doug smith training

During a webinar that I was facilitating, one of my participants, David Palmore, quoted a former boss of his and it makes so much sense I just have to share it here: It's a supervisor's job to remove obstacles and excuses. -- Mark Howard It's so easy to find excuses - "they won't listen anyway," "it's above my pay grade," "I'm not good enough for that..." and yet what do excuses ever give you?  You don't have to think too long on that because the answer is nothing. Maybe less than nothing because excuses take away opportunity. We're not always fully equipped to do the job we need to do. We often lack resources needed to achieve our biggest goals. People push back and give us second thoughts. There are walls everywhere. But we can climb those walls. We can dig under those walls. We can go around those walls. And, when we need to we can pound thru those walls. No wall is worthy of an excuse, and no excuse is as tough as a wall

  I've been in business long enough to see a boatload of decisions made based on money. Will it help profits, will it reduce expenses, will it keep us afloat? What if there's something deeper? What if there's a meaning that can't be deciphered using dollars? What if by finding that meaning the significance of the dollars fades away? Just because it's always about the money doesn't mean that it's all about the money at all. There is always much more... -- doug smith

It's not rejection if the other person did not understand your request. -- doug smith 

  Perfection is a direction, not a destination. -- doug smith

Find meaning in this moment. That's where the meaning is. -- doug smith 

Do you believe everything that you believe? Every once in a while it's useful to question what we believe. When we take all of our beliefs for granted, they can outlive their usefulness. Not the core beliefs -- but the seemingly insignificant ones that stand in your way, beliefs like "luck is for the lucky," and " it's too late to make a difference now," and "if I can't convince someone I have to just go ahead and do it anyway..." Our heads are filled with stories we've heard over and over, we've told ourselves over and over, so many times that they rattle around on auto-pilot taking us to places we don't want to go anymore. We've inherited many stories that do us no  good. It's OK to let them go, -- doug smith  

People won't always listen, even when they want to. Leadership requires more patience than you expected. -- doug smith

  Have you ever solved a problem and then been disappointed by the result? I sure have. The problem was bad, the solution was worse.  We need to narrow down our target. We need a focus that allows for surprises and yet creates a solution based on something we really want. After all, it's not the END of something we're working on, it's the existence of something better. High performance leaders create better situations. Be careful about solving a problem until you know what you really want. Start with your goal. -- doug smith

  Bigger problems have more than one cause. Keep digging. -- doug smith

  People make so many decisions based on price that I wonder if they realize what they are choosing. I've done it, and maybe you have to -- given price precedence in making a decision. Sometimes that's reasonable. We don't always need to pay the higher price and we do enjoy a bargain. But... As obvious as it is, it's worth remembering that the best costs more. When you want the best, keep that in mind. -- doug smith

  It's a new time, a time of more virtual work, more individual work, more asynchronous connections. Still, if you want to build a high performance team, it's best if your team finds ways to work together. Teams need to spend time together, whether it's virtual or face-to-face. Do your team members enjoy spending time together? If your team members do not enjoy spending time with each other you might have the wrong team members. Just something to consider... -- doug smith

  Whenever I feel myself getting defensive, and whenever I catch myself defending a point I haven't even completely thought thru yet, I realize that what I need is to stay curious. Quiet. Open minded. In discovery mode, not defending mode. There's plenty of time to defend later. The impulse to argue is your signal to stay curious. Mine, too. -- doug smith