doug smith training

  We lead the way we communicate. It's hard to tell one from the other. The way you communicate defines your style. The way you communicate determines whether people will be influenced by you or if they will resist you. There isn't any separating the development of leadership from improving communication. You need them both. Think of all of your leadership opportunities: conversations, meetings, presentations, rallies, speeches, huddles, feedback, evaluations...all of it centered on how you communicate. If you want to be a great high performance leader, it starts with effective communication. -- doug smith

Fast, affordable leadership training ! Supervising for Success Whether you've just been promoted to supervisor or need a refresher on how to take the aggravation out of leading so that you can achieve your goals and enjoy your job more, this program will help. Discover what people are looking for in a leader, and what you can do to get what you're looking for from them. Discover how to: Build your leadership strength Set goals that motivate action Manage different personalities Delegate with confidence Motivate your team Supervise multiple generations Coach to improve performance Manage virtual teams Get more done and enjoy your job more The entire program is presented in one day. There are two sessions with a two-hour break between sessions. This is a zoom meeting but you will not be on camera. Schedule: 10:00 am ET to 12:00pm  Part One 2:00 pm ET to 4:00 pm, Part Two What to Expect: We start on time We get to the point There is no sales pitch You will NOT be on camera The sl...

Do you have the qualities of a leader? I'm sure you know that leadership is not just a title. Leadership is what we bring to the organizations we lead in order to develop our people and achieve our goals. That's easier said than done and it doesn't necessarily come naturally. When I think about the qualities of a high performance leader I notice similarities with what I would consider to be a high quality, high character person: curious, brilliant, adventurous, determined, attentive, focused, ambitious, strong, kind, worthy, ethical, resilient, spiritual, healthy...the list is long. I've also come to believe that while many qualities are important, there are five that are absolutely essential. You could lead without these qualities, but the job is much harder that way and the outcomes are more volatile. The five qualities I aspire to are: courage, clarity, creativity, compassion, and centeredness. I define centeredness as the skillful use of the other four...

Toms River - Group Activity Here are some photos of some brilliant, terrific, fun learners in leadership workshops this week. Toms River, NJ North Haven, CT North Haven, CT -- Growing their influence

Do you know someone who will say anything? Some people have no filters, as one of my friends used to say. No sooner do they think it and then they say it. Sometimes, it doesn't even seem like they gave it much thought. We all have important things to say. As leaders, what we say has direct results on how our teams perform. We can talk with an edge if the relationship is strong enough to support a high level of assertiveness, and we can say nearly anything IF (and it's a BIG if) we include respect and kindness. When we can talk about it with respect and kindness we can talk about anything. Keep the kindness, whatever you say. -- doug smith

High performance leaders pay attention to detail. They know what matters most and they manage it precisely. They eliminate distractions and focus on the main thing. Do you manage what matters the most to your organization? Is your organizational house "tidy" and in order? If you want to empower people, make sure that you have the best processes in place to allow the flexibility they need. When there is a right way to do something, train your people that way. Attention to detail. It makes a difference. -- doug smith

Team building is great and can be a true morale booster -- if your team is ready for it. If the team morale is already low, though, a team building event might be the last thing you need. How do you know? Before scheduling a team building event, check to see how each team member would feel about it. That means spending time with each of them, one on one, to discover how things are going. How are the dynamics? Does everyone enjoy working on the team? What are the challenges and the issues? You could even introduce some low risk team building activities into your regular meetings. You don't need a zip line or trust falls in the wilderness to get closer as a team. Sometimes, just a warm-up question before a meeting is enough to start the bonding. Questions like "if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?" and "if money were no object, what would you do?" and "if you could make one fundamental, game-changing change to our bus...

Leaders must face what can feel like an endless series of paradoxes. Struggling to hold onto truths that tend to clash yet remain both valid is excellent training for the need to make careful strategic, compassionate, courageous decisions. Purpose: Explore the impact on perception of paradox and its implications for achieving success. Materials: Large prints, posters, or slides of paints by M.C. Escher (and other painters with a flair for painting paradoxical situations.) Process Discuss the meaning of paradox. Ask: What are some examples of paradox in your world? In movies? In art? In leadership? Show two or more works of paradoxical art. Allow several minutes of silent reflection. Break into groups of four who must silently depict the motions of a day in the mental world of the painters presented, taking care to bring out a sense of paradox. Stress the silence. (Allow several minutes. If a group struggles, silently signal them to quietly provide musical / percussion b...

Feedback can be hard to take but far worse to ignore. Take the feedback. What you do with it is your business, but take it. Hear it. Stay curious. Move ahead. -- doug smith

Do you have leadership development needs? Whether it is for yourself, your team, or your whole organization, we can help. By answering a few questions on our Training Needs Analysis form and scheduling an appointment to chat with Doug we can identify the best, most direct, and most effective way to train you and your people. The conversation usually takes about a half hour. After that you can decide your next steps. I'll be happy to make recommendations (and they don't always mean training with us -- if your needs call for using another source, vendor, or method I will be straight forward with that type of recommendation.) To schedule a needs analysis phone call, start here . -- doug smith I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. To talk about your leadership development needs, contact me here .

Are you getting all the training that you need? As a leader, are you able to schedule all the training you want, whenever you want it? It's tough to do with budget constraints and time limitations. I can think of dozens of leadership programs I would have LOVED to attend when I was working in corporate life and, while I was truly fortunate to be able to attend many of them, some just feel outside of our time or budget constraints. That's why I'm now offering a flexible alternative. Lean, focused teleclasses that you can schedule, just like an appointment. I call them Teleclass appointments. Schedule one, or schedule the whole bunch. Each one is fairly priced and sharply focused. In thirty minutes you will learn a key skill or explore a high impact tool which you can than apply. The very affordable price ($30 for most of them) is payable when you make the appointment. Book it just for yourself or invite a friend to share your line at the same connection and it...

What do your team members think about your supervisors? How are things on the leadership front? So often highly effective technical workers are promoted to supervisor and then struggle. They don't know what to do. Why aren't their team members doing their jobs? Where's the motivation? If any of these issues occur where you work, you might want to consider our two day workshop, "Supervising for Success." There's no shame in struggling as a supervisor, but there's no need for it, either. Take advantage of our forty plus years of leadership experience to develop supervisory skills in these key areas: Leading challenging conversations - discover how to talk about what you need to talk about Setting goals quickly and developing a robust plan to achieve them Coaching and developing your team members How to solve performance problems and turn that poor performer into a motivated star How to set priorities when everything feels like a top priority...

Did Milgram get it wrong? This video raises some intriguing questions that are relevant to our studies of high performance leadership. It raises issues around obedience, control, leadership, followership, context, and even evil. Watch the video (17:49) and then reflect on the questions below. Reflection and Discussion Questions: What meaning regarding obedience have people commonly concluded based on Milgram's  research? What are the factors in play that effect the participant's willingness to continue with the experiment, even though it appeared to be inflicting pain? How did the context of the experiment effect the outcomes? What additional information was mentioned in the video that we don't usually hear about when it comes to this famous experiment? What is the surprising conclusion to this research when examined thru the lens of this talk? Given the circumstances as you understand them, would you have continued to administer the shocks past the poi...

When was the last time one of your assumptions was wrong? It's so easy to jump to conclusions. We fill-in-the-blanks so many times in so many ways because it's just part of being human. But, when we assume that things are not going in our favor, when maybe there is no reason to, we do ourselves no service. This is a picture of a recent training room for one of my workshops. It was day two of the two-day workshop and since the hotel staff had in the past forgotten to unlock the door to my room. I arrived, and sure enough the door was locked. Rather than get upset (something I might have experienced in the past) I calmly contacted the hotel staff and politely, yet assertively, asked to have my door unlocked. "I can do that, sir," said a polite maintenance gentleman, "but you could also just walk in thru that second, open door..." "Oh. Gee. Thanks!" That was just a little embarrassing. Just about fifteen feet from the locked door was an o...

I specialize in workshops to help you solve problems and achieve your goals by sparking and developing your creativity, clarity, courage, and compassion in these key areas: - leadership - project management - communication - productivity - creative and performing arts I take a customized approach to bringing sharply focused, action-based workshops to organizations. How much time do you have to train your people to dramatically improve their skills at solving problems and achieving your goals? Here is a selection of my most popular, and successful workshops: Supervising for Success  - Two day workshop for front line leaders. You'll start on your goals and create the alignment and traction you need to achieve them. Ideal for front line leaders in any organization, we have deep experience (and time-tested tools) especially suited for leaders in the retail and service industries. $149 per participant. Communicating for Results  - One day workshop to help you dev...

Training in action -- another successful workshop!

How big of a deal is stress in your life? We all endure a certain amount of stress. Depending on what's going on in your work and in your life, you may be going thru more stress than you want. Not all stress is bad (setting an ambitious goal, for example, adds a kind of good stress) but too much stress can slow you down. How much of your stress are you choosing? Certainly, not all of your stress, but could you admit that some of it is the result of you doing too much worrying, or waiting too long to work on that big goal, or taking what the boss said too personally, or procrastinating when you knew the deadline was going to be tough? You know as well as anyone else the answer to what to do about the stress you cause yourself: let it go. Stop it. Relax, breathe, focus, and then get to work. When we do that, when we control the stress that we can control, when we choose "no" to a piece of self-selected stress, it makes handling the tough unchosen stress much, much e...

Our limitations are meant to spark our grown. -- Doug Smith

Find goals that fit you then work them until you outgrow them. Rinse and repeat. -- Doug Smith Do you want to get better and setting and achieving your goals? Our two day workshop "Supervising for Success" can help, and we can bring it to your location. Contact me for details. doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Goals require change. Big projects force us into areas of uncertainty. Growth can feel uncertain. Setting a noble, powerful goal is essential AND so is the work to bring it about. We will experience resistance to our most powerful goals and sometimes that resistance comes from within. Resist the resistance and power thru. The outcome depends on your work. We might love the goal and still resist the changes that it requires. Recognize your resistance and let it go. It only stands in your way. What goal are you working on today? -- Doug Smith How to achieve your goals is part of the two-day workshop Supervising for Success that you can bring to your location. Contact me today to see how in two days you can develop the clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion it takes to be your best possible leader.