doug smith training

Even when kindness is taken for granted, it's worth it. Four core strengths add up to high performance leadership: clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. The clearest, most courageous manifestation of compassion is kindness. It's not always reciprocated. It's not always appreciated. But, it's always worth it. Kindness is always a great choice. -- doug smith  

  I like predictability. Data is awesome because it helps us predict with some accuracy. But not with complete accuracy. We may not know or even be able to know. When it comes to change, when it involves the future: Uncertainty is certain. It's up to us to simply deal with that, dance the dance, and work for the best with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion. -- doug smith

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith 

Do you believe that love can solve a problem? It may not be magic, but it is a great place to begin. Love, rather than resentment, for the situation. Acceptance and compassion for the person or thing in the way helps us see more possibilities. Unconditional love enriches the target of the love. And, there's a wonderful bonus. Unconditional love enriches the giver most of all. -- doug smith 

I like wild ideas. Game-changing concepts that transform transitions. The big boost. The mighty boom.  But just because an idea is wild doesn't mean it will lead to amazing outcomes. How can we ever know which wild idea will hit, and which will wither? Take that humble notion and do something. A little thing. A baby step. Then see what happens next. Many brilliant ideas started as humble amusing notions. Your next silly idea might be one of those. -- doug smith  

How patient are you? We are given so many opportunities to practice patience! Waiting in line, waiting online as a page loads, waiting for someone to get ready to go someplace or waiting for someone to arrive FROM someplace. Patience. For me, patience is a work in progress. The old term of "losing my patience" can easily lead to "losing my temper" (what exactly is being lost there?) and neither one is helpful. Better to remain patient. Not so that poor outcomes can win but so that we don't force them in. Impatience is a sign of taking your self too seriously. Patience. It's worth practicing. -- doug smith  

Sometimes we do things a certain way because we've always done things a certain way. It's easy, it's comfortable, it's probably inadequate and it can certainly be improved. Finding the right process powers your productivity. Better performance starts with better processes. For the next twenty-four hours, pay attention to each process you engage with, and ponder how you might make that process better or, find another better one altogether. -- doug smith  

How do you feel about the truth? Do you feel the same way about what you tell yourself when you think?  To get to the truth more often, I've learned to start with myself. A question I often ask my classes is "who tells lies?" and the answer, almost always, is "Everyone." Occasionally someone will say that they don't ever tell lies and that's probably a lie. My follow-up question is, "Who do we lie to the most?" And the answer is always "Ourselves." That's unnecessary, isn't it? Who are we going to fool? To get to the truth more often, start by telling yourself the truth, then the truth gets easier.  -- doug smith

The best way to help yourself is to help someone else. It may not be my first impulse, but it is always my best outcome. When we help others we untangle knots of tension. When we serve others we heal ourselves. It's not magic, it's simply the way most of us are wired. Service helps the server and the served. Let the joy of service erase your sorrow. -- doug smith  

Everyone serves.  Some of us simply serve better than others. When companies treat customers poorly it's easy to see that as poor service to the customers. It also serves the company poorly. If there is not more to business than the bottom line, the bottom line will hit the bottom with a thud. Painfully. Sometimes rapidly. Everyone serves. We can serve devotedly or we can serve resentfully. When we serve with devotion -- to a higher cause, for a better world, because we like and love people, because we see that as the best way to lead with courage, clarity, creativity, and compassion -- then we enjoy the experience. Service brings us joy. When we serve with resentment -- the quality of the service suffers and there is no joy in it. Instead of the intrinsic satisfaction of service, of helping another human, we hold onto a low boiling anger that poisons the transaction, the relationship, and (gasp) ourselves. The work is the same, but the attitude is different. It's a mistake to ...

Productivity is a loaded word that is thrown around as if it means unlimited quality. It's not. Like most words, productivity is a relative term.  While you can always improve productivity (if that means doing more with less) there will also be a cost. That cost is usually in quality. Unless you develop a completely new way of doing something (or at least revolutionize the process) when you do more of it you inevitably reach a capacity limit. Approaching that intersection, the traffic heads for trouble.  We see it all the time: a relentless race to the bottom to make things cheaper and more plentiful at the huge sacrifice of quality. That loss feels like a real human loss. Yes, a phone-cue is faster than waiting to speak to a human, but there has been a significant loss in human contact in the business world. Long before AI started doing work for us, we let customers do their own heavy lifting. That results in a lot of dropped balls and a lot of unhappy customers. How you meas...

How much of your leadership relies on status? Status can be granted or seized, earned or burned. A frequent cause of conflict, people often compete for status even when they don't realize it. It gives way to one-upping others, to interrupting others, to manipulating others, all in search of some magic elevation to wear the crown. It's usually a figurative crown, but palpable nonetheless. It causes people to take things personally, all in an attempt to raise their personal standing. As high performance leaders, let's take notice. As centered and balanced leaders, let's place status into the proper perspective: it is not who you are. The struggle for status inevitably disappoints. Find the common cause. Create the common ground. Wear the common hat. -- doug smith