doug smith training

This is a picture of my good friend Tubs. He has a look of anticipation and expectation in his eyes. He wants to be sure that whoever he is communicating with understands those expectations. If his tongue is showing, he expects a treat. If there's a toy in his mouth, he expects to play. And if he walks toward the door, he expects to go out. Life is simple and good when your expectations are clear. As a leader, you probably have some expectations, too. You expect a certain level of performance from each of your team members. You expect a certain professional conduct. You expect respect. Does everyone on your team understand, clearly, your expectations? Not last year's expectations, and maybe even not last month's expectations, but rather your current expectations? And, not only what you expect but to what level of urgency do you expect prompt action? Let them know. Tell them again. They do need to be reminded. There's no room for a mystery here, is there? Co...

Leaders, of any team, have limited vision. We can only see so much. What we see is also filtered thru our own beliefs and perceptions. A healthy self-image may add a positive spin to an otherwise cautious moment. An unhealthy self-image might make an otherwise positive experience incomplete. We need help seeing it all. High performance leaders seek, receive, and utilize feedback. That means asking your team how you are doing. It includes talking (frequently) with your boss about your goals and how you are doing on your plan. Getting opinions from your customers also helps balance out your viewpoint. To truly know what's going on, leaders need to ask. Are you asking? Are you getting the feedback you need from every direction that you need it? Today is a good day to ask someone who works with you, what's working great. And then, ask what you can do better. Because we can always do something better. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Ask someone on your team to...

Have you known any leaders who let power go to their heads? Some people, once they gain leadership responsibility, allow their self-image and self-interests to take on outrageous proportions. But, leadership is not about selfishness. There is a major difference between healthy self-image and limitless self-interest. High performance leaders care about other people. The results are important, and so are the people. To get there, to take care of people to such a degree that they of course work hard to achieve the desired results, a leader must control that ego. A leader must be humble. You'll know when you are practicing humility: you'll be curious. You'll be patient. You'll be kind. If you're doing all that already, excellent and please continue. If you're not, the opportunity is there. True influence and power requires humility. Humility is an early sign of understanding, and it's in the understanding that we begin to agree, to change, to grow, and ...

High performance leaders are also coaches. There is no avoiding the need to give your team members feedback. The most robust way to develop a culture of feedback in your team is to coach - not just a little - but constantly. Coach, coach, coach! Lead with inspiration of course, and also lead with coaching by sharing deep conversations with your people about performance. Appreciate the good work. Redirect the sloppy work. Fine tune the vast amount of work that fits somewhere in-between. It's good for your team, and it's good for you. There are so many benefits to coaching, including: Better performance More comfort at giving AND receiving feedback Stronger relationships More effective communication Faster response time on urgent team needs A closer, more cooperative team You can probably think of even more benefits to coaching. Any time we coach another we are also coaching ourselves -- and that is enough of a benefit to keep coaching no matter what. When you...

I suppose that if a problem is easy to solve that it isn't even a problem. Just solve it and be done with it. A problem like that is more like a decision than a problem. We all have bigger problems than that, though. We all struggle at times to solve what feels like an unsolvable problems. Some problems truly can't be solved, and must then be managed. How can we tell the difference? We need to ponder the possibilities. We need to change the problem into a goal and figure out how to bring that about. The difficulty is like a framework for building something we haven't thought of before. The problem stands there, a form waiting to redirect our notions of what is possible. Tough or not, solvable or not, a problem creates a space for traction. A problem you can't solve is give you room to grow. Grow. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action Create a list of three problems you have not been able to solve. Next to each problem, write the one leadership ski...

This brief video poses the theory that in order to build an effective team it is important that the people on the team get along. Interpersonal dynamics are important. While this may seem obvious to anyone who has worked with many teams, it is still important. How well do the people on your team get along? What are the interpersonal behaviors that your teams needs and wants? Why not explore that idea at your next team meeting? It's cheaper than a retreat, requires no trust falls or zip lines, and might just be the best thing you do for your team this month. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Gather your team. Plan a substantial portion of your meeting (or maybe nearly all of a meeting) to asking your team members the following questions. Make sure that someone is capturing the answers on a group memory (white board or flip chart or similar display.) What interpersonal behaviors do you find most helpful when working with others? What habits or behaviors ar...

What could be more important to a leader than peace? We live in a world where peace cannot be taken for granted and where for much of the population peace is not even available. So many things that leaders have done in national interests, in theological interests, in self-interests, and in revenge or spite, have resulted in wars, not peace. Leaders with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion choose peace. That means finding answers that may not be immediately satisfying. That means finding forgiveness when vengeance seems appropriate. That means standing up to constituents who demand any treatment of fellow human beings that is not human, not kind. Peace requires patience. What can you do today to bring about peace somewhere, somehow? -- doug smith   Leadership Call to Action: Be your best. Bring about peace.

High performance leaders take care of the details. What helps the most in taking care of the right details is keeping focus. Knowing what is important is the first step, acting on what is most important is the next step. No one can do everything, so high performance leaders maintain a sharp focus. To determine that focus, identify your goals. Align those goals with your mission, and the focus develops naturally. Prioritizing becomes easier when you know what is most important. What is your focus? Our goals reveal our focus, so be sure to focus those goals! -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Play hard, work hard, be smart!

We all have agendas. All organizations have agendas. All movements (useful or not) drive agendas. This leads to a variety of mixed motives and unsavory outcomes. This leads to conflict and trouble. It doesn't have to be that way. What you live for, what you trust in, what you drive could be for the benefit of all. What you live could be a model for how you want to be treated -- and isn't that below the surface of most worthy faiths? Found your faith in love. Seek that good in the world that you can accent, amplify, and add. Add love Unless your faith was founded on love it's standing on shaky ground. Add some stability. Add some endurance. Add some goodness. Add love. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Whatever you do today, add love.

What are your leadership conversations about? High performance leaders conduct all kinds of conversations -- around performance, goals, aspirations, tasks, schedules, development, customer service, process improvement...all KINDS of conversations. Something every high performance leadership conversation needs is time to build the relationship. Unhurried. Deeper conversations. Getting to know your people. That's one reason why two-thirds of the three part conversations we help develop at doug smith training contain relationship building: 1. Small talk 2. Big talk (goals, performance, etc.) 3. Appreciation You could think of it as a performance sandwich but that's not all of it. The "bread" of that sandwich is all about getting to know each other better, spending meaningful time together, and bonding in such a way that working together becomes easier and more effective. You're still the boss. You still get to decide in the end. But, as you get t...

Problems pile up. Answer hide. Frustration builds. Still, there are always more answers. There are always more possibilities. Our biggest challenge is to give up before we have explored enough possibilities to find a winner. There's a winner (or two or more) in there. Keep digging. Keep generating ideas. Keep focused on possibilities. We may never run out of problems but we'll also never exhaust our possibilities for solving them. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Stay curious!

You've got this. It's another great start to another great week. Whatever the challenges you face, you are ready. And if you're not ready? You'll learn! High performance leaders find the answers and today, you are ready to find some answers. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Be your best!