Patience Takes Patience

If your boss is rough on you, that could affect how rough you are on your own people, but it should not. Leaders don't get to hand down the trouble. Abuse shared is multiplied, not diminished.

Having someone lose patience with you is no reason to lose patience with them. Centered leaders focus, breathe, and maintain. It's what you'd want, and therefore what to deliver.

-- doug smith

Lead for More Than Money

Money is important. High performance leaders must pay attention to money and how it effects their team. When you can, make sure that your team is positively impacting the larger organization's bottom line. That keeps you in the game.

And -- there's more. Much more. What is it about your team's work is transformational? How much are you improving the lives of others? Is your team helping to create a better world?

We can care about money and still be noble. We can focus on important areas such as service, helpfulness, safety, truth, happiness, heath, quality -- whatever it is that is there for your team to prosper, drive, and deliver on.

The bottom line is not the only line worth measuring. It's not even the most important.

Define your most important bottom line, and make money subordinate to that.

-- doug smith

Goals Are There For You

The trouble with assigned goals is that it's within our nature to avoid them. That's true even if YOU are the one assigning the goal.

The first question for any goal is: what is your motivation to achieve it? What will you get out of it? How will it make you feel?

If those answers come hard to you, it might not be a goal for you.

Question any goal that doesn't promise to make your life better.

-- doug smith

I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. To explore how we might work together, start the conversation in the comments below or contact me:

doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Embrace the Problem

You didn't ask for the problem, and yet it's here.
You could ignore the problem, and yet it's still here.

What if that problem is here for you to grow? What if you can make more of yourself by helping someone else?

A problem is a platform for your advancement.

Ready, set, go.

-- doug smith



I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. To start a conversation on how we might work together, contact me here: doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Are You Waiting for Permission?

Permission is a tricky thing. It can be important in an organization. Leadership has its needs, and one of those needs is order. Too much recklessness -- by the leader or the team, can lead to a chaos that spins out of control.

Get permission when you need it. Breaking rules will almost always catch up to you, and the price is always higher than expected.

But -- and this is an important condition to consider -- don't wait for permission when you don't need it. If you have been empowered to take action, take action! If you have discussed your strategic move with those affected and reached consensus, take action!

I've gone so far as to wait silently for permission, as if my boss could read my mind and anticipate the situation. How silly. Instead I've learned to take action.

Waiting for permission, when it is neither needed or implied, is wasting time. Let go of the fear and move. Cautiously, perhaps -- but move!

Don't let "waiting for permission" become an excuse.

-- doug smith

I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. If you would like to talk about how I could help you develop leadership in your self, your team, or your organization, you can set an appointment with me here.

Free Training Needs Analysis

Do you have leadership development needs?

Whether it is for yourself, your team, or your whole organization, we can help.

By answering a few questions on our Training Needs Analysis form and scheduling an appointment to chat with Doug we can identify the best, most direct, and most effective way to train you and your people.

The conversation usually takes about a half hour. After that you can decide your next steps. I'll be happy to make recommendations (and they don't always mean training with us -- if your needs call for using another source, vendor, or method I will be straight forward with that type of recommendation.)

To schedule a needs analysis phone call, start here.

-- doug smith

I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. To talk about your leadership development needs, contact me here.

Start With Yourself

Do you know a difficult person? Of course you do. We all do. Some people just make life harder than it needs to be. It's that person who misses the deadline, every time. It's the person who won't return your messages. It's the person who rolls their eyes when you speak in a meeting. You know one or more of them, I'm sure.

We can't fix them. Even high performance leaders can't fix difficult people because people are not processes or machines. We make funny noises. We stutter and moan. We grunt at customers when we should be patient and kind. But that's not how it needs to be.

We can make a difference. As leaders, we don't need to surrender to a bad day or even a bad moment. We're here to serve. Even difficult behaviors can spark better behavior of our own - habits we develop to better serve each other and so to also serve ourselves.

By taking care of ourselves. By taking those deep breaths when we need them. By developing a sense of perspective that tells us there is always something bigger and that this current situation is likely much smaller than it feels. We'll get thru this, we'll help that difficult person feel better about themselves and then about us, too. Maybe. Instead of taking difficult behavior personally, we can personally see that we do our best.

To make difficult people less difficult, start with yourself. That is something you can control.

-- doug smith

I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. You can schedule an appointment to talk about how we might work together here.