Since 2003 I have been a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), a group dedicated to helping entrepreneurs grow professionally and personally through learning events, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and a peer-based network of fellow entrepreneurs. One of the interesting elements of EO is that it is a member-led organization—entrepreneurs leading other entrepreneurs. As you can imagine, this makes for some very intriguing situations.
As the incoming Area Director for Texas/Oklahoma Area, I had the opportunity to attend the U.S. Presidents Meeting in Dallas, Texas, a gathering of the current and incoming EO presidents of the 52 chapters in the United States. These presidents lead chapters with over 3,278 entrepreneur members that collectively represent over $56.7 billion in revenue and over 600,000 employees. It’s an impressive group of Type A business owners that fit the stereotypical entrepreneur model of impatient, competitive and aggressive.
So how effectively do these entrepreneurs work together to lead an international organization?
Over the course of two days of back-to-back meetings, I had the opportunity to observe how some of the brightest minds in business think and operate. I noticed one primary characteristic of these leaders that everyone should aspire to adopt – entrepreneurs only focus on facts and metrics. As part of this fact-based approach, they only express viewpoints based on past personal experience not opinion. The key lesson is that facts, metrics and past experience are irrefutable. As opposed to opinions that are open to debate. To stay on task in any meeting, it’s always best to avoid opinion and focus on facts.
The outcome of this approach is that a large group of Type A personalities can quickly and effectively concept, plan and execute multiple strategies for an organization. The following are a few examples of how this approach was applied in Dallas:
- Before making an important decision on improving member retention, EO leadership provided numerous quantitative reports that included demographics, membership trends and qualitative surveys from members (experience).
- A requirement of members that hold leadership positions to support the chapter Presidents is that they themselves are past Presidents. The theory is that you can only provide help if you have relevant experience in the position you are trying to help.
- When any chapter asked for help on a specific issue, the other chapter leaders responded with specific experiences from their chapter, including specifically what they did and results. What these leaders didn’t do was offer specific advice (opinion) on how the requesting chapter should handle their situation.
In a short time frame, I witnessed a group of highly competitive and impatient entrepreneurs develop numerous plans and strategies to improve their organization. Over the course of two days, I never observed a defensive exchange between individuals. It was a highly effective meeting and I’m sure it will result in a positive impact on the organization.
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