doug smith training

How solid is your plan? I firmly believe that in order to achieve your goals you must design a creative, assertive plan and then act relentlessly on that plan. Don't give up. Dig in. Fly. Push. Do those action steps and keep plugging away. Here's the paradox. As you're plugging away you must also be ready to dance - ready to pivot, ready to change. Every great plan includes some degree of flexibility. As soon as your plan is in motion, something will change that will necessitate change in your plan. That's OK. Go with it. Stay relentless on your plan, AND stay flexible. It's the love of the paradox that will bring a smile to your face. High performance leaders are centered and flexible. We cannot break with every change, we must simply bend and then snap forward. On target, on purpose, on the rise. Every plan needs some flexibility. Are you at peace with that? -- Doug Smith

What is the next step after you've set a meaningful goal? You need a plan, of course. And, you'll need to relentlessly follow that plan. You'll also need a team of helpers. People who will propel you forward. Someone who will hold you accountable. Someone who can see what you miss and give you feedback on moves that you make. It might even be the kind of goal that leads to a vital, energized project team.  Who will be your team? Who will be your helpers? Why go it alone? Anyone can help you set goals. Who do you have to help you achieve them? -- Doug Smith

Who is success up to? It's fashionable to say it's up to you. After all, you ARE in charge of your own fate, right? And all it takes is a positive attitude, true? Well, maybe more than that. Yes, a positive attitude is far preferable and much more enabling than a negative attitude. But it is not enough. You need to do the work...AND, more importantly, your team needs to do the work. Leaders who contribute to their team's success are doing them a great service. Yay. Leaders who try to do it all do both themselves and their teams a disservice. It takes both. In communication, in project work, in achieving your goals. Share responsibility for success. Step up when you're needed, and step back when you want to encourage  someone else to take charge. Allow people to own their own responsibility. Enable people to act, and then get out of their way. Successful supervisors share responsibility for success. What can you take charge of today? What can you let go of?

How do you feel when someone hides the truth? I've worked in organizations that had upper management who, well, kept secrets. They knew about major moves. They planned major changes. But, they didn't tell us what was going on. The truth can rattle your feelings, but how can you deal with it if you don't know it. Successful supervisors know that their team members need to know the truth. What to expect. Hiding the truth is temporary at best, because the truth will always bubble to the top. It will always emerge. Why not bring it out sooner, with integrity, honesty, and grace? A hidden truth is not very helpful. Real truth sees the light of day in time to shine value on the people involved. Go for the value. Shine your light of truth. -- Doug Smith

What's wrong with performance evaluations? Evaluation. We are all constantly evaluated. Judged. Scored. There are surveys after nearly every transaction. On the phone, online, even in person -- people ask for your feedback but hope against hope it's all good -- 5's on a scale of 5 or 10's on a scale of 10. Why? Because none of us enjoy being judged. Yet, we all make mistakes. None of us are perfect. We all carry around our broken pieces. We might even have moved on from those broken pieces and changed enough to avoid repeating mistakes. We do learn how to make customers pleased. We do learn how to provide our boss with what she most wants. The broken pieces remain. Judging us for them does not fix them. Judgement does not fix the broken pieces. Time, growth, compassion, and learning fix the broken pieces. Healing takes time and care. Judgment gets in the way. Send your inner judge out of the room for an hour. You'll be finally free. Yes, you do nee

One of my favorite quotes comes from Susan Scott and her essential book, "Fierce Conversations" when she says "let silence do the heavy lifting." So often we are uncomfortable by silence. We feel the need to fill the silence with something, anything. Silence is a valid response. Big work can happen during that silence. Higher quality thinking can be encouraged, nurtured, and born during meaningful, patient silence. I work to be silent when my words would wound another. Instead of blurting out that response, I work on the pause. Silence. Instead of getting even with a better dig, a sarcastic reply, I work on the breathing. The pause. The silence. Pause. See what happens. Let that happen. Breathe. Silence is a valid, useful, rich response. Honor that silence. -- Doug Smith

Do you remember your first day as a supervisor? How many questions did you get? It seemed to me that the questions were endless. Little questions about technical details that were easy to answer, and big questions about vacation time and doctor appointment time that required some thought. Hundreds of questions. If you knew how many questions you were going to receive you might have asked to be paid piece work: by the question. But, do supervisors need to have all the answers? Some answers, yes. Important answers, yes. But one of the biggest lessons I learned early on as a first time supervisor was this: anyone could ask any question -- as long as they also had an answer in mind. It might not be the right answer. It might not be my preferred answer. It might not even be an answer I would immediately approve. But by coming to the boss with a question AND an answer, it was often much easier for a team member to get what they really wanted. And guess what? Eventually, they d