76: The Real Impact of the Entrepreneurial Operating System- with Hani Malek

Hani Malek

[: 00:00:00

Erin Courtenay: , I'm ambidextrous now. No, I know, I know, I know. But I mean, that and all sincere, sincerely because, work, I really appreciate teams. 'cause we're already in [00:01:00] the environment in which.

We do so much of our work, but I would not take that environment to the places where I use Zoom, you know, maybe socially volunteer activities, boards, things like that. I really strongly prefer Zoom. I'm sorry. Yeah,

Lori Highby: I'm, I'm Zoom all in and out. There's teams. Anytime I get a teams link, I just cringe. But I know that's the way a lot of people function.

'cause they're on the whole Microsoft, you know, ecosystem. But. Yeah, no, you,

Erin Courtenay: you kind of gotta get forced into it. But I, I think that that is a hot topic. Agreed. , so,

Lori Highby: okay. I figured, I, I was just going back and forth with someone today on that. I'm like, I'm gonna bring this up as the conversation.

Everyone's got an opinion on it, that's for sure., I'm

Erin Courtenay: the most boring person. I'm like, I like it all. But that's anybody. If this person. Draw conclusions about my

personality. All right. I'm [: 00:02:00

Erin Courtenay: Mm-hmm.

Lori Highby: All right, let's dive in. Let me introduce our next guest here. We've got Hani Malik. He's an expert with over 35 years of experience in the manufacturing industry and a proven track record in driving revenue, profit, and cash flow growth.

As a passionate and results oriented leader, he's made it to his mission to help businesses thrive. Currently serving as a certified EOS implementer. Hani focuses on guiding entrepreneurs and business leaders to achieve excellence in three key areas, vision, traction, and health. They work hi. His work ensures that,, company leaders and teams are aligned.

Unified in their goals and equipped to work closely toward a shared vision. By the end of their transformational journey, organizations emerge stronger, more accountable, and consistently making progress towards success. Hannie, welcome to this show. Hey. Oh, thanks

Hani Malek: for having me. Thank you.

Lori Highby: I'm, I'm excited.

We haven't had an [: 00:03:00

Hani Malek: Yeah. Well, not just manufacturing. Yes. I mean it certainly applies here up in Wisconsin, but no EOS was created, , the book Traction. Yep. You're referencing there.

, so a lot of folks, they hear the term EOS and they say never heard of it, but then you mentioned the book Traction, and they'll say, oh, I've heard of that.

Erin Courtenay: Sure.

Hani Malek: , it was created by Gino Wickman, , and he assembled a, a bunch of great tools that, , maybe we'll get to today, but. Have been around for a hundred years, they're gonna be around for a thousand more.

, and he pulled it together for entrepreneurial companies, not necessarily manufacturing only, but entrepreneurially run companies. Sure. A lot of common personalities and traits.

Erin Courtenay: I'm gonna be the dumbed dumb here. Are we saying us? Are we saying EOS? What is newest? Yeah, that's

Hani Malek: that's great. And a lot of folks will.

's a word. No, it stands for [: 00:04:00

Erin Courtenay: Thank you.

Hani Malek: Yeah, thank you. Cool. I love it. A lot of folks will say, Hey, I've heard of eos, and by the way, and, and I, I have, , more to share about that in a minute, but, . It is EOS entrepreneurial operating system.

And then people think, is that a computer system? And it's not. It's a people operating system. Mm-hmm. It's a business operating system. It's a very

Erin Courtenay: cool,

Hani Malek: yeah. Yeah.

Erin Courtenay: Oh, I'm excited for this now because you No, I was, I was, I don't know. I thought, okay, that'll be fine. But No, this is cool. Okay. Let's go. Signed up for.

Lori Highby: It's definitely familiar with, I've read the book Traction, which, , you know, to your point, I hear people say, oh yeah, do you do traction? Right? But the reality is E os is what you're doing Exactly. Traction is the story. Yep. That's written to explain what EOS is. But that being said, can you share a story, , where you've implemented EOS and you've revealed some uncomfortable truths about a company's culture?

Ooh.

Hani Malek: [: 00:05:00

You know, keep your phones off, stay focused. You know, it's a privilege to be here, so make sure you participate. And one of the other rules is be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

One of

the uncomfortable things that just recently happened, I was facilitating with a client down in Chicago and we were discovering their core values and we don't create core values.

We don't. Use a marketing firm like yourself to create core values that sound great, that'll recruit people, that'll make people wanna come work there. We help them discover the core values that already exist in their business.

Erin Courtenay: Mm-hmm.

Hani Malek: And in doing so, we came up with five core values. And then what they don't know is going to happen in the process is right there.

ure up to those core values. [: 00:06:00

Erin Courtenay: Oh, ooh. Okay.

Hani Malek: And so there were. Five core values revealed. It doesn't matter what they are, but it was the next step that was more revealing, which is now there are seven people on this leadership team, and the way we grade is we have just a simple system plus plus-minus minus, plus says 80% of the time you just, you exhibit those traits, those characteristics.

, minus is 20% of the time you do and plus minus is 50/50 So you go around the horn Rapid fire. Everyone writes their answers down and then you just collect them as you go through and say, okay. As it relates to Lori, Erin how does she, , rate for you on integrity or honesty or fun? Mm-hmm. Or whatever the core value is.

And you say Plus, plus, minus. Minus. So you go around the horn and you do this, at the end of the day, what you're doing is you're stress testing these core values. Well, seven members on the leadership team, three of them did not meet the standard that they set, which said, Hey, we have. Five core values.

We need you to have at [: 00:07:00

Lori Highby: Wow. Wow.

Hani Malek: So now you're standing there and you're like, , are these really your core values? If three of the people in the room

Erin Courtenay: mm-hmm. Do

Hani Malek: not. Meet the standard, the bar then are they really your core values or did it sound great? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so then you, you unpack that? Yeah. Okay. And there are tears. There are something, oh, wow.

Why did you give me a minus? Why did you gimme a plus minus? And we try not to, you know, go down too much of a rabbit hole in that moment. But it, it is uncomfortable, but it is necessary.

Lori Highby: Mm-hmm. That you have to be uncomfortable. I, I believe, for change to happen. Absolutely. So that, yeah. So you're, you're facilitating uncomfortable experiences.

le, you know, I buy 'em from [: 00:08:00

Sure. Squirrel. For, Hey, let's get back on track and avoid the tangents and chasing squirrels. , we have, , I'm, I'm blank. Oh, a cow for no sacred cows. Okay.

Erin Courtenay: Yeah.

Hani Malek: And, and, , and I'm, I'm blanking out for a minute here, but these five animals represent those behaviors and all of them are uncomfortable moments where you say, yeah, hey, stop that.

Stop that. Yeah, let's address that. So the other sacred cow. Oh, and the other one is a bull No BS and don't be a Bull.

Erin Courtenay: Yeah. Good, good. I love that. That's, that's a twofer with the bull. Yeah.

Hani Malek: So what's nice is it's, it's lighthearted way of allowing people to, and they throw 'em at each other like a flag on football field.

ll out the bad behavior in a [: 00:09:00

Lori Highby: Cool.

Erin Courtenay: Mm

Lori Highby: mm-hmm.

Erin Courtenay: Love that. Mm-hmm.

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Erin Courtenay: Yeah, I what I'm, what's coming up for me as you're talking is that really subsuming the ego for the benefit of the company, which is the uncomfortable thing, particularly when you're in a leadership position where your ego is.

Often a good portion of the reason why you're in the position you're in. , but it sounds like you're getting called out on how maybe some of the things that you're doing or thinking either don't fit or I really like the way that you presented that may, those core values aren't really your core values.

t completely accurate. Yeah. [: 00:10:00

Hani Malek: Absolutely. Yep.

Erin Courtenay: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So you probably get some resistance to this process and, , tell us about what kinds of resistance you get when you're trying to create this, you know, things like accountability and something that's a long established organization where they're like, yeah, I'm, I'm doing fine.

, what, what comes up?

Hani Malek: Yeah. Yeah. Great question. So the good news is. Most of the time when they have scheduled, scheduled to work with me, we've, we've set things up to have a session and, and we usually schedule several sessions out. They're, , they've come to a place where they are humble, their ego has been checked, and they are ready for change because things are not working.

Erin Courtenay: Mm-hmm.

gonna work out. But the ones [: 00:11:00

Erin Courtenay: mm-hmm.

Hani Malek: , tend to stay that way. But every now and then you're gonna encounter. The, the phenomena of the smartest person in the room. And, you know, I'm not picking on entrepreneurs or people who have taken the amazing risk that they have taken, but that, that tends to be the personality. I'm thankfully blessed not to have those types of clients.

, and I have had a history of working with five different entrepreneurial led companies, and so I'm, I'm looking for those traits and, and so thankfully we haven't had that, but there are moments where either the leadership. The leader or the leadership team has that ego, and you need to get that in check, because what they're doing is they're suppressing the room.

Lori Highby: Mm-hmm. And

s because we're all here to. [: 00:12:00

And that is what that sacred cow represents. No sacred cows. Always thinking about the greater good.

Erin Courtenay: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. , I kind of wanna just circle back just real quick because entrepreneurial's first word in the OS what. Can you just describe, , what an entrepreneurial company is in your words? I mean, we all have our internal ideas about it, but I'd like to hear you describe it.

Hani Malek: Yeah. Well, I mean, it can, it can be a solopreneur, you know, someone just want on their own. Mm-hmm. Starting their own thing. , but it's typically for us, you know, a company that's, . Two to 50 million in revenue. That's our sweet spot. 10 to 250 employees. So not, you know, not quite a startup. They've, they've developed an organization, they've got a product, they have services, et cetera, but they are hitting the ceiling.

inevitable for it to happen, [: 00:13:00

I don't know what I'm doing right now. And so they're not these, that, when we refer to entrepreneurs, these aren't corp, this isn't corporate America. This isn't a private equity. , , a company that's already established, let's say, , at, at that level. But it really comes down to where you are from a organizational, .

Maturity level. Mm-hmm. Right. Size doesn't matter. So you could be a 500 person, a hundred million dollar company. And from an entrepreneurial operating system standpoint, you need it because you're trying to break away from this is, you know, a command and control environment. This is the way we Okay,

Erin Courtenay: sure.

The person.

entrepreneurs, but it really [: 00:14:00

Erin Courtenay: Right, right, right, right.

Well, Lori. I think it's time. Are we ready? Okay. I think it's time. All right. , I know we, we, we, everybody was nervous. This is, this is

Lori Highby: the,

Erin Courtenay: this is, is the uncomfortable portion of the program. What we learned.

Lori Highby: We're making everyone uncomfortable.

Erin Courtenay: Yes. When we keep, but learning I

Lori Highby: think is really important.

The, this is why we have the segment. Everyone loves learning new things. Right? , so what have you learned recently, Erin Okay. I'm finally

t here in the upper Midwest, [: 00:15:00

Mm-hmm. And they, they adjusted it. Down or up. , anyway, they made it less dramatic about 10 years ago. So it used to be when there was like some wind and it was, you know, let's say. 40 degrees. They'd say it's minus 20 I, I'm exaggerating. But it really like, you know, and they, they moderated that and I thought, that's so interesting.

'cause I used to just think, it felt like bs like this extreme temperatures would be coming out of the wind chill prediction. And I, they fixed that. Things get picked sometimes and that's one of them. So that's what I just learned.

Hani Malek: Oh, they're back to correcting it the way it. Was or should be?

Erin Courtenay: Well, now it's more like, , reasonable it there.

u know, the system impact is [: 00:16:00

Lori Highby: I, I would imagine there's some fancy math formula.

Ooh, somewhere, right?

Erin Courtenay: Ooh. Probably. Oh, let's just AI that. Honey. I'm not kidding. You started the topic. I know, I know. I know, I know. What about you, Lori?

all of my LinkedIn posts from: 2024

So I did that. Is that, do you

Erin Courtenay: have to have premium for that or is that just. Does everybody have that?

n. 'cause I am paying for my [: 00:17:00

So you can export that. I think that everyone gets that. I'm not 100% confident anyways. . You'll appreciate this. So I actually did, , 'cause I did a poll, , I pulled the data, , kind of halfway through the year. So I did January one through December 31st. Mm-hmm. And I, I combined all of it, , put all the data, , into one spreadsheet, and then I uploaded it to Che GPT mm-hmm.

And asked it to like mm-hmm. What do you observe and the types of posts and the trends and whatnot. And I got some really fascinating, , insights. But even just looking at the top three posts, . And I went really deep on the top three posts. , they were all storytelling posts, right? Oh, here, we're here we're, it's being told, yes.

, it's adding [: 00:18:00

Yeah. So, and then what other I, I ha I've kind of posted about this a little bit. It was really interesting to see that engagement was really low in November and December, and I'm assuming it's 'cause of holiday chaos. Mm-hmm. , and highest engagement happens like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So if you have really important stuff you wanna get out on LinkedIn, publish it on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or a Thursday.

So

Erin Courtenay: there you go. That was really good. We all got a little LinkedIn lesson and learned something with Lori. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Alright, Annie. Ronnie. Yeah. How about you?

Hani Malek: Alright. It's not as exciting as what you just shared, but it is something I just recently learned. I don't know if you like mushrooms.

I [: 00:19:00

What?

Lori Highby: No,

Hani Malek: A button mushroom, a cremini mushroom and a portobello mushroom are all the same mushroom just at different stages of growth.

Erin Courtenay: I did not know that When

Hani Malek: they're harvested,

Erin Courtenay: there's also the price difference. That

Hani Malek: probably. Right. If they're gonna, you're gonna wait longer, they're gonna charge you more.

Right.

Erin Courtenay: There's also the gourmet upgrade cost. Yeah, that's,

Hani Malek: yeah, that's true. I did not know that.

Erin Courtenay: Oh,

Hani Malek: that is, I did not know that either. More interesting. Yeah. So if you're growing mushrooms and you really like Porto ball, mushrooms just wait. You know, wait till the baby button, mushrooms grow up. There

Erin Courtenay: you go.

ery difficult because there, [: 00:20:00

This is different. Good luck. Wow. Yeah. I was gonna say alien. Yeah. They're so interesting. I'm

Lori Highby: glad you did. I was thinking alien for

Erin Courtenay: sure. Like slime mold, like moves.

Lori Highby: It actually is motile. Oh, that's weird. Oh, I, I wish I had this in front of me, but I saw an headline that said like these smart people, PhD individuals, whatever, I don't remember exact background, believe that octopi are aliens, like octopus is an alien.

Wow.

Erin Courtenay: Yeah. I'm like, okay. What else? Maybe,

Hani Malek: maybe they've been, , consuming the wrong kind of mushrooms.

Erin Courtenay: I think you're onto something right there. Yes. But it was like a, an

Lori Highby: [: 00:21:00

Whatever. Any who, , fascinating, fascinating topic. . , h if anyone was interested in getting in touch with you to learn more about EOS and all the cool stuff you're doing with that, what's the best way they can reach you?

Hani Malek: Well, they certainly can find me on LinkedIn Handy Malik, on LinkedIn. , you can reach me at, , E OS Worldwide.

I have a website, , you know, , EOS Worldwide slash Handy Alek. You can find me there or just Google Handy Malick EOS Worldwide.

Erin Courtenay: Cool. .

Hani Malek: Or Honi Malek hani.malek@eosworldwide.com is my email address.

Lori Highby: Fantastic. We will include all that information in our show notes, but before

our listeners can't see the [: 00:22:00

I love h, what do you call it? You when your name label on the Zoom thing? Yeah. . I'm gonna read yours. Is that okay? And then I'm gonna ask you what's going on with that. That's good. It says, this is so great, by the way. It's so much information and it all fits, which is really good. I can tell you're a very precise person.

It says he mallek rhymes with Danny. Very nice. For your pronunciation of your name, EOS, Wisconsin. And then there's something I have not seen before. It's capital K, capital O. LBE Kolbe, and then there's a series of numbers. Can you tell me what's going on with that?

at EOS to help us understand [: 00:23:00

Erin Courtenay: Okay,

Hani Malek: so the numbers after that are referencing. What I am in terms of my fact finder score, my follow through score, my quick start score, and my implementer score. Okay. And an implementer not having anything to do with being an EOS implementer, by the way. Sure.

Lori Highby: But,

Hani Malek: , so I am a 9 6 3 2, which means I'm a high nine, a high fact finder.

Okay. So I have a high preference for gathering detailed information and conducting thorough research before I make decisions. Alright? And that. It wasn't shocking when I saw that number because like I have friends who buy houses faster than I can select a TV from Costco. I see. I, I'm researching, I'm researching, I'm researching, you know, and asking everyone I know, you know, which to buy.

, moving down to the other score that could start, it's a, I have a lower preference for dealing with uncertainty and a tendency to resist rapid change.

ri Highby: That makes sense. [: 00:24:00

Hani Malek: I grew up in a house where my sister would move the furniture around all the time, and it drove me crazy. Mm-hmm. So I'm, you know, I'm, I'm just a creature of habit.

m not a risk taker, but I. In: 2023

But that's what I'm, I'm, I'm a high fact finder and a low risk taker.

Erin Courtenay: Oh, so interesting. And also, I think your last point is one for everybody to keep in mind. You're not in a. You know, in a box, when you find out about yourself, you're just finding out what your preferences and your tendencies are. It doesn't mean that you can't try something new.

So I think that's really great.

f the people on the team and [: 00:25:00

We're trying to balance the team out a little bit, so. Mm-hmm. If you got a bunch of nines, in fact finder, you need some people who are gonna kind of balance that out. So we're shooting for like fives, trying to get fives in the room so that you can have diversity of thought and

Erin Courtenay: process. Yeah.

Lori Highby: Cool.

Erin Courtenay: I

Lori Highby: like

Erin Courtenay: that a lot.

Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. I hope it was okay. I pointed that out to our listeners. I just thought it was so interesting. It is interesting. Glad. Totally glad. Cool. Thank you

Lori Highby: so much for being on the show. This was a ton of fun. Thank you.

Erin Courtenay: Yeah, it was great. Alright,

Lori Highby: awesome. Three broads wrapping up.

We want you to go out there and make something awesome.

Hani Malek: Awesome. [: 00:26:00