doug smith training

Centered leaders feel a calling for the work they bring to the world. It's more than a duty; more than a job. The sense of mission that leads to completion and satisfaction drives centered leaders as they work.  Centered leaders optimize their work by working on their calling. What's your calling? Are you working on it everyday? What will you do today? -- Doug Smith

Have you scanned your future today? High performance leaders frequently scan the environment for change opportunities. Individually, keeping informed of rapid changes, cultural shifts, and trends as well as collectively holding deeper conversations sometimes in the form of a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. High performance leaders are always aware of what looms just down the road. They move with what they can influence, and prepare for what they can not control. As a leader, you'd probably rather not be surprised --to avoid the unexpected takes preparation. What's going on in your world that will effect your business? Are you paying attention to YOUR future?  What trends do you see developing in your field of work/play? What will you do to change the nature of your game? -- Doug Smith

High performance leaders co-create solutions that overcome constraints. As a leader, do you know what the constraints are? Can you pinpoint the largest and highest impact constraint? What stands in the way of success? Who can help you co-create solutions that will overcome overpower and overhaul these constraints? In order to optimize your results it takes a careful look at details currently slow or impede the results that you want. Often, eliminating a constraint opens the flood gates of success much faster than building a brand new process or path. -- Doug Smith

Do you really understand your biggest problem? What are you doing to solve it? Who else can you ask for help? Understanding is a critical first step to solving difficult problems. Moving too fast can lead to solving the wrong problem and complicating (or even over-simplifying) your situation.  Take the time to understand your biggest problem, and then seek the help you need. What is your biggest problem? -- Doug Smith

Problems are often solved temporarily. Permanent solutions are hard to find, because there are so many factors to consider. People, for instance. If you solve a problem, yet hurt some one in the process (physically, mentally, or financially) you haven't really solved the problem -- you've just pushed it to a more dangerous level. There are NO permanent solutions that hurt people. If it hurts someone, the solution is a problem in itself. Are you considering everyone in your problem solving? Are your solutions injury-free? --Doug Smith

Do you ever daydream about the past? How you would have done some things differently? If you could go back in time would you be the same person you are today? Of course, we can't go back in time, but we can learn from it. Things that we would change point in directions we might want to consider for now. People we might have offended may still be waiting for our amends. Opportunities we may have squandered might still be there -- or might beckon us toward new opportunities we have been missing. We don't need to regret what we missed. There's so much good that's still ahead of us. What have you learned from your past experiences? -- Doug Smith

Where would you be if it weren't for your excuses? Could it be that you would have achieved more? Could it be that some of those elusive goals would not have been so elusive? There's no sense in pointing fingers. I know I've dropped a few excuses when lifting the weight would have been more effective. Let's just agree not to make any more excuses, OK? Goals don't respond to excuses. It takes our actions. It takes our persistence. It takes our courage and creativity. But not excuses. We'll all go farther without those silly things, don't you think? -- Douglas Brent Smith