Accelerating Growth: EO Melbourne Unlocks Leadership Growth with EOS

Every entrepreneur reaches a moment when growth feels out of reach—when strategy stalls, communication falters, or momentum slips. At our recent EO Melbourne workshop “Accelerating Growth: Unlocking Your Leadership Potential with EOS”, members took a bold step to confront these challenges head-on and walked away with the tools to lead with renewed clarity, confidence, and purpose.

Delivered by EOS Implementers Debra Chantry-Taylor and Adam Harris from EO Melbourne's Strategic Alliance Partner, Business Action, the full-day session brought together EO Melbourne members for an immersive, hands-on experience grounded in the proven principles of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). Far from theory, this workshop offered real-world tools for real-world issues.

Debra and Adam led the group through the five essential leadership abilities required to break through growth ceilings, setting the tone with an EOS overview that demystified the system's practical application. Members explored how to get unstuck and re-energise their teams by identifying what truly matters—and acting on it with discipline.

One of the most resonant moments came during the Radical Candour session, where members learned to navigate tough conversations with both empathy and honesty. This powerful segment encouraged leaders to foster trust through transparency, strengthening team alignment and improving decision-making.

In the afternoon, the spotlight turned to the dynamic between Visionaries and Integrators. As Adam put it, “It takes two types of leaders to build something extraordinary.” The session helped members identify their natural tendencies and understand how to pair vision with execution to fuel sustainable growth.

Later, the Issues session tackled the uncomfortable but necessary work of removing friction—whether interpersonal or structural. By unpacking how to solve root causes rather than symptoms, participants saw how EOS can transform persistent problems into powerful breakthroughs.

The day wrapped up with a session on implementation—Pulling It All Together—where Debra and Adam shared various paths to making EOS stick, whether through self-implementation or guided support. Real-world case studies illustrated how companies like those in the room had used EOS to streamline operations, align teams, and scale with purpose.

Throughout the day, members gained practical tools and inspiring insights that challenged them to think differently, lead boldly, and take decisive steps toward growth—not just for their businesses, but for themselves as leaders.

The EOS Workshop marked another high-impact learning experience for EO Melbourne—proving once again that when entrepreneurs come together to learn and grow, breakthroughs happen.

Partners in advancing entrepreneurs and their businesses

One of the benefits of being a member of EO is having access to the products and services of its Strategic Alliance Partners and being able to learn from them. As many businesses are struggling to get back on track due to the global pandemic, EO Melbourne and its partners provided virtual events to support those in the EO community during these challenging times.

Airwallex: Simplifying the challenge of doing business globally

Expanding one's business globally is not an easy feat, but the challenges can be easier to overcome when you have the right tools, people and partners at your fingertips. Through a virtual event, Airwallex Partnerships Manager Justin Huang discussed how their company can help businesses in their expansion and in managing their finances in their respective markets and around the world.

Their online session also touched on how businesses could set up bank accounts overseas and eliminate necessary FX costs. Moreover, a virtual demonstration of the Airwallex platform allowed participants to better understand how they can use it for their businesses more efficiently. As there are many details attached to operating a business globally and expanding to various countries, the discussion enabled online attendees to have more thorough information on how to go about it and the particulars involved in doing so.

BlueRock: Employee Share Options Plan and Startup Concessions

Attracting to and retaining good people in an organisation are not easy things to do for every business. Business owners come up with various rewards schemes and incentives for their people to stay motivated and perform well at work. However, one of the common misconceptions among startup entrepreneurs is that they can simply give equity away to key employees in recognition of all the hard work they’ve contributed to the business over the years.

As there are risks and resources involved and there’s a better way to do this, experts from BlueRock explained the various types of Employee Share Options Plans (ESOP) and their importance to one’s business. Their BlueRock Expert Panel composed of BlueRock Accounting Director Paul Evans and BlueRock Law Senior Associate Jeremy Goldman, along with BlueRock Group CEO Bruce McFarlane moderating the virtual event, talked through the process and how it can be done effectively. They presented the employee share scheme (ESS), various ESS options, and the particulars of the ESOP.

EOS: Getting a grip on your business

Created 18 years ago, EOS -- defined in the book TRACTION: Get A Grip On Your Business by Gino Wickman -- is a complete set of simple concepts and practical tools that have helped thousands of entrepreneurs around the world to get what they want from their businesses. EOS helps leadership teams to clarify, simplify and achieve their vision – and get traction. It is simple, but fundamentally changing the way a business operates can be hard.

Recently, certified EOS Implementers Martin Quinn introduced the vital Six Key Components of a successful business and demonstrated how the proven EOS Tools could strengthen them. The workshop enabled participants to do an organisational check-up and learn how to use the EOS model and tools in improving the different aspects of an entrepreneurial business and bringing discipline and accountability within an organization. The Six Key Components in the EOS model are:

• Vision

• People

• Data

• Process

• Issues

• Traction

Evans and Partners: Investment opportunities for businesses

At a time of a global pandemic, political uncertainty and record-low interest rates, some people are having doubts if there are opportunities found in the stock market. Through a virtual session, Evans and Partners Executive Director, Senior Investment Adviser Paul Benveniste and Evans and Partners Investment Adviser Glen Pearce provided general information and ideas on investment and illustrated how they work with their clients on an on-going basis.

This members-only event covered Evans and Partners’ views on the market and the opportunities they provide. Paul and Glen also walked the members through the process of getting started with them and responded to queries related to their presentation.

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If you want to become a Strategic Alliance Partner of EO Melbourne, you can enquire how through this page. On the other hand, if you want to enjoy the benefits of having access to these partners and other opportunities within EO, you can join and be part of this global community.

Online training: how to conduct it effectively

To adapt to the present challenges, events like meetings, seminars, conferences and training sessions move from the physical space to online platforms with the use of technology. There are pros and cons to this scenario -- it allows everyone the opportunity to take part of these virtual sessions regardless of location, but poses some limitations on what can be done and cannot be done.

“We conduct our online training by first having our systems and processes documented.”

Anthony Lam

Managing Director, Punchy Digital Media

As one of Australia's leading animated explainer video production agency, Punchy Digital Media has been serving several big names in various industries through their teams across major cities in the country. Training their people is essential in getting the work done successfully.

Documentation and proper systems and processes are essential. Other than that, Anthony cites other points that make online training done effectively in their organization. “We have someone on our team create a flow chart which is colour coordinated and outline a certain workflow. We use a tool called Lucidchart which is very easy to create and edit flow charts and share online. We then create an additional flow chart which outlines every single task this particular person has to do.”

“Finally, we use screen recording tools, such as Loom.com, to talk through a certain process and explain how and why we are doing certain tasks. We record and store these videos for ongoing training. 

I've found this approach to be very visual and easy to follow and gives team members a reference to go back to. As the business owner, I find I am the worst person at documenting anything! Luckily, we have team members who are great at this so I delegate the task out. This is ideally someone who is very process-driven and has great attention to details,” said Anthony.

But how do they keep their training engaging and effective? “We always start with a communication starters/ice breakers,” Anthony shared. He also mentioned these following pointers: 

• Use Lots of screen sharing

• Make it visual and fun by using lots of videos

• Communication is mostly non-verbal so we turn our camera on for that sense of connection

• Ask for permission to record your training sessions, so you can send them a copy of the video

• Keep the sessions short

“What I have learned is to set the guidelines and expectations upfront very clearly.”

Jeni Clift

Professional EOS Implementer and Director/General Manager, DWM Solutions

Jeni is a Professional EOS Implementer and a transformational coach specialising in business, leadership and personal development who give other entrepreneurs the skills and systems for ongoing success. As such, training is part of her routine.

“I normally run full-day sessions of face-to-face training. Of course, in recent months, I have had to learn how to deliver these sessions virtually. As the training is focused on business strategy, planning and review, it can be quite difficult to keep people engaged whilst in the room. The thought of having to do this virtually was daunting, to say the least,” Jeni remarked.

Moreover, shifting towards the online space is not only the only concern Jeni has to deal with when it comes to training people. “I work with leadership teams, so I have everything from highly visionary people, some of whom are very busy and may have very short attention spans, to those wanting to go into all the details and analyse all the data, such as engineers and accountants, to name a few, as well as everything in between. Thus, keeping the sessions interesting for so many different personalities keeps me on my toes.”

Training different kinds of people in various settings have brought so many learnings to Jeni. “What I have learned is to set the guidelines and expectations upfront very clearly.  The camera should be on. Let everyone know that they can stand up if they need to, but to keep the camera on.  All distractions off, such as notifications of emails or messages on Teams or Slack. Phones must be silent, turned off or on flight mode and face down. Watch for distractions and call them out. Ask if we need to take a break so people can take a 5 to 10-minute walk around the house or outside for some fresh air and then get everyone back on track.”

Jeni also cited a few tips to keep the online training sessions more engaging:

• Do some short activities. “I watch closely when people start to flag, then we take a break or have some exercises or activities to get people up and active for a few minutes. Sometimes I let them run around their house on a ‘treasure hunt’. The great thing about entrepreneurs is that they are very competitive? You’d be surprised at what you can get people to bring back to their desk.”

• Ensure attendees have plenty of water. “I always have insulated water bottles to make sure I have a supply of cold water. I advise my participants to have water ready as well.”

• Allow everyone to participate. “I have found with online sessions, it is easy for the noisier people to dominate the sessions, and the quiet ones to either not speak up or they just don’t get heard. Make sure you set an ‘order’ for the participants in the session and as you go through the day, follow the same order and constantly check in with everyone.”

• Ask for feedback from everyone at the end of the session. “I always ask ‘what worked well and what didn’t work’. I am constantly learning from this feedback on how to do things better. You start to understand the different personalities and how to manage the sessions to suit as many people as possible.”

• Make the most of online/virtual training. “I also tend to not make such a big deal of online/virtual training.  I believe it will be our only way of doing things for a while and we are now used to working and training this way. The more of an issue I make it, the more it is an issue -- it is what we have and we will make the most of it.”

• Put the fun in learning. “Make it as fun and interesting as you can. My cat often jumps up on to my desk, so I just introduce him. I was hosting a fireside chat session for our clients and my two dogs came and sat with me. I have met so many animals and babies, sung happy birthday to people’s kids. None of this would have happened without our current online sessions!”

Share your tips

What new insights have you learned from the tips and experiences mentioned above? If you have additional tips to share, feel free to leave your comments below.