doug smith training

Energize your problem solving team today, tomorrow, and everyday. Not sure how? Ask them how. They know. -- doug smith

Energize your team by keeping your goal both challenging and fun. -- doug smith

High performance leaders spend much of their time coaching their people. We coach so that our team members can learn to generate the energy and effort they need to do their best work. We coach so that our team members will light up. But, sometimes, the light within our team members wanes. Sometimes, they need a boost. Sometimes they need us to light the way for them. Bring the light. Light the way. Keep them on track. Then, watch them shine. -- doug smith

If we don't share what motivates us we shall certainly share what de-motivates us. Energize yourself to energize your team. -- doug smith

How energized is the team that is working on your biggest goal? No team? What will it take to interest others in your goal? Isn't it worth the time, the effort, the energy to get as many people involved as it will take to achieve your biggest and most noble goal? It starts with focus. Keeping your focus on that wonderful outcome. Identifying your true mission. Aligning your efforts with all of your work. Give people focus, and the energy to drive that focus appears. A brilliant idea is irresistible. Let people know your brilliant ideas. We create energy with our focus.  And energizing your team is a critical part of achieving your goals. -- Doug Smith

How much attention are you giving your team? One of the toughest lessons I learned when I was a beginning supervisor was to give my people enough attention. The struggling performers need attention. The superstars need challenges and support. Everyone on the team needed something, even when (especially when) they didn't make those needs clear. High performance leaders find ways to give each team member the attention needed. Attention is useful. Attention is immediate. Attention is critical. Attention is the sincerest form of energizing your people.  Energize your team. Give them the attention that they need. What's the best and easiest way to do that? Talk about it. Initiate conversations with each team member. Take the talking just a little deeper than usual. Talk about what matters. Ask how they feel. Listen to their hopes, their goals, their motivations. That kind of attention is pure magic. -- Doug Smith

Do you have all the help you need to achieve your biggest goals? Do you have big goals in place that will change your life? How will you achieve those goals? Our really biggest, life-changing goals usually require help. Help from other people to keep us on track. Help from other people to motivate us when things get tough. Help from other people to break down barriers and think of creative ways to achieve what seems impossible. What will it take to interest more people in your goals? People who can help. People who would benefit from what you have to offer once your goal is complete. People who care. Is is a presentation? Is it a conversation? Is it a picture? What will it take? And - when will you get started? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:   High Performance Leadership Training doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals

How motivated is your support team? Are the people you are counting on to help when help is needed fully prepared to do that to achieve your goals? It's easy to lose track of our support team. Aren't they there to support us? The reality is that our support team also needs our support. We must keep them informed. We must keep them interested. We must keep them curious. If you want to achieve your goals, energize your support team. You do want their help, don't you? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High performance leadership training doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals

Do other people understand and support your biggest project? I sometimes take for granted that people who should care about my project do care about my project. It's not that easy. People need to know about what's going on. They need to be involved. They need to connect with the creative reasons for even doing the project. And, they need to understand the benefits to a project. Just because you take your project seriously doesn't mean that anyone else will -- unless they have a reason to. Do you know the reasons why people should take your project seriously? -- Doug Smith

How many people know about your most important goal? Here's why it makes sense to tell more people about your goals: - It helps find people who are eager to help you - Talking about your goals gives you new ideas on how to achieve them - Once your goals are known you feel more accountability - People can help you figure out how to solve the problems you will encounter It's safe to keep our goals to ourselves. That way, if we don't achieve them there's no one to ask what happened. But that way, we are less likely to achieve them. Who needs to know about your goals? Will you tell them today? -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership: High Performance Leadership Training

How do you feel, after doing someone a big favor or  completing a difficult task, when they simply say "thanks, I appreciate that..."? For me, it's not enough. Appreciate what, exactly? And, does that mean you'll be expecting it again? Instead of saying "I appreciate that" it is greatly upgraded when we add specifics about what we're thankful for and describe exactly how it helped. Expressing specifically what was so good, and how it helped let's people know we understand the importance of it. No one wants to be taken for granted, and simply saying thanks is really light-weight in response. Let's do better. Let's do more. Let's be specific, authentic, and sincere. People like specific, heart-felt appreciation. If you want to energize your team, how about letting them know that you care - specifically. How can you enhance the quality of your appreciation for others today? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  Training Supe

Have you ever noticed that one of the toughest parts to solving a problem is getting people to adapt the solution? We just don't like to change. Sometimes our solution feels tougher than living with the problem. The discipline of doing something differently, and better, is challenging. Some of the biggest problems have the easiest of solutions. The challenge is influencing people to change. What are your easy answers? What do you think prevents people from doing those changes? How can we influence them quickly and collaboratively? Answer those questions successfully, and lots of problems melt away. -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership: High performance leadership training doug smith training: how to achieve your goals

You probably already have reports in place for your project. How certain are you about your project's progress? Is it moving as fast as you want it to move? Are you energizing your team with the progress your project makes? A project without progress is begging for attention or closure. If it was scoped correctly, planned carefully, and resourced properly your project should be making significant progress. People need to see that progress. People need to feel that progress. If the energy has drained out of the progress, it's time to make a decision: ramp up the energy, or shut down the project. What's your choice? -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your project goals

Does it ever feel like your project has one problem too many? Just when you're about to solve one problem another pops up and keeps you from your goal. Just when we seem to have everything under control something else slips out of view and into trouble. One problem too many just means that it's time to find the help you need. Maybe someone on your project team has the answer. Maybe your project sponsor knows what to do. Maybe the customer has an idea that will take ten problems off the table and help you focus on the goal. Asking for help not only gets you closer to solving those project problems but it also energizes your team. The help is out there. We just need to ask. -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your project goals

How do you energize your goals? How about your team? Whether or not our goals have formal teams working on them, we do benefit from the help of other people. I like to consider those helpful other people as part of my goal achieving team. For people to help on our goals we need to energize them. Inspire them. Engage them. Involve them. When we give our team energy that gives our goals energy. There are lots of ways to energize those goal-teams, including: Talking about the goal Thanking people for how they have already helped Staying curious about how the goal is useful to the team members Explaining how the goal is part of a larger mission Sharing your action plan Asking for help That's just a start, but it's a good start. The team won't stay energized on its own. The owner of the goal has to help. When you give your energy to goals your energy is multiplied. Your team provides the best source to that math. Energize your team, and they'll ener

Do you tend to focus on facts, or emotions? Some people focus mainly on the facts and care very little about emotions. If the answer is logical, if the data supports it, that's enough. For others, it must feel right. So what if the facts prove a point, if it's not good for people what good is it? Both facts and feelings are important. That's why a key part of what I call CLUES to Success relies on understanding both the facts and the feelings of any interaction. Both matter. Appeal to logic but always remember to move emotions. We've all got emotions, whether or not we show them or talk about them. If you want to achieve your goals and solve your problems, remember to check the facts AND move those emotions. It's half the opportunity, and a half that you don't want to lose. What emotions do you think are part of your most important goal? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  Training Supervisors for Success doug smith training:  how to achieve

Do your strengths ever go to far? Doesn't it seem like anything taken to the extreme becomes too much of a good thing, becomes less than a good thing? It's the assertive person who becomes aggressive. It's the accommodating person who becomes passive aggressive. It's the peaceful person who stands by and let's bad things happen. It's the warrior who rebels against authority until all order is gone. It's taking things too far. Our greatest strengths tend to expose our greatest weaknesses. We compensate. We transfer. We blame other people. And relying only on our strengths can start to make extremes seem reasonable. Exposing our weaknesses is not all bad. It provides opportunity. It sparks conversation. It humbles us just when we are at most risk of acting in narcissistic ways. I've learned to embrace my weaknesses, not for the sake of keeping them but to avoid rationalizing them. To work on them. To find help from others and manage the extre

Who knows about your true vision? Not some slogan, tag line, or inherited mission given to you by someone you don't even know, but rather your true vision. What you see as the reason you are here. What you hope, plan, and expect to accomplish in your lifetime. That's a big one, isn't it? Big because it requires thought and effort and big because as we form our vision we may have absolutely no idea how to accomplish it. If it's too easy it's not a vision, it's just an incremental goal. A vision is tough work. Why go at it alone? Why not get the help you'll need to bring that vision about? Why not find out if that vision even makes any sense (the world probably already has enough Don Quioxotes tilting at windmills out there). A vision is only as powerful as those who share it. Build your vision with your allies. Develop your vision with your friends. Create your vision with your mentors. Get the help you need. You'll need it. -- Doug Smith

Have you ever worked with a team member who fell just short of their intended performance even though they did everything in their power to achieve it? They're willing, they're motivated, they just ran into some challenges. Wouldn't you rather work with someone like that than someone who effortlessly hits their target but cares very little about it? Where is the better opportunity for growth? Who is the more likely better investment in your time? When you can't celebrate the result, celebrate the intention. And then push hard for improvement. It's so easy for someone to become discouraged. Find out how hard they are trying and celebrate that. Focus on the goals and the next possible steps for achieving them. Because sometimes, to someone else, that person could be you. -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership: Training Supervisors for Success

Do you have a problem that won't go away on its own? Have you scheduled time to solve it? I've made the mistakes of pretending that a problem will simply vanish on its own. Maybe it will solve itself. Maybe if I wait long enough it won't be a problem anymore. What do you think of that as a goal achieving strategy? It's not the most consistently winning approach. Your goal has problems. If its big enough, ambitious enough, creative enough - it's got problems. You know it. Your team knows it. Maybe even your customers know it. How will you solve it? Even if everyone knows about a problem someone needs to schedule time to solve it. It takes discipline. It takes initiative. It takes giving the problem what it's asking for: time and attention. What problem can you schedule time to solve today? -- Doug Smith doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership:  Training Supervisors for Success