Leadership Abilities, and also look at how businesses can realize these best practices.
What is EOS? The fundamentals
Gino Wickman created EOS in the early 2000s after seeing major success at a young age — running a family-owned sales training firm in his early twenties — and realizing that he didn't want to rest on the laurels of his own accomplishments but instead aimed to help other entrepreneurs run their companies as smoothly as possible.
EOS centers around six components: It starts with a vision, people, and data, without all of which no business can accomplish anything. Establishing those aspects leads to issues (i.e., problem-solving), process, and traction (i.e., proper execution of your vision). By embracing this model, company leaders can create unity in the workforce through a shared assumption of responsibility, with all projects and initiatives undergirded by sound step-by-step processes and informed by historical and predictive data.
No organization is perfect, and when implementing EOS initially, some firms may not be strong in all six areas. For example, a company might possess a wealth of data on past campaigns but have trouble turning it into actionable insights (i.e., traction). That's where another core feature of EOS — the 5 leadership abilities — comes in.
Breaking down the 5 abilities
Certified EOS implementer Ron Kaminski of CultureShoc explained this aspect of EOS succinctly.
"The 5 abilities came out of the need to understand why companies, teams, and individuals hit ceilings [in terms of their performance]," Kaminski said. "Studies back in the 1950s proved how often this happened … The leadership abilities are there to help companies break through their ceilings."
Without further ado, the abilities are:
Simplify: Communications, processes, structure, and vision should all be handled as simply and directly as possible. To manifest this, EOS leverages tools such as Rocks (clearly defined priorities), the company scorecard (self-explanatory), and the Accountability Chart (a visual breakdown of a workforce according to clearly defined roles and responsibilities).
Delegate: Delegating key tasks to subordinates based on their skill sets not only frees up leaders' time but also represents a show of faith in staff. That trust, once established, is invaluable.
Predict: Projecting the needs of the business in a defined period (90 days, for example) and focusing on a certain number of Rocks for this window of time allows a business to be more streamlined and proactive.
Systemize: The essential processes of any business should be documented as policies that staff must consistently follow, to keep everyone on the same page and minimize mistakes.
Structure: If a company has the right talent but is still stuck at its ceiling, it may be worthwhile to restructure teams. People who thought they were best suited to one role may find they're even more well-equipped for another.
Leveraging the abilities
Proper implementation of the 5 abilities can help companies address the roots of issues, rather than the symptoms. For example, if you launched a sales or marketing campaign and missed your goal by a 50% margin, you wouldn't simply dwell on the loss or implement surface-level damage control, but instead examine it more critically: You might ask, "Was the campaign's expectation realistic?" If it was, yet you still failed, you then look at how well you executed, noting strengths as practices to use in the future while also identifying weaknesses and prioritizing their correction. This creates the opportunity to learn from failures or shortfalls and turn them into successes.
Additionally, leaders who practice their abilities effectively give their team members the boldness to lead themselves. Paraphrasing EOS founder Wickman, Kaminski said, "You're not a leader until you're a leader who's developed a leader … [EOS implementers] challenge people to think outside the box by starting with these seemingly simple concepts."
Learn more
FrameworkLTC is pleased to announce that Ron Kaminski is part of our 20th Anniversary Webinar Series. Learn how EOS has improved the operations of more than 10,000 companies by attending Ron's presentation, "The Five Leadership Abilities," taking place Nov. 18, 2020, at 2 p.m. ET. 1 CEU.
Sources:
Interview with Ron Kaminski, certified EOS implementer at CultureShoc
https://www.eosworldwide.com/blog/5-critical-leadership-skills-business-hits-ceiling