EOS® Annuals Are Where the lack of Leadership (Thinking)  GWC® Gets Exposed

In EOS Two-Day Annuals, something interesting can happen.

It forces #4s to confront whether they can rise to become a #3.

Here’s the issue most leadership teams miss.

At EOS®, inside of LMA® we talk about Leadership is about Thinking and Management is about Doing.  I like to remind my teams that they are a Sr. Leadership Team, a Sr. Thinking Team.

As companies mature on EOS, clear thinking must get ahead of managing — not the other way around.

levels of thinking on a leadership team

Over years of coaching CEOs, we noticed something interesting.

Every CEO we coached wanted a “#2”…

But these CEOs couldn’t explain what a #2, a #3 or #4 actually was.

So, over time we simplified it into this structure.

  • # 5 = A Tasker, a Task doer. “Tell me what to do next.”
    • # 4 = Self-managing SME / craftsperson. Subject matter Expert / Authority Excellent at doing.
    • # 3 = A #4 who can still do the work of a #4 while managing other #4s with a little bit of leadership.
    • # 2 = A leader who leads and manages #3s, #4s, and #5s — and helps the organization think forward. (a great Integrator is a natural #2)
    • # 1 = Visionary.

The classic failure?

Promoting a great #4 into  #3 LMA roles without checking if they can Lead, Manage, and create Accountability.

Classic Examples:

Best salesperson → terrible Sales Manager
Best coder → miserable People Leader

EOS doesn’t stall because of tools.

It stalls because leadership (thinking) levels fail to keep up and aren’t aligned to the size  and needs of the company.

In Annuals, the real question isn’t:
“Do we have the right people?”

It’s:
Do we still have #4 tactical doers sitting on our leadership team (our thinking team) that now requires #2s, and #3s?

That’s an EOS tune-up problem — not a people problem.

Feel free to reach out to me walt@waltbrown.co for the full model.

I write about this in my book: Seeing The Invisible