doug smith training

The art of leadership is increasing your creativity, courage, compassion, and clarity every single day. What are you developing today? -- doug smith

Are you searching for more possibilities? Are you generating more ideas? There could be more possible ways to solve your problem than you will ever think of, so keep thinking, keep exploring. Possibilities equals power. -- doug smith

Don't let anyone or anything stop you from being creative. It's power you have to use to make things better and achieve your goals. Sure, it sometimes might aggravate people. It might cause some people to bristle at having to look at things a new way. It's important. Stay with it. Creativity will get you out of more trouble than it ever gets you into. -- doug smith

As a bonus, I finally learned how to pronounce this author's name. As a practical use of 8 minutes this is hard to beat - a great video with fascinating visuals and an easy to understand summary of a book that's not an easy read. I'm sharing it so of course I can remember to watch it again later. It's also time to read the book again. Here's the video: Four Important Factors: Focus Freedom Feedback Four % Challenge It's well worth checking out the other quality material available at The Productivity Game .

Our leadership strengths are like muscles. The more we use them, the more we apply them to situations, the stronger our strengths become. How many problems could stand up to you using all of your clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion? Use your leadership strengths. Develop your leadership skills. Solve those problems and achieve those goals with the ease and elegance that you deserve. -- doug smith

Purpose: Open up new possibilities in solving problems and achieving your goals. Identify opportunities to apply your gifts and the gifts of your team to problems and opportunities. Materials: Blank Index cards. Preparation: Create two decks of cards. One set of cards contains personal gifts and strengths, such as courage, creativity, clarity, compassion, centeredness, influence, charisma, passion, etc. The other set of cards contains current problems or opportunities that could be addressed using your strengths. Process: Each person draws a card from each of the two decks and explores whether the gift and opportunity match for them, or whether they match someone else in the room. Describe how whoever has that gift might help meet that opportunity or solve that problem by effectively using that gift. Other participants award points: 1 point for a reasonable explanation, 2 points for a creative and effective explanation, 10 points for an explanation and commitment to app

Have you painted your masterpiece yet? Have you utilized your gifts to their fullest and produced something that will last? High performance leaders consider their legacy as they work and build toward a future where that work is remembered. I am thrilled by how much we as leaders can integrate our various skills into the work of leading. It's all connected. Find ways to connect what you love with what you do and you will always love what you do. As a trainer and consultant, I am constantly finding new ways to blend my enthusiasm for the arts into my work. Maybe it's a song, maybe it's a collage, maybe it's a bit of acting in a story that I tell -- it's all part of the tapestry of the work. I may not have painted my masterpiece yet, but I am practicing every single day. How about you? -- doug smith Corner Office - collage by doug smith

I'm not a good dancer. I used to think that I was, but then I figured out that it was my partner who was such a good dancer that she could also make me feel like a good dancer. It was wonderful. And, when I realized later, when she'd moved on to a new partner, that I was NOT such a good dancer, at first I wanted to stop dancing. It was so disappointing. It was all just an illusion. And then, I realized. It didn't matter. There are degrees of dancing. Somewhere there are people who dance even better than my former partner. Somewhere there are people who can hardly dance at all. No matter where we start, in dancing or in leading, we can always level up. Start where we are and get better. And, realize that the dance is not about us at all anyway. The dance is, and always has been, about your partners. Your creative muse likes to dance. It will open up new roads to you. It will light you up and allow blood to flow to the places that make you tingle. Listen to that muse

Chaos may spark creativity. Order makes it useful. -- doug smith

Creativity, like leadership, requires us to stretch. To be at our most creative we must grow. Since we are surrounded by limitations, that can cause some discomfort. Which boundaries should we cross? Which lines are mental and which are metal? How do we create without getting hurt (or worse, hurting?) I'm not sure. Maybe that's the wrong question. Maybe the question is -- what limits should we ignore today? What limits should we buck against and stretch? If a limit is telling you that you are NOT creative -- ignore it. If a limit is telling you that you cannot grow -- defy it. If a limit is telling you that the world doesn't need your creativity -- laugh it off. The world needs you. The world needs your creativity. The world needs you at your creative best. The creative life pushes against limits. Keep pushing. -- doug smith

We are about as creative as we want to be. We may know people who seem much more creative. We may situations when we ourselves felt more creative. Still, creative is a choice. How you live your life is also a choice. Why not choose a creative life? Creative in what you do and how you do it. Creative in how you think. Creative in how you solve problems and achieve your goals. Creative. The creative life is a choice that you make. Let's make that choice. -- doug smith

It's easy to get distracted. Screens call out to us everywhere. Even a once peaceful wait in a reception area is now punctuated by a wide-screen TV. Heads down, we miss opportunities. Eyes locked on a screen, we miss the people around us. That screen might spark a little creativity in you but most of the time it might also be standing in the way. Let your mind wander. Pay attention to your surroundings. Let nature spark a little creativity in you. Flow with that creativity and give it your full attention. Not just a second, not just a moment, but your full attention. Creative notions have a habit of dissipating if we don't focus on them, pay attention to them, keep them alive. The creative life is not a part-time creative swipe. The creative life is rich, deep, and full AND very jealous of screen time. It would rather have you spend time being creative. The creative life wants your full attention. How are you doing with that? Creative Actions Take a wa

Everyone needs a little affirmation once in a while. Here are some quick creative affirmations for you. Creativity is my middle name! When my friends think of me they no doubt think of me as being creative I can develop my creativity in a million ways My creativity is unlimited! -- now, go create something wonderful! -- doug smith

You deserve a day of creativity -- and you are well-equips to bring it on! These are for you: I know creativity when I see it because I am filled with creativity! However creative I have ever been has been just enough and now I can do more! I can create on my own and I can create in collaboration -- my creativity is my choice. No one can EVER talk me out of my creativity! Creative stuff is about to happen! -- great for you! Now go get creative! -- doug smith

The creative life shakes hands with your better self, your happy self, your complete yet untapped potential self - a quick and colorful and powerful entity of sensational art. Living, walking, breathing creativity in the moment, in all moments, for ourselves, and for everyone. -- doug smith

Have you ever been fooled into following what you thought was your creative muse only to discover that it was an excuse for bad behavior? There's nothing about anti-social or criminal behavior -- nothing -- that makes a person creative. It's possible to feel a sense of excitement from danger that may feel like a burst of creativity, but don't be fooled. Your true creative muse, your resident inner artist, the creator within the creator, would never do harm intentionally in the name of artistic license or creative freedom. We are all creative, we are all valuable, we must all take care to take care of each other.  Thrills, selfish inclinations, and power seeking sinfulness can all mask as a creative impulse but they are poor imitators indeed. Artists can easily differentiate these imitators from their real muse when they take the time to assess, and then apply, and then live by a set of noble values. The creative muse in not a thing, or an impulse, or even a spirit. Th

Creativity gives you a lot and needs a little from you in return. It's not completely free. It needs creative people to stay positive, curious, and pro-active. See the possibilities. Wonder what would happen if...or when...or how...and then experiment. Play! Take action. Move things. Mix things up. Staying positive helps you to deal with the inevitable challenges you will face to your own creativity. Staying curious helps you to look for the nugget of gold in a sea of sand; to seek the fascinating detail in a swarm of noise and to act on that curiosity while being pro-active and innovating -- to put your hands to work at creating. Creativity is worth the effort. What will you be positive, curious, and pro-active about today? -- doug smith

I like this creativity quote from Peter McWilliams: "When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on Earth. So what the hell, leap! -- Peter McWilliams

Do you like to dance? Do you skillfully combine the carefully practiced steps that let your partner know where you are going and let you flow effortlessly with other dancers? Do you respond to dancing nuances, new leads, new ideas for leads? It takes more than a life time to master and yet your ability to execute on the physical requirements of the skill and knowledge you acquired diminishes as you age. Is that the end of your dancing? The creative muse can keep its distance, like a stranger dancing with you for the first time, scoping you out. In the more than a life time that it takes to fully actualize your creative muse your physical (and perhaps mental) abilities may slow and degrade but the dance is most decidedly not over. The true dance has just begun. Flow with the one who brought you, go as far as you can with what you still hold and then dig, dig, dig, until you've dug a new way, a new dream, a new way to dance. Build more time, energy, skills, knowledge, d

Are you in good physical shape? Do you know how it feels when your muscles are strong, exercised, and flexible? Have you felt that way today? You play the major role in determining the fitness of your muscles. Left ignored and under-utilized, the muscles become less effective. Neglected long enough, they can even atrophy. The creative muse likes activity. It conditions, like a muscle, under exercise and nutrition. It responds with ever greater efficiency and effectiveness the more that it is exercised. Have you exercised your creative muscles today? -- doug smith