doug smith training

How important is your job? How important is the work that you do? We can let our value be assessed by someone outside of us, like a boss or executive, and the problem with that is they likely do not value you or your work as much as you'd like them to. We can also under-value our own work by thinking that it's routine or mundane or simply not important. Also, not a great choice. The value of the work comes from the value of the worker. Your work is as important as you make it. If you choose not to make it important, you also have the choice of what to do about that.  Your work matters. You matter. There's a lot of work to be done, and it all needs our best work. What do you think? -- doug smith  

  "It's so hard to find anyone who wants to work these days..." "I know what you mean, they just want to stand around and read their phones." "If you can find them at all..." Is that how it has to be? Is that how it feels? Everyone in awhile even a high performance leader needs a reality check. Maybe you agree, and maybe you don't, but here's a free reality offering for you: People don't want to work for you -- they want to work for fun and profit. Lead them TO that and they'll follow. We could make it more complicated, but it's not. What do you think? -- doug smith

It's that simple: yes, or no. I've heard many leaders bemoan the trouble it takes to get a lazy worker to work. If that's really the problem, the possibilities but be fewer (and more immediate) than you think. A poor performer can be redirected, re-skilled, and learn to improve. Some of the best performers on teams that I have worked with struggled at times, but turned it around because they applied themselves to the mission, to the vision, and to their goals. Heck, I've struggle as well and in some cases without the valuable feedback and coaching that was provided I probably would have crashed and burned. But someone who simply refuses to perform thru laziness simply must go. Yes, or no -- are they willing to work, or no? As someone in one of my workshops once said, "sometimes you have to help them prosper -- some place else." -- doug smith  

"Why don't people want to work today?" It's a question I've heard many times. The frustration is real -- it feels harder than ever to find people with a solid work ethic who are willing to do the work it takes to get stuff done. They are there -- but it can be frustrating when we're confronted with people who won't do the job they are paid to do. I like to tell people that I've never had a job that I didn't hate at first but then eventually grow to love. Every single job is tough when we're first learning how to do it. Motivation, behind the monetary reward, is often hard to see. But the rewards are plentiful once you find them. The rewards of working with great people. The joy of finishing what you started. The warmth you get from carefully and completely serving a customer. People who don't seem motivated simply have yet to find the joy in work. Instead of getting frustrated, what if we showed them how much joy the work is already providi...

It's a question so often asked: what do we do about people who just won't do their job? What's happened to any sense of work-ethic? It's not gone. There are still plenty of people who are dedicated and hard-working. Ambition is alive and well, and work-ethic thrives among many. Still, those who seem to just phone-it-in (often with their phones in their hands scrolling away) seem to have multiplied: they're everywhere. It is frustrating to work hard while standing next to someone who is hardly working. But that's not the way it has to be. There is joy to be found in the work, even if some people are not trying very hard to find that joy. People who won't do their jobs have not yet discovered the joy in their work. If that makes you sad, imagine how hard it makes them. Part of our job as leaders is to help ignite that spark of joy in people, to help them discover the joy of work -- any work. Some people do show up already motivated, and some people do not. Our...