doug smith training

How good is your relationship with your boss? If you're going to have a boss, you going to have to get along. I've had some terrific bosses who spent extra time building relationships with me and making sure that I had everything I needed to lead my teams effectively. Not every boss will do that. When they don't (and even when they do) it serves you well to initiate the conversation. Build the relationship. Get to know your boss so that your boss can get to know how invaluable you truly are. Every supervisor needs a robust, mutually supportive relationship with their own boss. -- doug smith

How much time do you spend managing your own boss? Front line leaders can spend so much time leading their own people that it's easy to forget how important it is to develop your relationship with your own boss. You do need your boss's support for any plans, discipline, or development you have for your people. You do need your boss's cooperation when your team members go over your head about an issue and go directly to your boss. And, you'd like your boss's help in developing your career. But your boss is busy. Your boss has personal tasks to take care of. Your boss has a challenging boss to keep happy. It's easy for you and your boss to drift apart as you both work hard to accomplish your goals. But still you've got to find a way. The toughest task for any boss is managing their own boss. Although it may be tough, your future could depend on it. Without your boss's help, everything is harder. With it, almost anything is possible. Here are

Is hurting someone's feelings inevitable? Perhaps, sometimes, no matter what we as leaders do we will somehow hurt someone's feelings. But, if that happens as an accident or as the result of someone else's low self-esteem at least we didn't intend it. Most of us have known leaders who DO intend it. Leaders who play with people's feelings are playing with fire. It may feel like a fine way to manipulate someone into giving you something you want, but there is a heavy cost. The relationship takes some bumps and, often, the bounce-back reverberation (some might call it karma) is big. Very big. Being careful about other people's feelings is in the end also taking care of your own. Hurt feelings seek revenge. Why bring that about? We never escape unscaved when we hurt someone's feelings. What to do instead? Talk about it. Listen with curiosity. Show social courtesy and compassion. It's better for your relationships -- and therefore also better for

Which is more important to you as a leader, results or relationships? That's a trick question of course. You do not need to pick one or the other. In fact, high performance leaders focus on both and they start with relationships. Take care of your relationships and your results will improve. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Build the relationships on your team today. Spend at least part of your day having meaningful conversations with team members, one at a time.

Competition is useful. Usually, cooperation is better. Incentives have their value, internal motivation is massively more powerful. While high performance leaders DO focus on achieving their goals and delivering positive results, part of that is built around healthy relationships. Take the time to get to know your team members. Listen to their stories, their heart songs, their hardships, their views. When they achieve their goals, reward them with signs of your appreciation. And, when they consistently act as responsible adults within your relationships to achieve those results, show your appreciation. It doesn't need to cost any money. Sometimes a "thank you" is enough. We need healthy relationships to sustain trust. Without trust, a team member could be tempted to game the system in order to hit the numbers. That's not what you want. Sustain the relationships to keep the results both strong and ethical. Be careful about rewards that only recognize results.

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

Can you spot a leader who needs more training? As a trainer of course, my answer (somewhat biased!) is easy: look at any leader - they all need more training. And in a way, all leaders do need more training. We all must continually learn. The learning never stops. But you and I both know that there are some leaders who need training more than others. Whether they are struggling with the basics of supervising (which, it turns out, are not so basic after all) or with the vagaries of higher level strategy, their struggles point out a need for training. It is especially evident when a leader struggles in one of two key areas: results, and relationships. As a leader it is easy to forget how intertwined these two areas are. Mess up the relationships, and the results will suffer. Miss on the results and the relationships may never have time to develop. Leaders must work on, learn about, and train how to excel at developing both relationships and results. Who do you know who needs

How much time do you spend helping others to achieve their goals? If you work for an employer, that is likely a lot. Much of our day is spent in helping our team members, in doing assignments for our bosses, in meeting the needs of customers, and all kinds of things that have little to do with our own goals. But all that IS directly related to our own goals. We build relationships. We improve our skills. We gain experience. The more we help others achieve their goals the more we are able to achieve our own goals. So don't resent the time you spend helping others with their goals. It's all an investment in your own success as well -- Doug Smith

How deep is your deepest relationship? Do you know everything about them? Can you talk about whatever is on your mind? Do you know each other so well that you can make each other laugh with the slightest gesture or word? We can't get to know everyone that deeply. It would likely wear us out. But, we can get deeper on so many more relationships. So many of our friends and acquaintances barely know us. We can change that. We can creatively build relationships that help us smile, grow, learn, and solve problems. Isn't it through our deeper relationships that our happiness blossoms most prominently? Aren't we most creative when we are with other creative souls? The faster path to solving problems and achieving goals is thru deeper relationships. Who can you get to know better today? -- Doug Smith doug smith training:  how to achieve your goals Front Range Leadership:  Training Supervisors for Success What have you learned today?