doug smith training

How flexible is your perspective? Once we form a vision of what we think is true, it's so easy to stick with that view. Right or wrong, that view is incomplete. We omit important details. We add our preferences to our references and develop a distinctive mix.  As nice as that feels, it is also constraining. Flexibility allows for flow. Openness questions the certain to detect the incorrect. Perspective flexibility is our friend. It's not always easy to change the way you look at things, but it always helps. -- doug smith

  How flexible are your beliefs? Not so flexible that you consider switching to unethical or illegal choices, I hope. Flexible enough that you aren't codified in place. Flexible enough that you are willing to consider other people's ideas and, yes even beliefs. Your belief system is flexible so why not make it work for you? It's a simple way of expanding your possibilities. -- doug smith Notes: "Wait, is that a reference to the matrix?" "What do you think?" "I asked you first." "It depends on what you believe." "I believe that you meant it to refer to that movie..." "If it helps. But no, that's not what I meant. We aren't sleeping. We aren't living in a dream. We aren't extremely inefficient batteries keeping our robot lords alive. We're people who make choices every day and those choices are sometimes limited by what we believe." "How do you know what you believe is true?" "Exact...

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 are you good at? Really, really good at? What can you do that is absolutely wonderful? How many people know about that? Here's a tricky trick - how do you do your best, give your best, and let other people know about it without letting your ego take over? We have many essential leadership skills to choose from. I find it useful to think of these five essential leadership core strengths as a place to start: Clarity - know exactly what our purpose is and setting clear goals to live that purpose. Courage - speaking and acting assertively without getting aggressive. Creative - discovering and expanding our possibilities Compassion - caring about and for others Centering - staying mindful, in the moment, flexible, and able to use whatever core skill we need You're really good at one of those. Better than most. It's your core leadership strength. Bringing that core leadership strength to work with your team is doing it a wonderful service. The world needs wha...