Our leadership team always turns up to our quarterly EOS® sessions unprepared, claiming they were too busy with daily client emergencies to do their prep work. How do we solve this chronic preparation problem?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Arriving at a quarterly session without doing your prep work is like showing up to an exam without studying. It wastes valuable time and leads to shallow decision-making. If your leaders are too busy with daily fires to prepare, it means your day-to-day operations are controlling you instead of you controlling them.

To solve this, you must change how you structure the weeks leading up to the session.

First, block out prep time on everyone's calendar at least two weeks in advance. This should be a non-negotiable two-hour block dedicated solely to reviewing past Rocks, updating Scorecards, and drafting new priorities.

Second, make the prep work simple and standardized. Do not ask for complex, multi-page reports. Instead, require each leader to come with three specific things: a clear status update on their current Rocks, their top three proposed Rocks for the next quarter, and a list of their department's biggest issues.

Finally, establish a high level of accountability. If a leader consistently shows up unprepared, treat it as a people issue. Use the GWC™ tool to evaluate if they truly have the capacity to lead. A leader who cannot find two hours to prepare for the future of the company is stuck in fire-fighting mode and is holding the business back.