doug smith training

Everyone serves.  Some of us simply serve better than others. When companies treat customers poorly it's easy to see that as poor service to the customers. It also serves the company poorly. If there is not more to business than the bottom line, the bottom line will hit the bottom with a thud. Painfully. Sometimes rapidly. Everyone serves. We can serve devotedly or we can serve resentfully. When we serve with devotion -- to a higher cause, for a better world, because we like and love people, because we see that as the best way to lead with courage, clarity, creativity, and compassion -- then we enjoy the experience. Service brings us joy. When we serve with resentment -- the quality of the service suffers and there is no joy in it. Instead of the intrinsic satisfaction of service, of helping another human, we hold onto a low boiling anger that poisons the transaction, the relationship, and (gasp) ourselves. The work is the same, but the attitude is different. It's a mistake to ...

It's not easy. We'd probably prefer to just avoid it altogether. Evil enters when we're not looking at takes advantage of every hesitancy, every wrong move, every weak side-step. Strong leaders, centered leaders -- must be strong in the face of evil. If the only road to peace is to remove the evil, then do it. Accommodating evil will not make it cooperate. In the presence of true evil (not just disagreement but actual evil which does harm to others) we must confront. Confront with the courage to stand for what is right. Create solutions that do not create losers. Speak and act with compassion to and for everyone involved. Seek clarity in expectations and actions. All are useful, indeed necessary in the face of evil. The toughest one might be confronting that evil. But, what choice do we have? Calling something evil does not make it evil, but failing to recognize evil will cause you harm. -- doug smith  Reflection Questions: When did you successfully confront evil? What did ...

Identify your source of joy, apply it to your work, and your work becomes a source of joy. -- doug smith  

It's too late to perfect the past but it's not too late to learn a better future. Where is your next lesson taking you? What future are you working to create? -- doug smith  

 When we are frustrated it is tempting to say "no." When customers are unreasonable it is oh so easy to say "no." As a high performance leader and as someone who learns to balance clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion, you'll hold off on that "no" long enough to consider a useful "yes." A yes that will please your customer and you as well. A yes that builds a relationship bridge instead of constructing a negative wall of "no". Sometimes, instead of saying "no" we need to say what it would take for us to say "yes". You can always say "no" later if you need to. Keep that "yes" ready, though, and it will likely work out for the best. -- doug smith

How creative are you? How about your team. One of the best, most useful skills that I ever studied is improv. Well known as a method of live theater and comedy, improv also serves in navigating business and life. It builds resilience. It helps you think on your feet. It makes you fearless under stress (well, almost fearless...) When we learn to improvise we dramatically increase and improve our possibilities -- not just in improv, but also in everything we do. -- doug smith NOTES: Pictured: Child's Play Touring Theatre, with Doug (as the rooster) Victor Podagrosi (as the Chicken Farmer), June Podagrosi (as the chicken) and Martha Murphy-Smith. We had lots of fun and certainly made good use of our improv skills, performing stories, plays and poems by children.

Maybe it's not a paradox. Maybe it just feels counter-intuitive. Still, it seems to be true: To get more done, practice creating times when you get nothing done. Schedule down-town. Focus on not focusing. Let your mind wander and explore. Creative artists know that this works. It might feel disorienting at first, yet it does work. To get more done, sometimes you've got to do less. -- doug smith  

You don't have to create a family at work. Families come with their own difficulties and if you've ever worked in a family business you know all about that. People at work don't have to love each other, but they do need to respect each other. Communicating clearly and honestly is a start. Collaborating instead of competing helps. Do your job, jump in to help when you're needed, and keep supporting the team's mission and goals. You don't need to create a family at work to build a great team. What you need is clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion.  Great leaders create the atmosphere where those core strengths prosper. -- doug smith

Make room for creativity and watch how much it grows. -- doug smith  

  I've known people who are so creative that they not only let their imagination run wild, it gets them into trouble because they let it drive everything. If you run away to join the circus, you could end up being a clown. If that's your goal, then great. Just know the possibilities of an unregulated mind. You can allow your imagination to run wild without putting it in charge. Yes, we need creativity. Go for it often and with enthusiasm. And, we also need clarity: what are we trying to achieve. We also need courage: will you stay the course when you're challenged? And, we also need compassion: can you pursue your goals while caring about other people? Go ahead and think outside of the box -- just don't fall into a hole you can't crawl out of. -- doug smith

Is it possible to be too creative? Possible or not, many people fear that. They back away from radical innovation because it's scary. How can you know? How can you keep your creative juices in proportion to the juice available? How much is too much? More often than not, too much is not the issue. By holding back, by stepping fearfully, we are much more likely to settle for far too little. That's not for you, is it? That's not for me! And, yet, I don't want to over-do it, either! Yikes, what are we to do to create and maintain enough balance so that we have the creative energy to test the unknown without jumping off a cliff? It takes clarity. Clarity around a vision. Clarity around solid values. Clarity around current priorities.  Clarity gives us the guardrails we need to know how much is too much. Touch on that clarity. Develop that clarity. Rely on that clarity and fear diminishes.  Creativity balanced with clarity bridges the possible and impossible.  There may not b...

Creativity and discipline are not mutually exclusive, they are mutually dependent. To rely on both, develop both -- creativity to light the fire and discipline to keep it lit. --  doug smith  

Have you ever had one of those days when you just couldn't find your mojo? You know what I mean? That flow, that creative spark, that mojo that lights you up and helps you find your way to the end of a project? I'm a huge fan of creativity because it helps me in times like that. Rather than worry if what I'm working on is the "best thing ever" or maybe just an incomplete mess, getting started just takes getting started. Get it going and then fix it in the mix. Maybe it comes from working in movies when the most common phrase is "back to one" meaning try again, that just didn't work -- or try again, maybe we can get it better. We can always get it better, but we've got to get it started first. Maybe it comes from being a musician and knowing that it takes tons of practice to get a piece right. I'd love for it to be perfect the first time around, but not only is it never perfect -- it takes many times around. Your flow may take a few times arou...

Is your team creative? When you need to solve a problem, does the team create lots of possibilities? Rather than lock in on what is already in motion, what if you found something completely new, completely different? Possibilities open us up. Curiosity gets us closer to what we haven't been able to see before. Answers to deep questions, solutions to problems, resolutions to long-standing conflict, innovative products and services -- all come from opening the door to possibilities.  Create more possibilities, create more success. -- doug smith

Nobody is perfect. Especially, leaders who are managing big problems and dealing with difficult situations. That's not an excuse, it's a reality. Insisting on perfection will lead to disappointment. Disqualifying based on imperfection disqualifies all. A bigger question is, "can we tolerate the level of imperfection?" Another better question is "have that leader's shortcomings clouded and neutralized (or even reversed) their strengths?" We must not let our shortcoming devour our strengths.  We're better off rising on our strengths. To do that, we must never let our shortcoming prevail. Rise on clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion.  Rise. -- doug smith

I get stuck on an idea and the more I think about it, the more I like that idea. Is that the best strategy? Not as an exclusive approach to decision thinking because what if that idea is flawed? It's better to get some more thinkers in the mix. A little disagreement can test an idea before the idea has a chance to test you. Leaders need diverse thinkers to help them expand their limited perception. When we're wrong we don't even know it unless someone else opens our mind. Keep that mind open. That next idea might be much better. -- doug smith  

What do you need in order to lead? Does it take a title? Authority? Election or selection to be chosen the leader? While all of that helps, it's not what you need most. You don't need permission to lead, but you do need strength of character demonstrated with courage, clarity, creativity, and compassion. Start with a foundation of those core strengths, and the rest will be easier.   -- doug smith

You've heard it so many times you could be tired of the expression: color outside the lines. I'm all for creativity, but let's face it, boundaries are also important. Sometimes a leader needs to make those boundaries clear and certain and keep things within those boundaries. The art of developing leadership includes some lines we need to color inside.  Knowing what those lines are is part of our job, especially when they change. It can feel like a paradox, but high performance leaders must balance clarity and creativity.  -- doug smith

What makes something creative?  Is it distinctive? Are new ideas involved? Could it be considered disruptive? Does it bring joy, inexplicable joy, to you without knowing why? Some people might think of creativity as magic -- it explodes from inspiration like a spell you can never tell is on the way. It shines, it radiates, it presents itself beyond anyone's control. Or does it? Creativity certainly does pal around with inspiration, but it is much more than that. Creativity requires practice, skill development, work. It's not something like being left-handed that you are simply born with and enjoy. Unless you consider everyone is born creative and we either develop it or not. Creativity has so much mystique, and so much appeal, that people love to claim it. I'm in favor of claiming your creativity, but it does take more than that. If you see a company or initiative and it has "creative" in the title, do you automatically assume that it is creative? I'm not so s...

  Have you ever imagined something so much or so strongly that you believe it's happened, even when it hasn't?  Like a dream, a creative endeavor takes on a quiet life of its own. We see it. We feel it. We're sure we did our work to make it happen.  But if we didn't do the work, it didn't happen. That's why some  writers will not talk about a piece they're working on: if they talk about it too much, it already feels complete, and it's NOT. Our minds are wonderful, and sometimes they're funny. We can do that with "facts" as well. Our own inner bias convinces us that a particular view is true, even in the face of contrary evidence. We see that all over these days. What we imagine to be true sometimes gets in the way of what is actually true. It's the job of a true high performance leader to know the truth, to tell the truth, and to lead with the truth. Leaders who don't, don't deserve to be leaders.  -- doug smith