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When To Dance?

Have you ever danced to a tune you didn't like? Maybe it was at a wedding, or a holiday gathering, or a nightclub, or some other place. Dancing was around you and so you danced.  Dancing is usually a choice. Unless it is against your belief system (as a child I remember people in my family who thought that dancing was a sin) dancing is on the whole more beneficial than difficult.  I used to believe that I was a good dancer -- until my partner broke up with me and I discovered that SHE was the good dancer, so good that she makes anyone she dances with look like a better dancer (even me). And yet, still I dance. I remember the celebration dinner for a project that I worked on when the president of the company joined the rest of us on the dance floor to do a fun line dance. I'll admit, he danced better than me. For one of the programs that I teach I offer the participants the opportunity to dance in a brief virtual dance party. Some people do (and seem to enjoy it) and some people
Recent posts

Reset

Part of the appeal of video games is the ability to reset. All (or much) is forgiven, the table is cleared, and you're free to begin again. Fun. Forgiving. Fabulous. My favorite keyboard shortcut is control+alt+delete (or in my ever Apple world, Control Z. Make a mistake? Reset! Real life is sometimes not as forgiving. There is no real reset -- only change. High performance leaders embrace change to make it positive change. What was, is gone because you can't get it back. Reset? Change! -- doug smith  

Be Careful About Punishment

It's tempting. It's right in front of you as a leader. Someone violates your trust, or misses a goal, or fails to respond to the promise of a reward, and the logical action seems to be to punish them in some way. Take away a perk. Deny a personal day off. Refuse a good assignment. Be careful. Every punishment brings about unexpected payback. Maybe it's immediate or maybe it comes months (even years!) down the road -- but payback is coming. It could be assertive, even aggressive -- or it could be so passive aggressive that you fail to see it coming. Oh, but it's coming. You may not like that payback. You may want to consider another path. What do you think? -- doug smith  

Something Good In It

Adversity creates urgency for you goals.  You might not want the conflict, but it just might catalyze your actions toward success. Find the good in it and move ahead. Any important goal will spark a bit of conflict. Use that energy to help you achieve your goal. -- doug smith

Win Within The Rules

Everybody wants to win but to win within the rules is the road to excellence. Any cheating at all cracks the character that holds long term quality together. Win, sure. Win within the rules. -- doug smith  

Stay With Compassion

Leaders need courage. They also need compassion. We can use our compassion to balance our courage, and use our courage to increase our compassion. Compassion is so vital we must never give up on it. No matter how angry we are, no matter how disappointed we feel, no matter how high the stakes -- stay with compassion. If it cannot be done with compassion, it should not be done. -- doug smith

Double-Check

How often do you check your work? When you're leading others you've got to check their work, too.  High performance leaders verify and then verify their verification. Things change.  Mistakes happen. Check to be sure. -- doug smith