doug smith training

The trouble with assigned goals is that it's within our nature to avoid them. That's true even if YOU are the one assigning the goal. The first question for any goal is: what is your motivation to achieve it? What will you get out of it? How will it make you feel? If those answers come hard to you, it might not be a goal for you. Question any goal that doesn't promise to make your life better. -- doug smith I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. To explore how we might work together, start the conversation in the comments below or contact me: doug@dougsmithtraining.com

You didn't ask for the problem, and yet it's here. You could ignore the problem, and yet it's still here. What if that problem is here for you to grow? What if you can make more of yourself by helping someone else? A problem is a platform for your advancement. Ready, set, go. -- doug smith I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. To start a conversation on how we might work together, contact me here: doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Permission is a tricky thing. It can be important in an organization. Leadership has its needs, and one of those needs is order. Too much recklessness -- by the leader or the team, can lead to a chaos that spins out of control. Get permission when you need it. Breaking rules will almost always catch up to you, and the price is always higher than expected. But -- and this is an important condition to consider -- don't wait for permission when you don't need it. If you have been empowered to take action, take action! If you have discussed your strategic move with those affected and reached consensus, take action! I've gone so far as to wait silently for permission, as if my boss could read my mind and anticipate the situation. How silly. Instead I've learned to take action. Waiting for permission, when it is neither needed or implied, is wasting time. Let go of the fear and move. Cautiously, perhaps -- but move! Don't let "waiting for permission...

Do you have leadership development needs? Whether it is for yourself, your team, or your whole organization, we can help. By answering a few questions on our Training Needs Analysis form and scheduling an appointment to chat with Doug we can identify the best, most direct, and most effective way to train you and your people. The conversation usually takes about a half hour. After that you can decide your next steps. I'll be happy to make recommendations (and they don't always mean training with us -- if your needs call for using another source, vendor, or method I will be straight forward with that type of recommendation.) To schedule a needs analysis phone call, start here . -- doug smith I help people develop leadership with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. To talk about your leadership development needs, contact me here .

Do you know a difficult person? Of course you do. We all do. Some people just make life harder than it needs to be. It's that person who misses the deadline, every time. It's the person who won't return your messages. It's the person who rolls their eyes when you speak in a meeting. You know one or more of them, I'm sure. We can't fix them. Even high performance leaders can't fix difficult people because people are not processes or machines. We make funny noises. We stutter and moan. We grunt at customers when we should be patient and kind. But that's not how it needs to be. We can make a difference. As leaders, we don't need to surrender to a bad day or even a bad moment. We're here to serve. Even difficult behaviors can spark better behavior of our own - habits we develop to better serve each other and so to also serve ourselves. By taking care of ourselves. By taking those deep breaths when we need them. By developing a sense of persp...

Are you getting all the training that you need? As a leader, are you able to schedule all the training you want, whenever you want it? It's tough to do with budget constraints and time limitations. I can think of dozens of leadership programs I would have LOVED to attend when I was working in corporate life and, while I was truly fortunate to be able to attend many of them, some just feel outside of our time or budget constraints. That's why I'm now offering a flexible alternative. Lean, focused teleclasses that you can schedule, just like an appointment. I call them Teleclass appointments. Schedule one, or schedule the whole bunch. Each one is fairly priced and sharply focused. In thirty minutes you will learn a key skill or explore a high impact tool which you can than apply. The very affordable price ($30 for most of them) is payable when you make the appointment. Book it just for yourself or invite a friend to share your line at the same connection and it...

Successful leaders find ways to develop the talent on their team so that the tasks of leadership (mainly, management tasks to handle the day-to-day operation) can be shared with other team members. Until you can delegate you are stuck doing the same old tasks. Sharing the work frees up the team leader while also developing the team members. It's the right approach. Still, your team does need you. Even developing your team to the point where nearly every major task is handled by the team (even scheduling, delegating, assessing, interviewing...) the team leader provides a sense of direction not obtainable any other way. The team leader sets the tempo AND the temperature of the team. The team leader sparks the pulse, ignites the flame, defines the lines. Just because your team can function without you doesn't mean that your team can function without you. Stay in the game. Stay in the team. You are in charge. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action:  Success team ...

How does it feel like when your mind is foggy? For me, fogginess happens when there are an overwhelming number of choices, or possibilities, or the problem seems to cut so deep that only a tourniquet will help. Fogginess can also come from incomplete thinking - we stop at a place that makes sense to our unseen bias, and move forward without looking for other facts. Flaws in our thinking develop when our thinking is misdirected (it was true about something else so it must be true about this), polluted (that advertisement is just SO convincing), corrupted (it might not be exactly right but it's good for me), and any of dozens of factors that fog our thoughts. The flaw that blocks you knocks you off center. The flaw that deceives you leaves you without a real solution. Find the flaw in your thinking while you can still find it, or the problem is yours to keep. -- doug smith Level Up It's challenging to think about what we think about. Our minds don't always se...

What does anyone get out of blaming anyone else? It's easy. It's even reflexive. It just doesn't help. Find the problem, identify the issues, and solve it. There's plenty of responsibility to go around. Work together as a team, and the team will work better together. Team members who give each other the benefit of the doubt do much better when stress intrudes than any team that finds it easy to blame. -- doug smith

When: Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018 at 12:00 Noon ET $30 / 30 Minutes It's on every list of key leadership skills. It's on the minds of every recruiter, manager, executive, and team member: communication. How to Communicate More Effectively is 30 fast moving minutes for you to explore key levers that will immediately improve your communicate skills. We'll explore and practice five key communication skills that, once practiced, will give you: Deeper conversations More productive meetings More powerful presentations Better relationships Join with me in exploring the CLUES to Success model for developing and sharing more communication effectiveness. You'll get a downloadable learner's guide plus 30 minutes of instantly usable skill building. Preview and download the Learner's Guide here. (This event has already occurred. Please watch for additional available times, or schedule your own teleclass appointment here .)

Supervisors can't insist on everything. Your people have lives. Your people have limitations. You do want to get the most out of your team. You do that by making reasonable demands and framing somewhat ambitious yet achievable expectations. Push your people, don't break them. Inspire them without tiring them out. Building your team is a process. Some of it is in the group dynamics, and some of it is person by person. Give it your best, and see what you get from the rest. No one has to give their team everything as long as everyone give the team their best. -- doug smith

Thursday, October 11 11:00 am ET to 11:30 30/30 Thirty Minutes, Thirty Dollars Discover a five-step process for achieving your leadership goals. In thirty fast minutes you'll be on your way to setting and achieving high performance goals. The hand-out is filled with information and activities that will direct you toward a faster, much more fun path toward achieving your goals. You can preview, and download, the Learners Guide here . To book this teleclass, contact: doug@dougsmithtraining.com