doug smith training

How important are your goals? Do you know how I can tell? I can tell how important a goal is by how disciplined and hard I work on them. Big effort = big importance. Little effort = just nice to have.

Your effort measures the true value of your goal.
I'm going to work today to put more effort into those goals that matter most. How about you?

-- doug smith

Things change fast. Things don't ask, they just change. Where do we go from here?

Wherever you are, there is room to grow. We may stay idle for awhile. We may sleep, rest, nurture. When we are ready, let's grow.

Where to begin?

Start with what's possible and grow.

Ready when you are...

-- doug smith

My former acting coach, Brian McCulley once said that "done is better than perfect." I don't think he meant to minimize quality, because that is also important. But sometimes urgency is more important than perfection, considering that we'll never achieve perfect.

There are no perfect people. There are no perfect products. There are no perfect processes. We may travel John Wesley's road to perfection without ever getting there. That is completely fine.

I've learned to seek wisdom rather than perfection since discovering the endless amount of personal flaws has destroyed any illusion of perfect. Still, I travel that road, whether it's driving or as a passenger. It's a good road, even when it never ends.

I've also learned not to let it grieve me.  We are all here to improve. Let's keep improving.

When we look into the mirror, let's not expect perfection. Let's not let disappointment cloud our days. Expecting perfection is not a flatterin…

You never know how influential you might be until you try to expand your influence. You never know when the smallest problem solving step might lead to an evolution of ever expanding and more effective steps. You might think you know, you might not. Expand it. Grow it. Get to know people and work on that problem.

When a problem is beyond your influence, build your influence.

-- doug smith

It may be a few less than 21 rules, because he does lose count, but the ones that he shares are pure gold and highly recommended for managing remote teams. It's longer than most videos we watch (just over 21 minutes) but if you manage virtual teams you will likely benefit from this advice.

Many are familiar, but I learned a few, such as:


The most important order of communication priority is: video, audio, chat, emailKeep a chat window open all the timeSet up a meeting rhythm -- a regular meeting time when everyone on the team MUST attend virtually (using a program like Zoom or GoToMeeting)Take advantage of overlapping hot zones of time -- convenient times to meet no matter what time zone a team member is inTest potential employees with short term work before hiring them for long term work (what TimeDoctor does is hire two party time team members expecting to choose the best of the two to become full time)Meet in person - a least annually schedule an all team in person meeting, and…

Do you know what your team's potential is? How about the potential of each of your team members? Potential is valuable. It tells you that you can keep going during tough times. It tells you that your capacity is wider than you imagined. Potential is fuel for success. You've got to tap into it, of course, and DO something -- but it is vastly available energy. How much energy?
If you imagine that everyone on your team has limitless potential you could be right.
I'm going with that notion -- how about you?
-- doug smith