doug smith training

Bumping into our limitations is irritating, isn't it? It's a distant, but vivid memory I have of eagerly raising my hand in class because I knew the answer, only to discover that my answer was incorrect. Ouch. It was one of those small things that felt like a big thing. I often call myself a "recovering know-it-all" because the more I learn the more I realize the vast amount of things that I do not know. The first answer that comes to me is not always correct. There is always more to learn. We're all small at some level. Knowing that level leads to growth.  -- doug smith

Why do people make excuses? It does not dismiss their responsibility. It does not solve any problem. It simply delays the next step in the process. As one of my best leaders from my days with Whole Foods, Bruce Green, once said "Nobody cares about your excuses." An excuse is all price and no payoff. Why not let go of the excuse and get busy with the process? -- doug smith  

You don't need excuses as much as you do courage. In those moments when you're not sure if you should do what you're about to do because it just doesn't feel right -- maybe it seems to collide with one of your values -- what if you used that pause, that hesitation, to think it thru? There's always a catch if your values don't match. Something will always give. If it's one of your values that has to give, how will you feel about that later? -- doug smith  

For a long time now, for many products, it's been a race to the bottom. Offer the basic thing at the lowest price and capture as much market share as you can. As customers, we've gone along with this because we do love low prices. And, it's deceptive because it feels as if many things CAN costs less without sacrificing quality. Cheap TVs are still good. Even cheap cars are better than cars of yesteryear.  But it doesn't hold up for everything -- especially anything involving human interaction, and anything involving customer service. When we reduce staffing to the bare minimums and when we allow robots to answer our questions we are pushing the quality down. Sometimes, better service and higher quality products simply cost more to produce. If we allow the lowest price items to prevail on everything, everything will end up lower in quality.  If we keep rewarding the cheapest price we'll keep creating the cheapest life.  I don't think that's what we want. How

Have you ever noticed that behavior is contagious? If someone is yelling at you, it's easy to start yelling back. Conversely, if someone smiles at you, it's likely that you'll smile in return. Behavior is contagious. Character thought takes more work and more development. Building the type of character strengths that you want helps you decide what behaviors you'll show. If pettiness is not part of your character, you're less likely to act in a petty manner, no matter how misbehaved someone is around you. You never need to make someone else's character flaws your own. Just build your strengths, remember that no one around you will ever be perfect, and manage your emotions.  How do you manage your emotions? What do you do to keep contagious negative behaviors from infecting you?  -- doug smith

What makes someone a professional? Many factors, you might say: - certifications - education - peer recognition - ability - attitude and while the list is long, here's what I think: When you behave like a professional, professional status will emerge. Because if you change how you approach your work to be focused on being as professional as you can be, by serving your customers to the fullest, by committing to only top quality -- when you change and form habits that reinforce your personal belief that you ARE a professional -- your results, and your reactions, change. Act like a professional -- why would you ever do anything else? -- doug smith

What do you do when you feel doubt? It could be doubt in your abilities, or doubt about your capacity, or even doubt about your mission. We all have doubts sometimes. Those nagging feelings are there to protect us from danger. That's useful. But sometimes those nagging feelings just hold us back.  To achieve your goals you must create enough positive energy to overcome the naturally forming negative notions. There's nothing magic about positive energy. It won't ever be enough all by itself. But, we go farther faster when we power up with the positives no matter how many doubts wander our way.  Create enough positive energy, back it up with work, and your results are bound to improve. Improving performance is everybody's job, isn't it? -- doug smith

When people criticize you it probably is connected to their performance. Maybe you didn't do what they expected. Maybe they think they can do it better. Maybe you just never agreed on what the performance would be. I've learned to listen, process, frame, and move forward. When I learn how to fix the past, I'll get busy doing that, but in the meantime, what comes next matters so much more. -- doug smith

Somewhere someone just like you is working hard to do what you do, only better than you. What will you do about that? -- doug smith

Have you peaked yet? Truthfully, you've likely peaked many times. Reaching the peak need not be the end, but rather the start of even better performance. When I first set a goal to walk 10,000 steps a day it seems hard. That's a lot of walking. How would I ever get anything done? And for a while I hovered between 6,000 and 8,000 steps. Better, but not my goal. Then, I started (with lots of effort) reaching 10,000 steps on a daily basis. It got to be routine. I figured out how to keep moving enough to achieve my goal. And you do know what you've earned once you've achieved a goal, right? A bigger goal! I've leveled up my goal to 12,000 steps a day, and on most days I do get it. I'm still humble about it though, because some people have told me how they routinely exceed 20,000 and even 30,000 steps. That's a lot of walking! I raised my expectations, and my goal improved. It may not last forever, but if it lasts long enough to reach excellence in y