doug smith training

How you grow is up to you, but you can learn a lot from how others have already grown. You can skip many of the same mistakes. You can build where they have established a foundation. You can grow by developing similar healthy habits. Growth never needs to stop. How are you growing today? -- doug smith  

How resilient are you? Would your team say the same thing? So many times in life (and in leadership) I have been disappointed. Whether it was circumstances, scarcities, or troubling people, it felt easy to give up.  But even when the cards seem stacked against you -- even when defeat seems certain -- if you persist you will learn far more than you ever thought possible. I remember a time long ago when as a high school coach for a middle school basketball team, drawing a bunch of inexperienced and un-developed players and doing my best to coach them beyond their perceived weaknesses into an enthusiastic team capable of embracing of who we were -- rank underdogs who were surrounded by supremely talented teams who always won more games than us until the playoffs came, the games mattered more, and somehow we managed to hustle our way to a trophy. It was fun, but just before it became fun it was a lot of hard and sometimes discouraging work. When in your life do you remember overcoming ...

Aren't you glad that you are past your mistakes? Oh you, and I, will certainly make more mistakes but hopefully we are long past who we used to be. Character grows from doing the right things. Wisdom grows from learning from your mistakes. Whoever we once were, it's our job to grow beyond that into someone better. Grow. Keep growing. Set and work on goals that push you onward. Grow so much that who you used to be scares you.  Because who you are becoming is so much better, and you just barely escaped what was. -- doug smith

Are you a life long learner? I'm going to guess that you are. Life long learners stay in learning mode long after it feels like they should have all the answers. We never really have all the answers, and besides the questions keep changing!  One added bonus to project work is that each project provides ample learning opportunities. There's nothing quite like experience as a teacher. And, there's nothing quite like teaching your team how to meet your project expectations to teach yourself a bunch more. Projects bring about growth. I like to think of each project as another step to what I'm becoming. One project to the next your character -- and story -- grows. Let's keep growing. -- doug smith  

Have you ever had a leader who kept trying to push you out of your comfort zone? Kept trying to get you to do more than you'd ever done before and try things that are, frankly, scary? I sure have. And truth be told, didn't like it much at the time. A great boss is supportive, which we like, AND also challenging, which we might not be so happy about. The growth does happen, though, outside of our areas of ease. To stretch, we need to move those muscles.  The hope of a high performance leader is that we'll move those muscles so much that they grow stronger. The goal is to grow so much that our former team looks like the glimmer of promise that our future team becomes: faster, stronger, smarter, better. The growing zone takes us far, far beyond our comfort level. What if we pushed ourselves so far out of our comfort zone that we never came back?  What are you doing today to stretch yourself or your team? -- doug smith

Do you ever get nostalgic? Do you ever wish that you could do something the way you once did, or be that person again? Guess what? You can't. I can't. (and while I miss that 1966 Impala Supersport I once had, I don't think I miss the pants I was wearing back then...) We can never be who we used to be. We have to keep growing. We have to keep learning. And, when we set new goals and head for new horizons, who we used to be matters a whole lot let than who we are becoming. Who are you becoming? -- doug smith