doug smith training

Circumstances might impose. Problems may arise. Difficulties will surely appear. How you deal with them starts with how you feel about them. Do you belief you can solve that problem? Do you think your team is capable of the challenge? Will your customers value you enough to compensate you fairly? Does ethical behavior pay off in the end? Some things you DO decide. Your beliefs, for example.  Your beliefs are up to your. Pick the ones that make a positive difference. -- doug smith  

It's a choice, most of the time. You do know which choice feels better and delivers better results. When in doubt, go positive. The trouble with being pessimistic is that you could prove to yourself that it is as bad as it seems.   Why not stay positive? -- doug smith

The goal is there to help you grow. To get from one place to another? Sure. To improve your lot in life? Absolutely. Primarily, beyond the benefits that you can touch, the goal is there to help you grow. Let's keep growing. -- doug smith

Are you a life long learner? I'm going to guess that you are. Life long learners stay in learning mode long after it feels like they should have all the answers. We never really have all the answers, and besides the questions keep changing!  One added bonus to project work is that each project provides ample learning opportunities. There's nothing quite like experience as a teacher. And, there's nothing quite like teaching your team how to meet your project expectations to teach yourself a bunch more. Projects bring about growth. I like to think of each project as another step to what I'm becoming. One project to the next your character -- and story -- grows. Let's keep growing. -- doug smith  

Have you ever had so many projects that you can't even keep them all straight, much less figure out when they'll get done? So many people struggle with over-reach. They take on more projects than they have time or attention span to handle. While it is great to be ambitious, we've got to keep our workload under control to be at our best. There is a limit to how much we can do. Sure, we can always do more -- but for how long? At what level of quality? There's nothing quite like making room on your plate by consuming what's already there. Get it done. Clear the path. Re-focus. One project's end gives you room for the next project. Finish that project and THEN move ahead. -- doug smith

  Who is going to help you achieve that big goal? My tendency and temptation is to do it all myself -- but it doesn't have to be that way. We can recruit the people we need to get to the next level. All we need to do is share and take care: share our noble goal with enthusiasms and take care that anyone we ask for help will also benefit.  Every goal has a team if you recruit team members. Who do you need on your team? -- doug smith

Plans often have missing pieces you can't find until you start working your plan. Ideas need actions. Act relentlessly on your plan.  -- doug smith

Do you ever feel disconnected from a goal? I think the key is in knowing what motivates you to achieve the goal. If the answer is nothing, maybe that's a fair assessment of your goal. It's always a choice. When we don't like our goals we can form new ones. Better goals, rooted by strong values, lead to better choices. -- doug smith

It's intuitive, and yet we forget. It's natural, and yet we surrender. We have the ability to stick to what is truly important and not give up. How much do you want it? How hard are you willing to work? How convinced are you in the nobility of your work? When you are committed, when you are convinced, the convincing becomes easier.  Persistence prevails over resistance. Keep going. -- doug smith

We can't do everything. Choices can be difficult, especially when different customers have different needs. Confusion will only slow us down. I find it helpful to get specific. To narrow things down. To clarify expectations and then commit strongly to a goal. The most powerful goals eliminate confusion. What's your goal for today? -- doug smith

Every goal is an opportunity to improve your life and your character. Because if you improve your life without improving your character, it can all easily fall away. I try to ask myself "who else is this goal good for in addition to me?" and if the answer is "no one" it's not a goal I have any energy for. Help yourself by helping others and the help never ends. Help yourself at the expense of others and the resistance is unrelenting. How about this as a humble suggestion for a goal: Serve others as we grow I know it's not too specific but as a guideline it has great potential. What do you think? -- doug smith  

Why do leaders get into trouble? Surely, there's enough for a book in that one question. Still, it's worth asking on an individual level. How do we as leaders avoid trouble? How do we stop ourselves from falling into our own self-shaped traps? There are pit falls just our size waiting for us, and very often we march right into them as if we were indestructible. Like that skateboarder going down the hill in the center of a highway, forgetting that someone else might not see them. Like that not-for-profit executive who makes a million dollars off of the donations of others. "But I'm doing good!" they exclaim. Or, like that little lie we tell to prevent ourselves from an otherwise awkward moment of explaining why we didn't achieve a goal. Awkward indeed. Our personal distortions, if we're not careful, get us into trouble. And when we are leaders our troubles become the troubles of others. Trouble yourself all you want, but please be careful of those who trust...

If your big goals is really a series of twenty-five little goals, the sooner you get started on those little goals the sooner those goals will add up to that one big goal. -- doug smith

During a webinar that I was facilitating, one of my participants, David Palmore, quoted a former boss of his and it makes so much sense I just have to share it here: It's a supervisor's job to remove obstacles and excuses. -- Mark Howard It's so easy to find excuses - "they won't listen anyway," "it's above my pay grade," "I'm not good enough for that..." and yet what do excuses ever give you?  You don't have to think too long on that because the answer is nothing. Maybe less than nothing because excuses take away opportunity. We're not always fully equipped to do the job we need to do. We often lack resources needed to achieve our biggest goals. People push back and give us second thoughts. There are walls everywhere. But we can climb those walls. We can dig under those walls. We can go around those walls. And, when we need to we can pound thru those walls. No wall is worthy of an excuse, and no excuse is as tough as a wall...

  I've been in business long enough to see a boatload of decisions made based on money. Will it help profits, will it reduce expenses, will it keep us afloat? What if there's something deeper? What if there's a meaning that can't be deciphered using dollars? What if by finding that meaning the significance of the dollars fades away? Just because it's always about the money doesn't mean that it's all about the money at all. There is always much more... -- doug smith

It's not rejection if the other person did not understand your request. -- doug smith 

  Perfection is a direction, not a destination. -- doug smith

Find meaning in this moment. That's where the meaning is. -- doug smith 

Do you believe everything that you believe? Every once in a while it's useful to question what we believe. When we take all of our beliefs for granted, they can outlive their usefulness. Not the core beliefs -- but the seemingly insignificant ones that stand in your way, beliefs like "luck is for the lucky," and " it's too late to make a difference now," and "if I can't convince someone I have to just go ahead and do it anyway..." Our heads are filled with stories we've heard over and over, we've told ourselves over and over, so many times that they rattle around on auto-pilot taking us to places we don't want to go anymore. We've inherited many stories that do us no  good. It's OK to let them go, -- doug smith  

People won't always listen, even when they want to. Leadership requires more patience than you expected. -- doug smith