High Performance Leadership

"The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have." -- Sheryl Sandberg

It's better to be considered tough and show up tender than to be thought tender and show up tough. -- doug smith  

Resistance to change is our most natural and unproductive impulse. Helping people thru that change changes their lives positively. It's s something that high performance leaders do. -- doug smith

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

Every bad habit you break makes room for a good habit to take. -- doug smith  

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  

The most useful lessons need to be learned many times to become your most useful habits. -- doug smith 

Beat your average performance every day and you elevate your expectations, AND your performance.  You know the drill: a little adds up to a lot. -- doug smith  

The problem with trying to control someone is the inevitable rebellion that it sparks. Go for influence, not control. -- doug smith  

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  

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