doug smith training

No matter how important goals are to us, we get busy and if we're not careful the urgent outflanks the important. Schedule time to work on your goal to make sure that you do work on your goal. The urgent stuff will still be there. It's the important stuff that you'll be remembered for. -- doug smith  

Great goals are tough. We don't remember the easy goals, but the tough goals change us.  Set a tough goal and then run with it hard.  The pursuit of a tough goal requires relentless dedication. Isn't that what you've been preparing for? -- doug smith  

This is probably get some disagreement. We've come to rely so much on one particular trait of business, probably even more than price. Convenience. We make so many decisions based on how EASY a transaction is. It's so much EASIER than ever before and we've all been spoiled by click-and-ship that anything with any friction whatsoever gets passed over. That's an understandable decision, but not always the best one. Convenience is great, but no substitute for quality. Hamburgers are convenient but wouldn't you rather eat a steak? (please excuse me my vegetarian and vegan friends.) Social media is convenient but how about the depth and richness of a long face to face conversation with a dear friend? I advocate that we consider other measures in our important decisions. Measures other than convenience: Quality Durability Care Beauty Drama What would you add to the list? Convenience is a poor measure of quality.  Let's consider everything else that makes business -- a...

Do you remember the first team that you served? All of the bright spots, a few of the duds? How about the next team? And the next? If we're leading at our best (not perfection but our best) and accomplishing wonderful things with our teams we should remember them forever, Maybe not every name and face, but most and in some clear detail. My best teams have felt like family. Some team members I'm in touch with thirty years later. Do teams right, and they'll change your life. You are going to remember your current team forever -- what will you do to make those memories satisfying? -- doug smith  

Maybe you inherited your team. Maybe your team just lost a key player. The game goes on. You've got to keep playing, keep producing, and keep developing your team.  Work with the team you've got. When you do, they will astound you. -- doug smith  

You can organize a team around your goals and you can also organize your goals around your team. Both are essential moves to your team's success. -- doug smith  

Can you solve every problem? Of course not. Some problems need more time, more resources, more miracles. Sometimes the best we can do as a leader is not to make things worse. Even if you can't solve a problem there's no reason to magnify it. Look at that problem from the viewpoint of someone who just doesn't care. Does it look different? Is it really a mountain or simply a molehill (of course, if you've ever had moles you know what kind of problem that is). Will any of it matter a year from now? If yes, get busy. If no, breathe? -- doug smith  

What we tell ourselves about how we serve determines largely how we serve. -- doug smith  

Problems are complicated. We need to think clearly about them, to analyze their causes. We also need to act quickly because, oddly or not, some solutions expire.  Sit, or move? Think, or act? This isn't a universal assertion, but maybe one with value:  the situation isn't entirely the problem, and the problem isn't entirely the situation. As closely as cause and effect may nest, there are likely other causes, other effects worth considering. It's a bit like widening the circle in a jam session. Yes, the new instruments complicate things, and yes, sometimes the notes are discordant, but oh! the miracle of the unexpected harmonies can make the how piece better. That's the situation. What if it existed before the problem, and needs to exist beyond the problem? We can sit with a problem without making that problem the entire situation. What do you think? -- doug smith  ps: The drawing is only partially related. It't a situation. It's a problem. I drew this danci...

Work your goals but make your goals serve you. No one needs a goal that makes them cranky. -- doug smith 

I remember getting a big let-down after a show would close, or a project would end, or a movie would wrap...anything really important that I'd been working on. All that work. All that focus. All that energy. And, then suddenly it's done. But that was then. That was too much focus on the outcome and not enough on the process. Because the end comes and goes, but the process can continue. The process of creating, of learning, of growing.  The best part of achieving your goals is enjoying the journey, and then you avoid any big left-down at the end. The journey, the process -- that's the joy. -- doug smith