doug smith training

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...

Supervisors are asked to make more moves each day than a complicated game of chess. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you end up in what feels like a stalemate. But you keep on pushing, you keep on growing, and you keep on growing. Making the right moves, what I'd call the Royal Moves , requires training, experience, and an open mind. You need the open mind when the moves don't go exactly as you planned. Are you making the royal moves? Are your people growing, thriving, excelling, and delighting their customers? Are you making the royal moves? Is your own career developing in ways that challenge you and still bring a smile to your face? The royal moves keep you growing. It's deciding to plan more carefully so that the unexpected is not quite so unexpected. It's building the relationships that help you resolve inevitable disagreements. It's taking the time to coach your team members every day instead of letting administrative details pull ...

What roles do you take on as a leader? Front line supervisors must own many roles, including some they may not enjoy. Supervisors must lead, consult, advise, counsel, discipline, confront, defer, decide, revive, inspire, deny, build, reduce, cut, maximize, minimize...all depending on the state of the organization and the mindset of the team. When I was a supervisor, I did not enjoy the role of enforcer or disciplinarian, and yet those roles became necessary. I did have to enforce the values of the organization, even when they were inconvenient. I did have to discipline team members who had lost the ability to discipline their own behavior. Sometimes, sadly, that even involved saying goodbye. Know the roles that you must play. Follow your roles when they harmonize with your values and your goals. It's easy to ignore our most important roles, but it is a critical mistake to do so. As Grandmom Smith once said, "mind your roles." You'll be glad that you did. Mayb...

Fast, affordable leadership training Here are four ways to develop your leadership skills now: Leadership tool box - Click on any of the labels for any entry on this site to find more useful content, much of which will contain suggested actions for developing your skills and leadership calls to action to prompt you.  Teleclass Appointments - You do not need to wait for a teleclass or webinar to be offered to sign up for it. Using our teleclass appointment system you can schedule the teleclass you want, when you want it. Just click here . Supervisors Coaching Calls - Attend our group coaching opportunity for front line leaders to discuss your leadership goals, action plans, insights, and challenges. Designed as a way to extend and apply the learning from previous workshops and teleclasses, but this coaching call is open to anyone who is working on developing leadership skills -- and for a limited time it's free! Register to participate here . Supervising for Success - ...

Tackle that feeling of overwhelm using a practice, simple tool. Situation: Overloaded with tasks. Getting delegated to from multiple sources and you suspect someone may be overloading you. Bonus: Helps you prioritize based on who assigned the work Allows you to add and identify what you own because you assigned it (to yourself OR to others) How it works: Add a column for "Per" for the person who assigned you the task. For example: Priority Scale: A = Urgent, important, and due today B = Important but not urgent C = Not due soon, more tactical than strategic D = Delegate or delete these Additional Uses: A way to show the people who assign you work how much they assign you and also what else you are working on. Makes you assign a realistic priority value instead of calling everything an A (urgent AND important.) When deployed among your team you can see if the distribution of work is optimal or needs adjusting. -- doug smith ...

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...

Give your front line supervisors two days of training that will pay off in improved performance, engagement, and motivation for years to come. Agenda: Developing leadership capacity, strength, and flexibility Ten keys to leadership success Achieving your supervisory goals Communicating for results Building your team Motivating yourself and others Manage your time without driving yourself crazy Coaching to improve performance Facilitating highly productive meetings Solving team problems collaboratively Supervisors are challenged in every direction. They usually don't get the training they need and end up with more problems and headaches than they'd ever imagined possible. It doesn't have to be that way. The key tasks of a supervisor can be learned. Our time tested and field tested training methods get your supervisors to explore, discover, and practice the key skills that will make a positive difference in their performance, their teams, and their lives...

Every once in a while I will meet someone who is content to remain out of control. They refuse to believe that they can change anything because "the culture is so bad here" or because "my boss would never go for that" or because "that's all fine and good but it wouldn't work for me." What can you say in response? "You're absolutely right. At least, as long as you think that." Then I try to avoid saying one of those favorite consultant answers, "how's that working for you?" because, clearly, it isn't. Positive leaders believe in empowerment. Positive leaders believe that regardless of opposition or culture or challenges galore, the better route to achievement takes a positive approach. Do what we can. Challenge where we need to. Support each other all the way thru. A positive leader builds a positive team - a team that collaborates, cooperates, and cares. Of course the work is hard -- that's why it's ...

Successful supervisors set high performance standards and collaborate on accountability. -- Doug Smith

What do the people on your project teams get out of working on your project teams? I'm not talking about money. I mean attention, growth, opportunity. Are you making your projects the coolest possible things your people could be working on? Do they look forward to each meeting, each task, each opportunity? Is each project encounter a new creative possibility? What are you offering your project teams that they can't get anywhere else? Elevate your project teams by increasing the level of creativity. Try new things. Value new ideas. Get wild and crazy in your brainstorms.  When you find that and deliver, your teams will do whatever it takes to complete the project. Isn't that what you want? -- Doug Smith

Do you ever feel like you're doing it all? There is no end to how much work is available for a front line supervisor. The temptation is to do everything you can to make sure that all the work gets done, even if you do it yourself. It doesn't have to be that way. Share the love. Share the work. Match meaningful work to people who will enjoy it. Delegate everyday. Successful supervisors share responsibility. -- Doug Smith

doug smith training develops high performance leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. It's tough on the front end, dealing with your team, your customers, and your bosses. Get the leadership training you need to navigate the choppy seas of supervising. "Supervising for Success" is a two-day workshop that helps you to develop: The keys to leadership success Setting and achieving your supervisory goals Communicating for results Building your team Motivating yourself and others Time Management Coaching for performance Leading productive meetings Solving problems Leading ethically and effectively Supervising multiple generations in the workplace Prioritizing and handling multiple projects and goals Contact me today about bringing "Supervising for Success" to your location.  doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Supervising for Success Developing your front line leadership skills Two things happen when you are promoted to supervisor. First, you lose your team's best technical performer (because that was you!) and second, you are thrust into a job that requires a completely new set of skills.  Working side-by-side and setting a great example with customers is a good place to start, but supervisors and managers need so much more. In this in-person workshop you will explore, discover, and practice these key leadership skills: Develop leadership capacity, strength and flexibility Set and achieve your supervisory goals Handle critical conversations confidently Build collaborative, cohesive, results-based teams Develop more motivation in yourself, your team members, and your colleagues Delegate work that develops your team Improve productivity Coach to improve performance Facilitate highly productive meetings Solve team problems collaboratively Practice preventing and r...

The best supervisors take time to reflect on the impact of their actions and the validity of their beliefs. -- Doug Smith

Who is in charge of your team? Of every little detail? The best way to build your team members is to put each one in charge of something. Give them as much as they can handle (and then a little more.) Trust them. Build them. Develop them. Challenge them. An early mistake I made as a supervisor was to try to be the answer man. People would line up to my cubicle to get answers to my questions. And most of the time I had great answers. But you know what? Their own answers, I learned, were far better. Better because they had a rich amount of experience to draw from. Better because they could then own the solution. And better because it freed me up to do other things. To be more strategic and to spend more time with team members on their development, not their supervision. The better you supervise, the less you'll need to supervise.  And the more leadership that you share, the less your team will rely on you for answers. Take charge AND allow your team members to lead. Share...

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?...

What are you afraid of? Everyone who is honest is afraid of something. It could be that performance interview. It could be that presentation. It could be standing up for your team members when your own boss is being unreasonable. We're all anxious about something. Some days, it feels like a whole list of fears. Breathe. Relax. Let it go. The fear is your signal. The fear is your signal that you have a chance to show your commitment, show your passion, show your resolve. And...importantly, to show your courage. Successful supervisors speak and act with courage. Start there. -- Doug Smith Interested in developing your front line leaders? Bring our two-day workshop Supervising for Success to your location and see immediate improvement in your supervisors. Contact: doug@dougsmithtraining.com