High Performance Leadership

Effective leaders help their people discover and develop their gifts. They do this by paying attention, assessing, holding deeper conversations, and most of all asking their people what energizes them and what they enjoy doing. Leaders who can match the work to be done with the gifts of their people find much more success in achieving their goals. What are you doing today to learn more about your people's gifts, skills, and talents? What can you do that will help each person you work with to take their talents and gifts to the next level of excitement? -- Douglas Brent Smith Learn more in the workshop: Building Your Team  

The essential question is "How can I help?" Whether you are the leader of thousands or completely on your own, your role on this planet is to help, to make things better. Usually, that means helping other people. Kings, rulers, athletes, artists, government officials, doctors, fire fighters, deli workers, mechanics, economists...we are all here to help. Sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Sometimes we feel the need to be served instead. But whatever the situation, no matter what the organization, high performance leaders know that their role is to help. Reflection Questions How can you be most helpful? What situations are you facing right now where you have not yet asked the question, "how can I help?" Who do you remember the most for being ready to jump in and find a way to help? How did they make you feel? How engaged and happy did they seem to be? Action Plan Within the next 24 hours, find a situation and ask yourself "how can I help?" ... and then...

To best coach other people, we must first be willing to be coached as well. Your credibility as a coach comes in part from your reactions to coaching. People will be more responsive to your feedback and advice once they know that you are also open to it. Who is your coach? Who can you ask for feedback today? Who is watching you to see if you can be coached? -- Douglas Brent Smith Learn more in the workshop:   Improving Performance  

High performance leaders expand capacity by constantly developing their people. How does your team grow? How can you get more done with less? There are many answers to the question of increasing capacity and responsible leaders explore them all, including improving processes and design. It's also important to constantly develop your people People who feel valued and who are constantly growing develop new ideas. They fix problems. They engage in processes and structures and find better ways to get things done. People who are developing stop tolerating defects and instead work toward optimizing their environment. They raise their capacity and increase the value of the team. What are you doing to develop your people? How much more capacity could your team have with people who were fully engaged, truly energized, and growing? -- Douglas Brent Smith Learn more in the workshop:   Building Your Team  

Decision making is never a burden when leaders share the load.  Leadership decisions can be made in many ways. Often, the situation determines which type of method a leader uses to make a decision. Some ways include: Decide and announce : the leader does all the work, makes the complete decision, and hopes that everyone follows. This method is useful in a crisis (like a fire fighter captain at a fully involved blaze) and less useful in other situations (for example, picking an organizational strategy for next year). Consult and then decide : the leader talks to key people, gather information, and makes the decision. Sometimes that decision is close to what others have recommended, and sometimes it isn't. This method is useful when the decision is complicated and technical in an area where the leader has authority but not all of the expertise. The method fails if the leader consults the wrong people or disregards all advice without ever explaining the rationale for the f...

Professional, patient, persistent, and powerful. Those are four traits worth focusing on as a leader. Combined with what it takes to be a centered leader (courage, compassion, creativity, and clarity) these four "p's" can drive a leader forward in performance and results. Are you professional? Paying attention to details, keeping an appropriate appearance for your line of work, meeting deadlines, installing quality, treating others as the professional you aspire to be -- these are all marks of leading as a professional. What would you add to the list? Are you patient? Leaders are often faced with difficult situations at exactly the wrong time. Without surrendering to lower standards, leaders must remain patient with people and circumstances. How else should leaders demonstrate patience? Are you persistent? Patience begs persistence. While high performance leaders have the capacity to remain patient under stress, they are also doggedly persistent. Nothing should stand in t...

W ant to recruit the best talent? Show appreciation for the talent that's already on your team. People will notice whether or not the talent on your team is appreciated. So often leaders go looking for the best talent available without recognizing the talent that is already there.  Bringing in "high powered" talent without developing the talent that exists already is a costly mistake that is paid for in lower morale, diminishing productivity, or worse. How are you at appreciating the talent that's already on your team? What do you do to show your appreciation for talent and effort? What are you doing to develop the talent on your team? Are you developing a sense of shared leadership and personal responsibility? If not, where will that come from?