doug smith training

What could be more important to a leader than peace? We live in a world where peace cannot be taken for granted and where for much of the population peace is not even available. So many things that leaders have done in national interests, in theological interests, in self-interests, and in revenge or spite, have resulted in wars, not peace. Leaders with clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion choose peace. That means finding answers that may not be immediately satisfying. That means finding forgiveness when vengeance seems appropriate. That means standing up to constituents who demand any treatment of fellow human beings that is not human, not kind. Peace requires patience. What can you do today to bring about peace somewhere, somehow? -- doug smith   Leadership Call to Action: Be your best. Bring about peace.

High performance leaders take care of the details. What helps the most in taking care of the right details is keeping focus. Knowing what is important is the first step, acting on what is most important is the next step. No one can do everything, so high performance leaders maintain a sharp focus. To determine that focus, identify your goals. Align those goals with your mission, and the focus develops naturally. Prioritizing becomes easier when you know what is most important. What is your focus? Our goals reveal our focus, so be sure to focus those goals! -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Play hard, work hard, be smart!

What are you afraid of? We're all afraid of something. Some of us are afraid of many things. It makes sense to be afraid when danger threatens your physical or emotional well-being. If your life is in danger, deal with it promptly even if that means running away. Could it be that our fear centers are over-working? Is it possible that we avoid too many things that need a healthy supply of confrontation? High performance leaders confront their fears. They face into the risk knowing that they will grow in the process. It takes practice. It takes building muscles over the years and continuing to learn long after you think you know all the answers. That's just the beginning. Fears are there to warn you AND to challenge you. Can you handle this? Are you ready for this? Are you going to let this turn into an opportunity or a stalling game of keep-away? Challenge your fears, don't worship them. You're bigger than they are. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Ac

We all have agendas. All organizations have agendas. All movements (useful or not) drive agendas. This leads to a variety of mixed motives and unsavory outcomes. This leads to conflict and trouble. It doesn't have to be that way. What you live for, what you trust in, what you drive could be for the benefit of all. What you live could be a model for how you want to be treated -- and isn't that below the surface of most worthy faiths? Found your faith in love. Seek that good in the world that you can accent, amplify, and add. Add love Unless your faith was founded on love it's standing on shaky ground. Add some stability. Add some endurance. Add some goodness. Add love. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Whatever you do today, add love.

What are your leadership conversations about? High performance leaders conduct all kinds of conversations -- around performance, goals, aspirations, tasks, schedules, development, customer service, process improvement...all KINDS of conversations. Something every high performance leadership conversation needs is time to build the relationship. Unhurried. Deeper conversations. Getting to know your people. That's one reason why two-thirds of the three part conversations we help develop at doug smith training contain relationship building: 1. Small talk 2. Big talk (goals, performance, etc.) 3. Appreciation You could think of it as a performance sandwich but that's not all of it. The "bread" of that sandwich is all about getting to know each other better, spending meaningful time together, and bonding in such a way that working together becomes easier and more effective. You're still the boss. You still get to decide in the end. But, as you get t

Problems pile up. Answer hide. Frustration builds. Still, there are always more answers. There are always more possibilities. Our biggest challenge is to give up before we have explored enough possibilities to find a winner. There's a winner (or two or more) in there. Keep digging. Keep generating ideas. Keep focused on possibilities. We may never run out of problems but we'll also never exhaust our possibilities for solving them. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Stay curious!

You've got this. It's another great start to another great week. Whatever the challenges you face, you are ready. And if you're not ready? You'll learn! High performance leaders find the answers and today, you are ready to find some answers. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Be your best!

Have you ever been given bad advice? No matter how much someone insists that they know what they're talking about, maybe they do and maybe they don't. Have you ever given advice that might not have been the best? If you have, it probably wasn't intentional and you might not even remember it now. We sometimes give advice with the best of intentions but that advice is not exactly what is needed. Before taking the advice of someone else, here are some of the things I look and listen for: Do they understand my situation? Do they have my best interests in mind? Have they asked enough questions to determine what is needed? Have they ever experienced the same kind of situation - and if so, how did that turn out for them? Will they be there to help with the implementation of their advice? Ask these questions first before jumping to that advice. Giving advice is often the first sign that a person is not qualified to give advice. Everyone's got an opinion

Values evolve over time. If values are ever true, they refine without denying what once was. They grow. They distill. They find ways to self-generate the results they aspire to. Here are some values I've refined into calls to action. I don't just agree with them, I expect to do them. To show them. To act on them. Sometimes it goes well, and often I fall short. The journey is a long one, so keep going. Here are my current calls to action: Be your best Stay curious Say yes! Communicate, Connect, Interact! Challenge yourself Reach out with compassion Expand your possibilities Appreciate Play nice, work hard, stay smart Learn constantly What are your values? What are your calls to action? -- doug smith

How well do you know your team? Leaders spend a lot of time with their team members, but sometimes don't get to know them very well. If you asked them what their dreams were or what they thought about at night before they went to sleep, would it surprise you? High performance leaders expand their capacity of knowing their team. They learn what they don't know and explore at deeper levels what makes their team members excited, what makes them worried, and what makes them feel valued. When a leader can let the team members know that they are valued, their value increases. I don't know anyone as well as I think I do. I'm going to work at getting to know them better. How about you? -- doug smith

It is possible to agree too quickly. Talk about it to make sure that you understand the agreement. Is it really what you want? Will you be able to live with this as a decision? Do you support the likely result? An agreement is a choice. Make sure it is the right choice for you. Then, once you have made the agreement, keep it. It's what high performance leaders do. -- doug smith

Do people in your organization gossip? It's not harmless chatter. Gossip creates problems with reputations and generates disrespect. Without a person there to defend themselves, gossip is a poisonous mix of half-truth and hyperbole. It's bad stuff. When I worked at GE we had a guideline that made perfect sense: honor the absent. If you wouldn't say something if someone was sitting right next to you, then do not say it. Honor their absence and their humanity. Whether or not we agree with the goings-on and accounts of someone, if they are not there to defend themselves, maybe silence is the nobler path. Smearing them, swearing about them, and telling stories that are at least partially (and possibly, completely) untrue are behaviors that are beneath us. It's better to avoid gossip completely. High performance leaders know that to communicate for results it pays to stick to the truth AND to respect the people involves. Respect your audience, respect your topic,