doug smith training

We can't do everything. Choices can be difficult, especially when different customers have different needs. Confusion will only slow us down. I find it helpful to get specific. To narrow things down. To clarify expectations and then commit strongly to a goal. The most powerful goals eliminate confusion. What's your goal for today? -- doug smith

Every goal is an opportunity to improve your life and your character. Because if you improve your life without improving your character, it can all easily fall away. I try to ask myself "who else is this goal good for in addition to me?" and if the answer is "no one" it's not a goal I have any energy for. Help yourself by helping others and the help never ends. Help yourself at the expense of others and the resistance is unrelenting. How about this as a humble suggestion for a goal: Serve others as we grow I know it's not too specific but as a guideline it has great potential. What do you think? -- doug smith  

Why do leaders get into trouble? Surely, there's enough for a book in that one question. Still, it's worth asking on an individual level. How do we as leaders avoid trouble? How do we stop ourselves from falling into our own self-shaped traps? There are pit falls just our size waiting for us, and very often we march right into them as if we were indestructible. Like that skateboarder going down the hill in the center of a highway, forgetting that someone else might not see them. Like that not-for-profit executive who makes a million dollars off of the donations of others. "But I'm doing good!" they exclaim. Or, like that little lie we tell to prevent ourselves from an otherwise awkward moment of explaining why we didn't achieve a goal. Awkward indeed. Our personal distortions, if we're not careful, get us into trouble. And when we are leaders our troubles become the troubles of others. Trouble yourself all you want, but please be careful of those who trust

If your big goals is really a series of twenty-five little goals, the sooner you get started on those little goals the sooner those goals will add up to that one big goal. -- doug smith

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