Unlocking Your Small Business Potential with Traction™ EOS®

It's crucial to the success of your business to ensure you and your staff remain accountable and stay on a disciplined path to reach your goals. However, it can feel overwhelming when choosing the best way to execute these tactics to lead your staff in the right direction. Traction™, from EOS®, is a great way to keep your team executing your plans in the most productive, effective manner.

Understanding Traction™ EOS® for Small Businesses

So, you're interested in ensuring your staff and organization keep moving toward the greater goal. Why is Traction™ the best way to do it? What exactly is Traction™? Traction™, as defined by EOS®, is "bringing discipline and accountability into the organization – becoming great at execution – taking the vision down to the ground and making it real." Allowing your organization to learn and engage in Traction™ will help all moving pieces fall into place and allow your business to flourish.

What are the benefits of implementing Traction™ in an organization? For starters, Traction™ offers clarity and direction when a company feels chaotic. Leadership teams often understand the goal and what it takes to get there, but in most cases, where the company stands currently is causing a significant roadblock. For example, you may have a vision but aren't sure how to get there. In that case, Traction™ can allow you to refine that vision and help develop processes and systems that will not only continue to work when your company grows but can also help in those early stages before your business grows. Beyond refining processes and procedures, Traction™ can ensure you are hiring well, meaning you have the right people in the right seats. Having the proper focus on hiring the people in the right seats can help you build a strong team and add to the company's greater good. When attracting qualified, loyal employees, Traction™ helps establish core values, making your company's mission clear and bringing in the right candidates.

From organization to processes and human capital, Traction™ can improve on the areas you may be lacking and help you achieve a seamlessly run business.

Achieving Success with Traction™ EOS® Implementation: Critical Factors to Consider

As a business owner, you are ready to reap the benefits of Traction™ and know it can help your organization and its future growth. So, how do you successfully implement Traction™ to ensure you are getting the most out of this strategy and correctly executing it. First, remember to keep an open mind. It's crucial for the success of Traction™ that the Visionary and the staff trust the process and systems. Any change can be met with some resistance, but with clear communication and an explanation of where these changes will lead, everyone can get on board and perform the tasks as needed. Perhaps the most crucial factor to the success of Traction™ in your organization is to hire a fractional or full-time experienced integrator with proven past success in the role. 75% of first-time integrators in small businesses find themselves in the integrator position as an internal move. Unfortunately, because of their lack of experience, 50% of them fail after their first year. Hiring someone who knows the ins and outs of being an integrator is the best way to ensure this role is successful in Traction™ and the integrator role. 

Another way to ensure success with Traction™ in your organization is to follow the system exactly. It's easy to slip back into old habits or assume you know best and customize programs like Traction™ to your business, but this can lead to the program not working for you. Even if it feels uncomfortable and new, stick with it. Trust the process and follow it precisely as it is suggested. To help you do so, companies can use software built to aid your success with EOS® and Traciton™. Software like Ninety and Bloom Growth make following EOS® components simple and make the transition less uncomfortable and foolproof.

Of course, with anything new, there can be challenges your organization will face. Some struggles businesses feel when first taking on a component like Traction™ may be the staff not liking the visibility. Because Traction™ keeps your employees accountable, this can feel more disciplined at first as you now ask each staff member to own their deliverables. Clear communication and having your staff understand the importance of their accountability can ease this pushback. While the point of accountability is not to reprimand or make anyone feel singled out, it ensures everyone is aware of the progress (or lack thereof) being made and how to move forward should things not be working. Accountability can also help leadership teams realize where people are in the wrong roles. Once this is conveyed, everyone appreciates and understands accountability differently. Another potential hurdle you may have to overcome is the "corporate" feel some staff may think is taking over when regimented processes are implemented. Small businesses are appreciated by their employees because they offer a quaint atmosphere and culture. Sometimes, introducing stricter processes or systems makes employees feel uneasy, as if that quaintness they loved is being replaced. The truth is, while nothing about the values of your business is changing, improving your processes and systems allows it to flow better. Ensuring your team understands these changes' benefits and how they will enhance everyone's job can quickly ease this concern. Overall, any hurdles you experience can be easily fixed through proper communication and a clear understanding of the benefits and "why" of Traction™.

Making the Most of Traction™ EOS® for Your Small Business

With anything else you invest in, you want to ensure you get the most out of the resources Traction™ by EOS® has. There are different ways to gauge how well Traction™ is working for you. First,  establish proper KPIs and scorecard early in the system. Clearly, setting roles and expectations will make all the difference in reaching your company's goals. Second, it's essential to hear from your team. Put together an employee survey or an ENPS. Determine what motivates your team, what allows them to do their best work, and who is loyal to your brand. Once you have robust systems like KPIs and a valuable scorecard in place, you can focus on the execution of your to-do list, rock execution, and hitting those desired results.

Conclusion

Implementing Traction™ with EOS® can benefit your small business when done correctly. As a Visionary, hire a full-time or fractional professional integrator with real-world experience in EOS® while trusting the system and following it precisely to guide your business to exponential growth. If you're looking for Fractional or Full-Time Integrator Services to help take Traction™ to the next level, GCE can help. Our team is full of experienced integrators who have helped hundreds of businesses reach their full potential. It's your turn to grow. Contact us here.