doug smith training

Supervisors are asked to make more moves each day than a complicated game of chess. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you end up in what feels like a stalemate. But you keep on pushing, you keep on growing, and you keep on growing. Making the right moves, what I'd call the Royal Moves , requires training, experience, and an open mind. You need the open mind when the moves don't go exactly as you planned. Are you making the royal moves? Are your people growing, thriving, excelling, and delighting their customers? Are you making the royal moves? Is your own career developing in ways that challenge you and still bring a smile to your face? The royal moves keep you growing. It's deciding to plan more carefully so that the unexpected is not quite so unexpected. It's building the relationships that help you resolve inevitable disagreements. It's taking the time to coach your team members every day instead of letting administrative details pull

Have you ever seen steps to nowhere? Since I travel a lot, I occasionally see a building with stairs that appear to lead nowhere, at least no where safe. Access is only semi-blocked, so the danger exists even if the destination is sketchy. Does your team have a destination? Have you updated your team's mission this year? Things are changing so quickly that what may have seemed important as recently as a year ago could be out of date now (or soon.) Is your team up to date? Do you have a vision for a vital future? Avoid those stairs to nowhere. Plan a vital, energized, noble future for your team. Get them involved. Show them how a high performance leader leads. -- doug smith

Team building is great and can be a true morale booster -- if your team is ready for it. If the team morale is already low, though, a team building event might be the last thing you need. How do you know? Before scheduling a team building event, check to see how each team member would feel about it. That means spending time with each of them, one on one, to discover how things are going. How are the dynamics? Does everyone enjoy working on the team? What are the challenges and the issues? You could even introduce some low risk team building activities into your regular meetings. You don't need a zip line or trust falls in the wilderness to get closer as a team. Sometimes, just a warm-up question before a meeting is enough to start the bonding. Questions like "if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?" and "if money were no object, what would you do?" and "if you could make one fundamental, game-changing change to our bus

Your team can't do it all. I know how it feels to leave something undone, it's not fun. The harsh reality though is that we cannot do everything and neither can your team. That's why it is urgently important for you as a leader to let your team know what's most important. When you are clear about your absolute priorities, your team can focus on what matters most and finish the highest impact work. It's a choice. Energize your team around what's most important and then the unfinished unimportant tasks can be forgiven. Let them know. -- doug smith

From the Life Hack Bootcamp series featuring the cheerful and direct Demir & Carey comes this 13 minute video offering useful tips for creating teams that are productive and less stressed. You could call it Knowing When to Manage and When to Get Out of the Way. Good stuff!

When I attended a regular acting workshop in Denver, Colorado we would often play a game called Zip, Zap, Zoom which some people loved and some people found frustrating. Even though I had great success with most improv games, this game did not work as well for me. That's why I offer this alternative. Purpose: To experience the frustration of playing a winning or losing game and then finding ways to convert that to a win/win game in order to develop a creative habit of looking for mutually beneficial outcomes. Applications: Conflict resolution. Communication skills. Team building. Materials: A writing surface and markers. Dots, or stickers (several for each player) Process: Play the game, Zip, Zap, Zoom conventionally in the first round. Form a circle of people, up to twelve people (for larger groups, break into multiple circles). One person starts by looking at a person to their left and saying either zip or zap. If zip, the next person turns to the left and has th

Fast, affordable leadership training Here are four ways to develop your leadership skills now: Leadership tool box - Click on any of the labels for any entry on this site to find more useful content, much of which will contain suggested actions for developing your skills and leadership calls to action to prompt you.  Teleclass Appointments - You do not need to wait for a teleclass or webinar to be offered to sign up for it. Using our teleclass appointment system you can schedule the teleclass you want, when you want it. Just click here . Supervisors Coaching Calls - Attend our group coaching opportunity for front line leaders to discuss your leadership goals, action plans, insights, and challenges. Designed as a way to extend and apply the learning from previous workshops and teleclasses, but this coaching call is open to anyone who is working on developing leadership skills -- and for a limited time it's free! Register to participate here . Supervising for Success -

Successful leaders find ways to develop the talent on their team so that the tasks of leadership (mainly, management tasks to handle the day-to-day operation) can be shared with other team members. Until you can delegate you are stuck doing the same old tasks. Sharing the work frees up the team leader while also developing the team members. It's the right approach. Still, your team does need you. Even developing your team to the point where nearly every major task is handled by the team (even scheduling, delegating, assessing, interviewing...) the team leader provides a sense of direction not obtainable any other way. The team leader sets the tempo AND the temperature of the team. The team leader sparks the pulse, ignites the flame, defines the lines. Just because your team can function without you doesn't mean that your team can function without you. Stay in the game. Stay in the team. You are in charge. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action:  Success team

What does anyone get out of blaming anyone else? It's easy. It's even reflexive. It just doesn't help. Find the problem, identify the issues, and solve it. There's plenty of responsibility to go around. Work together as a team, and the team will work better together. Team members who give each other the benefit of the doubt do much better when stress intrudes than any team that finds it easy to blame. -- doug smith

Supervisors can't insist on everything. Your people have lives. Your people have limitations. You do want to get the most out of your team. You do that by making reasonable demands and framing somewhat ambitious yet achievable expectations. Push your people, don't break them. Inspire them without tiring them out. Building your team is a process. Some of it is in the group dynamics, and some of it is person by person. Give it your best, and see what you get from the rest. No one has to give their team everything as long as everyone give the team their best. -- doug smith

Which comes first, happy or productive? Many people will say that happy comes first, and that happy team members are more productive. I don't dispute that because I've seen it happen. Some of the best team members I've ever worked with brought an inner joy to their work that became contagious. They were more productive, and soon other team members around them were also more productive. I think that it is also true that productive team members are happier. It's possible to create more joy in the team when the people involved are highly trained, skillful, attentive, and focused on making customers delighted. The wonderful side effect to this great work is great joy. High performance leaders do what they need to do to create this great joy. It comes from knowing your team members, from helping them when they need it, from making sure that they have the help and resources that they need, and most of all, from appreciating their results AND their efforts. The bes

When was the last time your team changed? If you answered "today" or "about a minute ago" you are thinking the way that I'm thinking: your team is constantly changing. Every time you add someone to your team, it changes. Every time you say goodbye to someone from your team, it changes. Your team changes when you change a process, when you change a procedure, when you change a rule, when you change the schedule...on and on your team is a relentless mixture of change. The good news is that team leaders can influence that change. You have the opportunity to change in ways that makes your team better, faster, smarter. Your change is open to better change. Changing one person on a team could change the whole team. High performance leaders build constantly, change intentionally, grow patiently. They change on purpose, and so does their team. -- doug smith

Do you believe that you are appreciated enough? If so, you are probably lucky and have a healthy sense of self-esteem. Many people do NOT feel appreciated enough. Leaders often do a great job of applying pressure on their teams to achieve more. The results do improve. Does it matter how people feel about it? I think that it does matter. You can only push so long before the pushing leads to falling down. People can drift into being difficult because their lives have become difficult. The job is a big part of that. Too much pressure and release is unstoppable. That can make a person seem difficult. No one wants to feel taken for granted. We all crave appreciation. Some people crave far more than they ever receive, leaving a gap where something must fill the emptiness. That something could make the person seem troubling and difficult. It's hard to appreciate a difficult person, but until we do they are likely to stay difficult. -- doug smith

Which is more important to you as a leader, results or relationships? That's a trick question of course. You do not need to pick one or the other. In fact, high performance leaders focus on both and they start with relationships. Take care of your relationships and your results will improve. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Build the relationships on your team today. Spend at least part of your day having meaningful conversations with team members, one at a time.

Competition is useful. Usually, cooperation is better. Incentives have their value, internal motivation is massively more powerful. While high performance leaders DO focus on achieving their goals and delivering positive results, part of that is built around healthy relationships. Take the time to get to know your team members. Listen to their stories, their heart songs, their hardships, their views. When they achieve their goals, reward them with signs of your appreciation. And, when they consistently act as responsible adults within your relationships to achieve those results, show your appreciation. It doesn't need to cost any money. Sometimes a "thank you" is enough. We need healthy relationships to sustain trust. Without trust, a team member could be tempted to game the system in order to hit the numbers. That's not what you want. Sustain the relationships to keep the results both strong and ethical. Be careful about rewards that only recognize results.

Are you working on building your team? If you're not building your team, it is slowly falling apart. One of the best ways to build your team is to get to know your people. Spend time with them. Create deeper conversations. Talk about what's important to them. To be a better leader, get to know your people. -- doug smith

People make mistakes. High performance leaders and their teams find ways to learn from those mistakes AND to let go of the negative energy that mistakes can produce. Who needs the side-effects? What use is the guilt? High performance leaders inquire, listen, stay curious, and learn. There are likely more emotions and facts in play than you realize. By taking time to stay curious and learn, it's easier to understand what happened and take steps to do better the next time. And isn't that what we want? To do better the next time! Patience empowers forgiveness. Take a breathe. Practice patience. -- doug smith

This brief video poses the theory that in order to build an effective team it is important that the people on the team get along. Interpersonal dynamics are important. While this may seem obvious to anyone who has worked with many teams, it is still important. How well do the people on your team get along? What are the interpersonal behaviors that your teams needs and wants? Why not explore that idea at your next team meeting? It's cheaper than a retreat, requires no trust falls or zip lines, and might just be the best thing you do for your team this month. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Gather your team. Plan a substantial portion of your meeting (or maybe nearly all of a meeting) to asking your team members the following questions. Make sure that someone is capturing the answers on a group memory (white board or flip chart or similar display.) What interpersonal behaviors do you find most helpful when working with others? What habits or behaviors ar

How well do you know your team? Leaders spend a lot of time with their team members, but sometimes don't get to know them very well. If you asked them what their dreams were or what they thought about at night before they went to sleep, would it surprise you? High performance leaders expand their capacity of knowing their team. They learn what they don't know and explore at deeper levels what makes their team members excited, what makes them worried, and what makes them feel valued. When a leader can let the team members know that they are valued, their value increases. I don't know anyone as well as I think I do. I'm going to work at getting to know them better. How about you? -- doug smith