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Showing posts with the label high performance leadership

Clarify, Clarify, Clarify

  I do not like to make assumptions. But, sometimes I do. I'll assume someone has bad intentions, when maybe they just have bad manners. I'll assume someone's goal is in conflict with mine, when it's really just a different path to the same destination. Misunderstanding someone else's goal can lead to unnecessary conflict. Clarify, clarify, clarify. Ask questions. Listen. Reach mutual understanding, even if agreement does not seem remotely possible. Understanding might get you half way there... -- doug smith

Make Your Best Call

  Have you ever acted quickly in an urgent situation, because it was urgent, only to later discover there was a better choice? High performance leaders do need a sense of urgency. They also need a clear view and careful analysis before acting recklessly. Time provides perspective that urgency can not. Take a breath. Take some time. Make your best call. -- doug smith

The Point

The goal is not the point. The goal is the way TO the point. High performance leaders keep their focus on the mission and then work on goals that support that mission. Anything else is piece work. -- doug smith  

What Leaders Do

  You could spend a lifetime studying leadership and what leaders do. You'll likely spend your lifetime doing that whether or not you planned on it because when it comes to leadership there is always something more to learn. Most of what high performance leaders do is solve problems and achieve goals.  Much goes into that. Projects come and go. People help (or don't) and they also come and go. To move forward, to implement plans, to make the world a better place, leaders need to solve problems and achieve their goals. What do you think?

Creating Positive Change

"I don't like change..." "What is it about change that you don't like?" "All the disruption! All the chaos! I just get used to something and someone changes it." "What's your plan?" "Excuser me?" "What do you plan to do about it? "What CAN I do about it? Change just keeps coming at us relentlessly. I hate it!" "What if things are actually getting better?" "Impossible!" "Think about it. What if you could have frozen time fifty years ago? Would you really rather work in a coal mine? Would you really rather deal with unchecked disease and infection? Sure, things are challenging now, but if you go back into any period of time in recorded history, things were much worse." "So what should I do about that?" "Maybe stop complaining. Maybe stay positive. Maybe, as as responsible high performance leader work to create positive change." "Hmmm." What do you think

Pride Delays Improvement

It's fine to feel proud about hard work that is well done, about accomplishments, about achieving your goals. When you've worked hard, you do deserve to be proud. I've learned to be careful about how much of that pride influences me. Too much, and pride creates blind spots covering up the areas in need of improvement. Too much pride and arrogance toward others, or toward disciplined good habits, can sneak in. Pride delays improvement.  Feel the pride when you've earned it, and then get back to work with the full sense that none of us are perfect yet -- and never will be -- and yet we can constantly improve. -- doug smith  

How Can I Motivate My Team?

It's a question that is asked constantly  -- How can I motivate my team? So many ways. I can certainly provide training that will help you do a better job of motivating your team. Here's a shortcut (you should explore other ways of course, but maybe start with this...) Two key points: If your employees feel like they need to unionize to get what they want and need, you're failing as a leader. Fix that. And, When all of the rewards go to the top, the team stops caring. Fix that, too. Absolutely get to know your team members. Provide opportunities for growth. Demonstrate some emotional intelligence around them. Communicate clearly and often. Find the clarity you need to maintain your direction. Demonstrate compassion with those who need it. Think and act creatively in all that you do. And ponder those two points above.  -- doug smith

How Much?

I once had a boss who had higher standards than me. Every day seemed like a challenge. There just wasn't any pleasing this boss. I'd get to a new level and she'd urge me to raise the level again. "Keep learning," she'd say. "Keep developing. Make your customers unforgettable and they will never forget you..." She was right. The chase is endless. The effort is unrelenting. And the joy, ah the joy becomes inexhaustible. If your boss has higher standards than you do, raise your standards.  -- doug smith  

Coming Thru

Have you ever gotten stuck pondering the nature of things and wondering about all that work in front of you? Why do it now? What does it matter? Is anyone paying attention? Performance isn't everything but it sure does pay the bills. Be the poster for productivity, the best example your team members can think of for getting things done, and they'll get more done to. If that's what you get paid to do...it's up to you to come thru. -- doug smith

Yay Encouragement!

I get a charge out of encouragement -- both when I encourage someone else and when someone else encourages me. It doesn't take much energy to provide encouragement, and the payoff is huge. A brighter day, a bigger smiler, a repeat of a task that was done correctly. Encouragement is free and the impact immense. However much you're encouraging others, what if you did it even more? -- doug smith  

Maximize Your Impact

Quick -- what can you do to immediately and dramatically increase your impact on your team? Encourage them. Provide as much positive feedback as you can. Listen to their ideas. Spend meaningful time with them and stay with them thru their mistakes and troubles. You didn't hire perfect people and they won't ever BE perfect -- when they are good and better than good, take notice. Share your enthusiasm, because they cannot read your mind. Encouragement is free and the impact immense. Maximize that impact. -- doug smith

Leadership Problems

Leaders have problems just like everybody else and they have an unfair ability to spread those problems. They can, with their power and influence, make things worse. But they don't have to. You don't have to. Leaders can also use their influence and power to make things better. Working well with others, leaders can solve those problems. Let's take the better choice. -- doug smith  

What if it's not procrastination?

We can't get everything done. Our team members can't get everything done. High performance leaders know that prioritization is a key to success. That could mean deciding as much what you won't do as what you will do. Have you ever put some thing off for so long that you eventually didn't need to do it anymore? (Honestly, doesn't it seem like that's the strategy for some procrastinators?) It's not all bad. We could simply be more intentional about it. While getting the important stuff done, we should feel OK about leaving some less important things undone. It's not procrastination if the thing you are avoiding is not worth doing.  Just don't do it. -- doug smith  

Leadership Choice

Which would you prefer -- a leader who knows how to do your job and could do it if you weren't there, or a leader who has never done what you do and couldn't do it if the business depended on it? As a leader, you could find yourself in either circumstance. In fact, the higher you go in an organization the more likely you are to be in charge of people who do things that you do not know how to do. You don't need to know how to do what your direct reports do, but if you do, that does add a layer of respect. But sooner or later, the respect will need to come from your skills a s leader. -- doug smith

Fear Is Fuel

It's not your first choice, is it? That feeling of anxiety. That moment when turning away seems easier than facing a problem head-on. Fear stinks. What if we don't turn away? What if we use that moment of fear to mobilize, to actualize, to realize our potential? Fear is fuel. Use what you are afraid of to get what you want. -- doug smith

Insist on Honesty

Even if honesty seems rare, you can achieve it with discipline. When you practice it. When you insist on it. When you get better at testing your assumptions. When you give people the chance to tell the truth by responding with respect. High performance leaders finds ways to explore before they implore -- they make certain of the truth before they swear by it. Powerful leaders stay open to possibilities that they may not have contemplated and allow the truth to emerge. Once the truth emerges, there will still be people who doubt it, who still will resist. When we can share what we think and what we feel with honesty, it will serve us well even when we're wrong (because even honest people are sometimes wrong). Insist on honesty with respect - it's a great path to the truth. -- doug smith

Develop Discipline

How much more disciplined do you wish your team was? Disciplined enough to do the work, to achieve the results, to bring about the organization's mission on a daily basis. It starts by modeling discipline. Developing and demonstrating healthy habits like: Showing up early (but not too early).  Listening without judging even when you are aching to comment critically Taking on the tough assignments Finishing what you start Standing up to unfairness and injustice Working side by side with your team The list could go on. Add whatever behavior you want to see more of to that list and then, if you truly do want to see more of it from your team, you'll need to show it more often TO your team. They'll follow you. Maybe not at first, but eventually, and seriously. Discipline helps us to do the right thing before we realize it's the right thing. That's what makes it so powerful. -- doug smith  

Leadership Communication

The art of leadership is communicating with the right amount of urgency exactly what people need to do next. They may know already and tell you what needs to be done. They have no idea and need clear directions. They may be filled with clues or utterly clueless. The science of leadership becomes the art of leadership the moment you start to communicate. How are you with the art of leadership? -- doug smith

What if?

It is a recurring theme: something needs to be done, and yet isn't getting done. Or, there is an urgent problem to be solved, and no one is solving it. When the cause is important a leader will emerge.  What if that leader is you? -- doug smith