doug smith training

It's tempting. It's right in front of you as a leader. Someone violates your trust, or misses a goal, or fails to respond to the promise of a reward, and the logical action seems to be to punish them in some way. Take away a perk. Deny a personal day off. Refuse a good assignment. Be careful. Every punishment brings about unexpected payback. Maybe it's immediate or maybe it comes months (even years!) down the road -- but payback is coming. It could be assertive, even aggressive -- or it could be so passive aggressive that you fail to see it coming. Oh, but it's coming. You may not like that payback. You may want to consider another path. What do you think? -- doug smith 

What is your most powerful gift? What is that thing that you rely on the most, that people find most compelling about you, that sets you apart from others? Everyone is a customer for your most important gift. Are you giving it freely? -- doug smith  

Do you team members see you interact with customers? Do you see them? Your team's treatment of customers is a reflection of your treatment of your team.   Treat your team well, and your customers will benefit. -- doug smith

Did your most recent rude customer ruin your day? It doesn't have to be that way. Customers these days ARE tougher than ever. Their highly emotional outbursts can impact any attempts to provide good service. As a result, poorly behaved customers often get WORSE service than they would have otherwise. When I managed a customer service shop I often told my team members, "you may have to tolerate occasional rudeness sparked by emotions, but you  NEVER have to tolerate abuse." End the conversation, politely, and decisively. Suggest a better time to talk, when things have calmed down. Service does not require surrender. We're people, too. -- doug smith  

The first cause you find to a problem is probably not the last cause or even the main cause. Keep digging. -- doug smith  

Doesn't manipulation feel icky? If your inner radar works at all it goes all tingling in full tilt alarm when someone tries to force you into doing something, or tries to trick you into an action you don't want. Walk away from those who seek to win over you, and walk toward those who seek to win you over. -- doug smith 

All things being equal, things are never equal. -- doug smith  

If working on your goal doesn't bring you joy, how will achieving it ever make you happy? The work may be tough but if the nature of the work allows you to feel happiness, joy, or pride, you'll more likely stick with it. If it disconnects you from your authentic self, wherever it leads is probably the wrong place for you. Choose goals that bring you joy, even when the work is hard. You've got to work hard anyway, right? -- doug smith  

Have you ever had a problem that seemed to be propelled by people's personalities? When it's hard to get along our problems can linger on. Here's what I do: take a breath, take nothing personally, and take charge of taking the next step. What would you do? It's possible to be wrong about the personalities involved in a problem AND it's also possible to be wrong about the problem, and when we're wrong about both we only complicate the problem. Take a breath -- maybe we're jumping to conclusions or distorting what we see. Take nothing personally -- even if it's your problem taking it personally will only complicate the issue. Take charge -- that problem won't go away on its own and that personality won't be any more friendly unless you build the rapport.  A centered problem solver detaches the problem from the personalities. -- doug smith 

Leaders do need a vision, a focus on where to go next, and they also need the pragmatic determination to get the work done now. Look ahead, but live right here. Your goal may loom ahead, while the work is right in front of you. -- doug smith  

Discipline gives us the power to do what we want to do -- and that comes from developing discipline by doing work we don't want to do... That might sound like a paradox but it's more like a matched pair. I'm not saying that we should do a lot of work that we don't like, but rather that sometimes within the work that we choose are tasks that we would not have chosen. Those necessary but unappealing tasks give us the opportunity to persist -- to stick to our goals because of and sometimes in spite of the details. Discipline. You can live without it, but you probably won't achieve your goals that way. -- doug smith

My late friend and fraternity brother, Jim Aker, a man of serious intellect and even more serious opinions, was an avid fisher. One time in Colorado, he was fishing with a mutual friend and confounded her with the concept of "catch and release." "If you catch it after all this work, shouldn't you keep it?" she asked. Jim just smiled. Nah, he probably had a lot to say about it. Achieving your goals is not fishing, and it certainly is not "catch and release" fishing but let's face it, sometimes you have to let go of a goal that's getting you nowhere. Pretending a goal matters is ending any chance that you'll achieve it. Make the goal important enough that you will apply the discipline you'll need to achieve it -- or let it go. -- doug smith