doug smith training

The art of leadership is communicating with the right amount of urgency exactly what people need to do next. They may know already and tell you what needs to be done. They have no idea and need clear directions. They may be filled with clues or utterly clueless. The science of leadership becomes the art of leadership the moment you start to communicate. How are you with the art of leadership? -- doug smith

It is a recurring theme: something needs to be done, and yet isn't getting done. Or, there is an urgent problem to be solved, and no one is solving it. When the cause is important a leader will emerge.  What if that leader is you? -- doug smith  

When do you have to get off of the sidelines and take charge? When there is an urgent problem, and no one is willing to step up? When you care about the outcome, and the outlook is grim? When your instincts tell you to move forward? Yes, yes, and yes. Sometimes we have to lead because no one else will. -- doug smith

How important is trust in a team? When I ask leaders this question the usual answer is "It's everything. Without trust the team falls apart." I'd agree. Your team members must trust you as the leader to act with their interests in mind as well as the interests of the organization and of your customers. And you as the leader must be able to trust team members to perform in ways that serve the mission, help your customers, and help each other. I'd also add that trust starts with respect. Where does respect start? This is not a chicken-or-egg question. The answer is clear: respect starts with the leader. When you respect your team members, they witness how important that is, how useful it feels, and how necessary it remains. Show respect, receive respect -- in that order. It does not work in reverse. -- doug smith

Leaders encounter a lot of resistance. You can probably think of at least three examples in your own experience of dealing with people disagreeing with you. It probably made your job tougher. Conflict isn't always bad, but it is usually uncomfortable. Even handled well, it takes time.  What can we do to prevent the kind of resistance that wastes time?  We can disagree about details and still get along if we agree on our values. But if we disagree about our values then our details can't be trusted. To build momentum, agreement, and effectiveness, I think that it starts with shared values.  What do you think? -- doug smith

What should we do with bad rules? If you added up all of the rules you are subject to during your life they would likely fill a three-hundred page book (and that's NOT counting the Apple User Agreement...) If we distilled all of those rules down to the really necessary ones, you could fit them all on one page. But instead, we face volumes and volumes of rules written by other people who have only THEIR interests in mind, who do not consult us on our preferences, and who expect to enforce those rules as if they were the Ten Commandments. What do you think of that? The other day an organization that was interested in influencing me listed a set of rules so arcane, so arduous, and so mean that I couldn't even READ them all (without gagging) much less agree to them. Where does that arrogance come from? What makes people think that other people will adhere to such one-sided rules? Doesn't that make it harder to defend the rules that DO make sense? If we confront people with enou

What if you declared yourself a leader but nobody followed you? It's not automatic. Even when it is your job title, in the end people decide whether or not they will follow you. I've done my best whenever I'm in a leadership position to create an environment of shared leadership. I'd rather facilitate success than drag everyone there. Still, not everyone responds the way you'd expect. Ever have someone resist following you? Ever have someone act in an insubordinate way publicly? Even escalating the energy might not work if they refuse to follow. It is a fair question to ask someone if they will follow you.  They could say "no" and if they do, maybe one of you is in the right place -- or maybe you've just got some more influencing and sharing to do. But, they can't say "no" forever, can they?  Check the rest of the team. Are you, as a team, moving forward the way you planned? Are you achieving your goals? Are you leading, in whatever your

Jobs are a balance of learning and repetition. We forge new ground and we walk on well-worn territory. The routine wears us down, even when it's necessary.  High performance leaders show the value of a well practiced, skillfully executed job routine. Discipline in work comes from the extra effort of pushing thru when the task is due. Maybe you did it before, maybe you'll do it again -- give it all you've got right now. Someone is watching. -- 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

Short and to the point: practice builds character. Experiencing imperfection, enduring failure, trying and trying again -- there is no other way to acquire that massive benefit other than practice. Practice your skills. Practice your discipline. Practice your changes. As we practice it sharpens and strengthens us as long as we respond to the results we generate with openness and willingness to change.  Not there yet? Don't give up -- practice. Practice builds character and any success worth achieving relies on character to endure. -- doug smith

It's possible for a leader to speak very directly and still be courteous.  Speaking with respect, with dignity, and with consideration for others takes some of us more effort. It is well worth that effort. We don't have to be thrilled with someone's performance to maintain professional courtesy. Showing kindness does not mean giving in. The power of courtesy is felt immediately and lasts a long time. People will remember how you treated them, even if they forget why you treated them that way. Disagreements can dissolve into forgotten details even as the feelings linger forever.  If you catch yourself being short with someone and delivering a pointed response consider pausing long enough to stay curious. What makes you tense? What are they really saying? What's going on? You might still decide on a direct spoken point of view -- sometimes that serves you well -- but you also might decide if it's worth demonstrating respect more than your status. It likely makes you e

What's your leadership style? Do you utilize certain strengths to get things done? Do you work best with lots of other people? Do you facilitate processes rather than push people? Do you listen more than speak? Do you drive hard for results no matter how many feelings it hurts? What's your style and what's your blend? Leadership style is more like a kitchen than a cage: mix the ingredients skillfully in order to produce the best results. Play with the recipe, taste for progress along the way, and adjust as needed. You aren't perfect yet, but that's no reason to stop practicing. -- doug smith

Who's in charge? A call is unanswered, a customer is unattended, a product is out of stock, a car is our of fuel...every day we find ourselves in situations that lack leadership. Fill that gap. Take charge. Get things done. It's what high performance leaders do. -- doug smith  

High performance leaders are able to be simultaneously tough and kind. Tough on the task, tender on the person. -- doug smith  

In my studies about performing and writing plays, one of the things that I learned was that there is always status in every scene. If two people are in a scene, one of them has higher status than the other and then for the rest of the scene there is a kind of struggle over that status. The one with lessor status strives to win, the won with higher status strives to preserve. It may not hold up for EVERY scene, but if you watch for it you'll see how prevalent that is. Why is that? Could it be that in LIFE we also struggle for status? Could it be that when we sense that we are being treated as if our status is lower than others that we do not like that and work to change it? If, as a leader, you visibly treat your team members as underlings, they will notice. If you treat them as equals -- keeping in mind different levels of responsibility -- as equals your team members will respond with more initiative. Isn't that more of what you really want? Whether or not you like it or suppo

Have you ever noticed someone acting as if they had a magic wand. They wait, they delay, they avoid doing work that clearly needs doing, as if some kind of miracle could rescue them. As a strategy, that's not going to work. When we've got a problem to solve and work to be done, hoping for a miracle will only create disappointment. We might as well resolve ourselves to doing the work. There's no such thing as magic. -- doug smith

  High performance leaders don't get to pass the blame. It's possible, but worthless, to blame someone else for your problems. Who will deal with the issue? Who will solve the problem? Who is accountable? Every problem is a leadership problem. Take charge. Forge forward. Rally the team.  That problem that concerns you belongs to you.  -- doug smith

What is it like to work for a leader who lacks integrity? Sadly, you probably already know. A leader who tells lies, who cuts corners on promises, who cheats to get ahead, who stacks the score against anyone else...the ways are endless and the impact immeasurable. It's all unnecessary. Start with integrity. Set high standards and keep them. Show the world that honesty works, and it will. A leader without integrity is deceiving, not leading. Start with integrity. -- doug smith

In lean staff times, in fully staffed times, in hard-to-find-the-talent times, we need to keep recruiting. Even when you don't have a hiring requisition, or an open position. Top talent doesn't always show up on schedule. Sometimes it peaks in thru the window. High performance leaders are always recruiting. Your next MVP is out there somewhere. Keep recruiting. Keep recruiting by: creating an environment where people want to work developing your people, no matter what stage of their career building diverse teams with all kinds of people saying positive things to people about your team smiling when you are asked about your team and about your goals Keep recruiting. -- doug smith

Do you like to be micromanaged? I don't, and I don't know anyone who does like to be micromanaged. But I've learned that some people DO need it. Let's face it - some people will probably not get their work done on their own unless they are closely supervised. That doesn't make them bad people, but it does mean that they need supervision. They need attention. They need to be managed. It's not micromanagement if they won't get it done without your attention to detail. Help them help you: give them the management that they need. -- doug smith