doug smith training

Who is success up to? It's fashionable to say it's up to you. After all, you ARE in charge of your own fate, right? And all it takes is a positive attitude, true? Well, maybe more than that. Yes, a positive attitude is far preferable and much more enabling than a negative attitude. But it is not enough. You need to do the work...AND, more importantly, your team needs to do the work. Leaders who contribute to their team's success are doing them a great service. Yay. Leaders who try to do it all do both themselves and their teams a disservice. It takes both. In communication, in project work, in achieving your goals. Share responsibility for success. Step up when you're needed, and step back when you want to encourage  someone else to take charge. Allow people to own their own responsibility. Enable people to act, and then get out of their way. Successful supervisors share responsibility for success. What can you take charge of today? What can you let go of?

Have you ever tried to get someone to buy into one of your goals, only to have them steadfastly resist? It seems so easy to understand why we'd want to work on our goals, but it's not always so easy for others. What does the goal mean? What benefits are there in the goal? How will things be better? Which problem does your goal help to solve? Once we find shared meaning on our goals, it's much easier to inspire action on them. Figure out what your goals mean to others -- and help them to understand that. If it matters to them, your goal is well on its way toward success. -- Doug Smith

What is your direction? How are you making things better? Where will you be a year from now if you keep doing what you're doing now? Is that where you'll want to be? What can you do TODAY to set a direct course for where you want to be? How about trying some of these CLUES to Success: - Create agreements - Listen with curiosity - Understand the facts AND the feelings - Express yourself clearly and positively - Share responsibility for success It takes practice, so clue someone in and practice together. Once you've become comfortable adding these CLUES to Success to your conversations you'll find that you experience deeper conversations, more powerful presentations, and more productive meetings. And, quite likely, you'll find that your relationships improve as well. Set a course for where you want to be: in a great dialogue. -- Doug Smith