The Greatest Leadership Breakthrough: Unlocking Business Success with EOS

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Joshua Kornitsky: Hey, welcome back to High Velocity Radio. I’m your host, Joshua Kornitsky. And today our guest is Brett Dubsky. Brett has spent more than 20 years in leadership roles spanning engineering, operations, sales, and executive management. He’s really helped organizations navigate both growth and change throughout his career. He’s led teams, he’s driven organizational transformations, and he’s helped businesses improve performance. Today, he brings the sum total of that experience into the entrepreneurial into entrepreneurial leadership teams as a professional EOS implementer. Brett, welcome to the show.

Brett Dubsky: Thanks for having me. Wonderful to be here.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s a pleasure to have you. Thank you again for setting some time aside for us. Um, lot here to unpack, but let’s begin at the beginning. Share with us if you would, how, where did you start from and, and how did you end up here?

Brett Dubsky: Well, I get here. Absolutely. Uh, yeah, it’s a, it’s a great story. So I, um, I got my call into organizational leadership. Oddly enough, from a, from a page in a, in a manufacturing plant. Right. So I was a plant manager at the time page goes off, uh, you know, summoned up to the CEO’s office.

Joshua Kornitsky: Page like a pager, like you said page. My, my brain was a book.

Brett Dubsky: A book. Well, uh, so page in a manufacturing plant is, is over the loudspeaker. Holy cow.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay, so.

Brett Dubsky: It’s an old school. College for sure. They call in to the loudspeaker when you’re out in the plant and it’s okay, you know? Brett Dubsky, please dial x, y, z or Brett, please report to wherever. Um, so I was paged over the loudspeakers to come up to the to the CEO’s office. Um, and when I get up there, the CEO says, hey Brett, um, the GM just lost it, um, and walked out. Um, you know, you’re getting promoted, right?

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow.

Brett Dubsky: And yeah. Wow. And there was a lot of things going through my head at the time. Um, but the one that I remember was, you know, this is great. This is where that business leader is going to share with me the secret sauce.

Joshua Kornitsky: Oh, the book of secrets.

Brett Dubsky: The book of secrets. Um, how did that go? It went, um, I remember thinking that. And then the next two things that he told me, um, I’ll never forget. Right. He said, all right, Brett, um, don’t let this job ruin your life and don’t get anybody killed. It was, it was, it was heavy. That’s heavy manufacturing. Um, that was the secret sauce he was giving me. So I was a little disappointed, but I turned around, walked out and, uh, you know, started, started running, running the business. And my life quickly devolved into 12 hour work days. Six and a half days a week. An endless parade of, you know, people in my office with, you know, me solving their problems for them and repetitively. Right? Right. Well, I was in the office one night, you know, well, after hours, um, you know, and I remember sitting there, you know, feeling a little bit defeated, but mainly I remember feeling lonely and it was mind blowing to me because I had been with these people that I had loved all day. And they were, they were in and out of my office all day, but yet somehow I felt lonely. But, um.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s I understand it, but objectively it sounds crazy.

Brett Dubsky: It does sound crazy. And it was crazy because I spent more time at the plant, you know, running that business with the people than I did with my young family at the time. Right. And but but I was lonely. Um, so fast forward, you know, two and a half years, I had basically kind of resided that, that that was going to be my life. Right. And I was tough enough to handle that. Um, and I was interviewing to do the same role in my mind the same way with just maybe a different, you know, a different logo on my, on my golf shirt at that point. Right. And went, and when I was interviewing, though, I did interview with a group that, um, the leadership team didn’t have that sense of loneliness. Right? That leadership team had cohesiveness, right? And that leadership team did have a have a secret sauce. Uh, and, and when I signed on board, they, they handed me the secret sauce and that and that book was, what the heck is EOS? And, and, and the secret sauce was the US and in my life had had had is not and will not really ever be the same from there.

Joshua Kornitsky: So so so I have to ask one question. It sounds like you almost let it ruin your life. Can I ask did did you break the second rule?

Brett Dubsky: I did not break the second rule. Nobody died. No, nobody.

Joshua Kornitsky: Congratulations. I’m. I’m actually relieved to hear that, because I imagine that’s its own weight to live with. And safety is always in manufacturing the the issue. So I’m happy to hear that. So so you’ve now joined an organization that’s that’s using iOS and we’ll get into iOS in a little bit. Um, and that’s your introduction to it for sure. What, what happens from there is, is it something you’re able to, to comprehend? And actually let me ask, tell, tell us what iOS is so that we can then build on that for sure.

Brett Dubsky: Yeah. So, so iOS stands for Entrepreneurial Operating system, and it is a simplified approach to strategic planning, right? It is a business system that allows organizations to get three things vision, traction, and healthy. And it’s really focused around the leadership team and making sure that they have the structure to hold up the rest of the business in a very in a very high level. That’s what the US is.

Joshua Kornitsky: So can you define what vision obviously, I assume means sort of forward looking. Right. What do you mean by traction?

Brett Dubsky: So traction means getting that leadership team to be more disciplined and accountable and executing on that vision that you just mentioned day in and day out.

Joshua Kornitsky: And, and healthy in this context.

Brett Dubsky: And healthy in this context means taking that leadership team and getting them to be actually a cohesive and functional leadership team. Because I know when I was on a leadership team, I was a phenomenal individual contributor, but I wasn’t necessarily a phenomenal teammate. Right. And that’s pretty, um, common for leaders is they don’t function very well as a team. So iOS builds a functional leadership team. And what we found kind of within the US and what I’ve found in working with leadership teams is, as goes the leadership team, so goes the rest of the organization.

Joshua Kornitsky: That makes sense to me because obviously if you’re if you’re setting the tone, if you’re setting the bar at the leadership team level, you’re modeling the behavior and the performance and the expectations that you’re looking to see from everyone below the leadership team.

Brett Dubsky: Absolutely. And, um, right. In order to have a disciplined, accountable organization that’s executing on a vision, in order to have that, you have to have a leader and a leadership team that are also disciplined, accountable, and executing on a vision, right? It’s, it’s very challenging to have a disorganized leadership team and an organized organization, right?

Joshua Kornitsky: So let’s dig into that a little bit in, in, uh, discipline and accountability both sound fantastic. And depending on the, the organization. As I reflect back in my own life, sometimes they’re aspirational. They’re not. It’s, it’s not always, um, it’s where they want to get to. It’s not where they are. So what are some of the high level, what are, what are some of the areas that you focus on to help them achieve and get aligned?

Brett Dubsky: For sure. Right. And so phenomenal question. And what I, what I hear a lot from leadership teams when I kind of introduce the discipline and accountability concepts is they walk in and the CEOs and the visionaries go, man, it’s amazing. You’re gonna make the rest of my organization accountable. Yeah. But I’m gonna make them disciplined and them accountable. Right? Again, I’m, I’m coming for the leadership team, right? To get them focused. Right. And, and what iOS does is we focus more on kind of a structure first mentality vision second. So right. We set up the structure of the organization, right? And it’s a tool that, that we call the accountability chart, where we define roles and seats for every member of that leadership team, what that leader is responsible for and what those metrics that they own are. So hiding is not an option. And we are clear as day as who owns what to either go get or to go solve issues in those areas.

Joshua Kornitsky: So that sounds very scary. Uh, and, and again, basing it just on my own perspective, not everybody’s looking for that level of accountability. So does, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. Some people are simply wired for accountability. Other people have to be taught accountability. And there is a subset that frankly, I think shirks Accountability, whether it’s nature or nurture, is not ours to determine. But it sounds like the concepts you introduce probably make it a little bit of a challenge. You must have a pretty tough job.

Brett Dubsky: It is. It is. It is a challenging job. It’s a very rewarding job. Um, but what I have found is iOS is a phenomenal system. And I, you know, I have dedicated the last kind of six years of my life of, of honing my craft around iOS and taking it to the world with, with other leadership teams. Um, it is not for all organizations. Um, it is not for all leadership teams, right? If, if the leadership team doesn’t want to grow, if the leadership team doesn’t want to be open and honest, if the leadership team doesn’t want to be vulnerable about what they’re good at and, and what they’re not good at, iOS isn’t right. Because we are gonna, we are going to hit those nails on the head, right? If you’re trying to run a lifestyle business, I love you and I support you. And I think that’s amazing. Us probably is not the tool for you. If you want to grow and you want to go put a dent in the universe, US is a platform that can absolutely help you do that.

Joshua Kornitsky: So speaking of open and honest, I think that’s a great example what you just shared, because most of my guests seem to be very happy to bring their product or service to anyone that’s a taker for it. And it sounds to me like that may not be the case here. No, it’s just not always a good fit.

Brett Dubsky: Phenomenal. It is not. It is not a great fit for, for, for some organizations. And again, it’s not that the system doesn’t work. It’s that the system would not be embraced and the system would not be fully utilized in certain and I call them lifestyle businesses. I’m sure there’s other there’s no.

Joshua Kornitsky: I follow that it’s people that are making X amount and it pays their bills and lets them live the life they want to live and they’re good at at that level. And that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with with running your business that way. As long as, as long as you don’t have magic aspirations of explosive growth. The day After tomorrow based on a magic bean you plant. Um, so you, you sort of told us who EOS is not for. And by doing that, you told us that they need to be open and honest. They need to be growth minded. Um, not afraid of change, obviously. Uh, what about specific industries, specific size? I mean, is this is this a good fit for a startup? Is this a good fit for, uh, a multibillion dollar company who is EOS for?

Brett Dubsky: Absolutely. So EOS is, is really, you know, it’s set for it’s a great question is set for growth minded, small to midsize businesses, right? So so ten employees to 250 employees. Um, you know, I’ve worked with some organizations that are larger than 250 employees, right. Um, it, the system does work. It just gets a little bit big. Um, from a, from a startup standpoint, um, there is a, it’s a phenomenal framework for early stage businesses. It is not necessarily designed for startups, but as startups grow, um, they can grow directly into kind of the iOS system and, and the platform. So it becomes.

Joshua Kornitsky: Like a roadmap for them.

Brett Dubsky: Roadmap for sure. Um, I’m actually working with a client right now that is kind of in the startup phase. Uh, and again, I’m a, I’m a help first guy. Um, you know, so she calls me up, I will pick up the phone all the time. Um, I’ve sent her all the books and I say, hey, you know, there’s some foundational tools to iOS that are exactly that foundational tools. There’s no reason for her not to implement them into her startup now, so that two years from now when she has eight, nine, ten employees and is doing a couple million in revenue, she has the foundation, right? Why wait until things are a little bit out of whack before you put the foundation in place?

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and that’s the next question I want to ask you is, is it a good fit? If if my organization needs a turnaround, if my organization is is not going the way I want it to go, is iOS a good fit for that?

Brett Dubsky: Sure. Right. So so iOS is industry agnostic, right? You know, we are not specifically for manufacturing. We are not specifically for tech. We will work. If you have people and you make money, the US can help you and will help you. Um, you know, if you’re in need of a turnaround, right? Typically what we find is the, the knowledge and the skill to turn that business around are already in the business, right? I’m not bringing that turnaround knowledge to the business. I am bringing a platform that allows you to get the vision, the traction, and the healthy to just acknowledge what you need to do for that turnaround, and then you go execute it, right? I let you run your business.

Joshua Kornitsky: So you’re not a consultant.

Brett Dubsky: I am not a consultant. I am not a consultant.

Joshua Kornitsky: What? So in at a high level, how how do you help them accomplish all that you’ve said you helped them accomplish?

Brett Dubsky: That’s a great that’s a that’s a great question. Right? So, um, and I am not a consultant because I said there are some businesses that I won’t work with. Right. And I don’t think that’s a very consulting thing to say. Right? I am a, I’m a teacher, I’m a facilitator, I’m coach. Right. So I teach the EOS system and the tools that are within it. And that’s a very finite and definable system. Right? Um, I teach that to the organization. I help facilitate them, you know, onboarding those tools and putting that structure into their, into their business. And then I coach them in that process. Meaning I’m open and honest to a fault. Um, you know, there are times when those leadership teams and those business leaders need to hear things about, you know, either them falling into a lifestyle, business type.

Joshua Kornitsky: Mindset, right?

Brett Dubsky: Mindset that I will absolutely call out and say, hey, this is not a growth oriented decision or this is not a growth oriented action. This apathy is not what quite honestly, I signed up to help you with. Um, y’all need to fix that or, you know, I might not be the right guy for you, right? So I sometimes hit them between the eyes, which, to be honest, normally is, is a very positive thing that a lot of leaders want. I don’t always appreciate in the moment, but in the long run is is really what’s best for them.

Joshua Kornitsky: You’re like a great artist. You go unappreciated in your time. But no, I think to your point there, there are many, um, many leaders that I’ve encountered throughout my life who don’t have anyone willing to give that pushback and, and that open and honest. And obviously you’re not a consultant, so you’re not trying to sway them one direction or another direction. So you are about as unbiased a coach as can be. You’re just trying to get them. What is what is it that the the Steelers say? The standard is the standard. You’re trying to get them to perform at their best. For sure.

Brett Dubsky: And and I’ve been in that in that lonely leadership mode before. And to be honest, what I probably needed and probably, you know, would have helped the business and quite frankly, would have helped me as a, as a person is for somebody to come in and tell me something that I necessarily my ego probably didn’t want to hear at the time, but I probably would have been better for it. You know, two hours after it happened or 15 minutes after it happened and absolutely a month after it happened. Right. So, you know, it’s me loving on the leaders. It’s me loving on the leaders saying, hey, you’re in a lonely ivory tower up there, that there’s a team.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right.

Brett Dubsky: That can help you in.

Joshua Kornitsky: In, in my own experience, the best leaders I’ve ever known were vulnerable. They were not Superman. They they had flaws. They made mistakes. They apologized. They asked for help. Those are the strongest, most impactful leaders I’ve ever experienced. Because I think to pretend that every decision you make is perfect and that everything always goes according to plan. Do you know what Mike Tyson always said about a plan?

Brett Dubsky: I know something about it. It might tie back to hurting people in manufacturing. It’s about getting punched in the face. What? Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Everybody’s got a plan till they get punched in the face. Or I think the military put it that no plan. No plan survives contact with the enemy. Right? Sure. And. And all the greatest plans in the world can’t take into effect or into consideration every millions of variations of what can happen the day after tomorrow when a tree knocks down and cuts your internet for two and a half weeks while they’re trying to dig it out, you know, and and no part of your plan had that in it. No. Um, so what does it look like to engage you? Is it, uh, a 20 year term? How does it work?

Brett Dubsky: No. And so it’s a phenomenal question. And it ties into kind of what you were talking about around, you know, leaders Being, you know, open and vulnerable is my intention, right? Is is I will be honest with the leaders during my engagement. But really, again, I’m building a, a healthy leadership team so that when I step away from the business, right. And I step out of the engagement that that leadership team can teach, facilitate and coach. Right. They can coach themselves, right? They can hold themselves accountable because to be honest, right. We’re all human beings, right? We all have good days and bad days. We all backslide a little bit in our professional development. Right. And our human development, to be honest. Um, where your leadership team can say, hey Brett or hey, Joshua, you know, I think you gotta, I think you gotta change something up, right? So, so my engagements are, um, you know, typically there’s, there’s a set up iOS structure on how I engage with organizations, but typically it’s about a two year engagement. Okay. Um, where, where I am with that leadership team, um, about five times a year. Um, and there’s, and there’s a set kind of cadence to, to that five times. But my goal, like I said, is to come into the organization, teach, facilitate, coach, get that organization good at EOS and functional at EOS and strong at EOS. And then I get out of the way. Right? I’m not a consultant. I’m not trying to dig myself into your business. I’m trying to teach you the platform and then let you run your business. I’ll get out of your way, and I’m happy to do that.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow. So it’s roughly two years. Are are there for a million reasons that I don’t need to list other than everybody’s different. Every company is different. Um, is it always two years? Do some people go longer to some or some people shorter?

Brett Dubsky: That’s phenomenal question. Right. Um, so I have some clients that get it faster. Write that. Get it faster. So they get the vision, the traction and healthy. They get there faster. And that’s amazing. And they’re a little bit less than two years. I have some clients that get it at two years and I graduate them, and that’s great. And I have some other clients that get it. Um, and it’s been two years and they appreciate what I bring to the table five times a year. And they keep and have kept me on board for five and six years. Um, so some organizations stay with it forever, uh, because of the value I bring, you know, in the room.

Joshua Kornitsky: But I would think that it’s very different, as you described it, where they’re, if they’re graduating and you and you hand it over or they assume full accountability for iOS, it’s got to be very different when they run a meeting versus when you run a meeting, right? Because you’re outside of the organization and you can ask hard questions for sure. So I can see why people might carry on to, keep you engaged because you’re sort of that, um, what’s the, what’s a, what’s a good positive analogy? You are the open and honest guy in the room. You’re, you’re the guy who doesn’t have an agenda. You’re the guy who’s not trying to sway in favor of X or in favor of Y. Uh, and that’s, that’s a good, solid thing to always have available to you. And, and I have to think that as businesses grow and succeed, it gets harder and harder to find people who are willing to tell you what you don’t want to hear. Sure. You know, I, I once heard a great interview with Eddie Murphy, who’s made lots of great movies, but also made some movies that were not so great.

Joshua Kornitsky: And to summarize a bit of his interview, he said, you know, you sign a contract to make three movies. You don’t really get to pick the movies. And all day, every day on set, people are telling you what a great job you did, so It gets hard to know until the general public sees a film that you weren’t the brilliant, inspired, Academy Award winning actor you thought you were, because everybody around you kept blowing smoke at you. And that absolutely happens. The equivalent happens in in industry and in business, where you’re surrounded by people who, rightly or wrongly, believe that they are there to just build you up. And I assume at a certain elevation, you probably don’t even hear criticism anymore if you’re so accustomed to that. I will draw no other parallels simply to say, uh, it is good to have a counterbalance to all of the mental inflation. Uh, and it sounds like you do that. Well, um, Bret, what’s, what’s the best way for people to get a hold of you?

Brett Dubsky: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so again, my, my email, my, uh, my microsite or LinkedIn, right.

Joshua Kornitsky: And we’ll publish all of those links. I’ll get those from you. So when the story gets published or the interview gets published, we’ll have all of that. Um, it’s really been a genuine pleasure. And let me ask you, um, is, is this your final form? Is this do you see yourself evolving to another role in life or, or are you are you happy and content with what you’re doing?

Brett Dubsky: I so if that’s a phenomenal question, right? So, you know, I believe that we’re always evolving, right? You know, as, as human beings, if we’re not growing, if we’re not growing, we’re dying. Um, so I am going to continue to grow. I’m going to continue to hone my craft. But, you know, again, I am taking, you know, my skills and, you know, the secret sauce of iOS, um, to, to business leaders to try to try to, you know, solve, solve their pain, heal their pain, ease some of their, you know, mental angst. Um, so this is what I’m going to be doing. I’m, I’m happy to be doing it. And I plan to be doing it for a long time.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, listen, it sounds like it’s made your life better and didn’t ruin it. And here’s the most important thing. It sounds like very low risk of anyone getting killed. So keep that track. Keep that record at zero, please. Fred, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, and your experience. Uh, anyone that. Oh, last question. I guess that’s relevant. What is the area that you service?

Brett Dubsky: Oh, absolutely. Um, so great question. I’m in, uh, northeast Ohio. So, so Cleveland and surrounding, but basically, you know, draw a four hour map around Cleveland and, and I’m happy to help us get you where you need to go. Us does have a, a massive, um, network of other implementers. So if you’re outside of that area, uh, reach out to me and I can connect you with other, um, you know, open and honest, um, us facilitators that, that will, you know, do a very similar job and really help first.

Joshua Kornitsky: Awesome. I’m glad I remembered to ask that so that we don’t have people calling you from Hawaii willing to fly you out there? You know.

Brett Dubsky: I might make an exception for Hawaii.

Joshua Kornitsky: You and me both.

Brett Dubsky: I think.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. Thank you again, Brett. Today, my guest has been Brett Dubsky. Brett has spent more than 20 years in leadership roles spanning engineering, operations, sales, and executive management. He’s helped organizations navigate both growth and change. Throughout his career, he’s led teams, developed organizational transformation, and helped businesses improve performance. Today, he brings all of that expertise into being a professional EOS implementer. Brett, again, thank you for being here today. My name is Joshua Kornitsky. I am your host here on High Velocity Radio. Thank you for joining us. We’ll see you next time.