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

When turn-over is high, find out why. It's easy to blame the economy, and maybe that does have something to do with it. It is also easy to blame other exterior causes. If you can't fix those exterior causes, what can you do? Look inside. Turn-over means that someone who works FOR you would prefer to do something else. Turn-over means that the team has tension you're not addressing. People need to work someplace, but if they choose NOT to work for you, the thing you can change is you. Listen. Talk about it. Connect with everyone on your team more often. Fix processes. Pay fairly. There are so many things that you can do, and you do have to DO them. When turn-over is high, find out why -- and fix it. -- doug smith    

Front line leaders either know that they can't hide or they soon learn it the hard way. You can't hide, and you can't hide your problems. Performance problems, attendance problems, quality problems, morale problems, skill problems, motivation problems...nearly any and every team has more than its share. Why should yours be any different. Pay attention. Talk about it. Get your team to collaborate. Find the root causes. Explore possibilities. Solve those problems. Everyone knows when a supervisor is ignoring a problem. ...and there's no payoff to ignoring a problem. The payoff is in the solution. Solve those supervisory problems. -- doug smith

Have you ever seen steps to nowhere? Since I travel a lot, I occasionally see a building with stairs that appear to lead nowhere, at least no where safe. Access is only semi-blocked, so the danger exists even if the destination is sketchy. Does your team have a destination? Have you updated your team's mission this year? Things are changing so quickly that what may have seemed important as recently as a year ago could be out of date now (or soon.) Is your team up to date? Do you have a vision for a vital future? Avoid those stairs to nowhere. Plan a vital, energized, noble future for your team. Get them involved. Show them how a high performance leader leads. -- doug smith