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Paint Your Masterpiece

Have you painted your masterpiece yet? Have you utilized your gifts to their fullest and produced something that will last? High performance leaders consider their legacy as they work and build toward a future where that work is remembered. I am thrilled by how much we as leaders can integrate our various skills into the work of leading. It's all connected. Find ways to connect what you love with what you do and you will always love what you do. As a trainer and consultant, I am constantly finding new ways to blend my enthusiasm for the arts into my work. Maybe it's a song, maybe it's a collage, maybe it's a bit of acting in a story that I tell -- it's all part of the tapestry of the work. I may not have painted my masterpiece yet, but I am practicing every single day. How about you? -- doug smith Corner Office - collage by doug smith

Workshops of The Week

I enjoyed working with two great groups this week - one in Freehold, NJ and the other in Baltimore, MD.

Keep Your List of Goals Brief

You may not know what your limit on goals is, but the ones you can't remember won't get done. Keep your list of goals brief. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Read thru your list of goals. Prioritize your top three. Focus on those today.

What If There's a Flaw In Your Thinking?

It's humbling and it's happened to me, so I would not be surprised if it has happened to you. To be so sure, so certain, so already decided about something -- completely convinced -- only to discover that there was a flaw in the logic, there were facts not in evidence, there were perspectives unseen. There have been times when realizing that I was wrong about something rocked me more than the original problem. To find out that it couldn't be solved in the way that I was sure would work was shocking. What I learned was, do not be that certain. Yes, there are times when you know that you are right and you ARE - but they feel just like the times when you know that you are right and you are not. It's like coming out of a dream that goes in a direction that did not even seem possible. Our brains are human. Our minds are fallible. It's hard to evaluate the instrument at work with the instrument at work. It's so convincing in it's built-in bias. We need to s

Could There Be More to the Truth?

My goal is to tell the truth. All of the time. That's more difficult than you might expect, given our daily temptations to tell little lies of convenience -- especially when we consider that NOT telling something a truth they are entitled to hear is a kind of lie of omission. No one is perfect, but with a little work and a clear intention, we certainly CAN tell the truth. It's a habit worth developing. Once you get into that habit, of telling the truth all of the time, you may find yourself insisting on hearing only the truth from others. That's even more difficult. Some people lie so much that they don't even realize it. Some people lie so much that they come to believe their own lies. What do you do with that? All we can do is to start by telling the truth. All the truth we know. We may later learn that we didn't even know all of the truth, or that someone else's view of a situation is different from ours (and just as true.) Still, let's start with

Details Matter

Attention to detail thwarts a thousand problems. -- doug smith

Keep Looking

Should we stop looking, once we've found what we're looking for? Or, should we savor having that precious moment while also remembering to look onward. Keep looking. Keep building. Keep growing. Find the dream you're looking for and then keep looking. -- doug smith