Centered Leaders Know the Difference Between Mission and Ego

How do you know when your vision has crossed the line into your ego? Is what you want part of a noble plan or a symptom of a simple pain?

Centered leaders test their vision against their values to separate character from ambition.

They do this by:

- Asking people they trust to give them very honest feedback
- Checking in on their values: are they living them or just aspiring to them?

- Comparing their actions to their values
- Comparing their vision to the character they want to be remembered for

Centered leaders know the difference between their mission and their ego.

How will you stay centered in your quest for success today?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

Solving Problems. Achieving Your Goals

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Insist On The Truth

How many lies are acceptable to you? Centered leaders confront all lies as soon as possible. Clarify, validate, ask. A lie left alone only grows worse. The truth may seem flexible but require constant diligence. How else will you know what is true? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Pay Attention to Your Problems

What if we just ignored a problem? What if we just denied that it existed? Some people would rather "reframe" it and not call it a problem at all. I have had several bosses who preferred to call problems "opportunities". They didn't fool anyone because a problem is still a problem. We may have the opportunity to succeed, but only if we solve the problem. Denying that problems exist invites them to worsen and grow. We don't want that do we? The trouble with denying problems is that you don't make them go away that way. Call them what you like, they still need to be managed or solved. What's the fear? Let's call problems what they are: problems; and get about the exciting business of solving them. That's what a centered leader would do. Won't you? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Center Your Goals on Your Purpose

Are your goals centered on your purpose? It's easy to form a massive list of unrelated goals. Before you know it your focus is scattered across an undefined landscape. What do you do first? How do you prioritize? The time to focus is at the start. Can you align each and every goal to your purpose, your vision? People often tell me during a workshop that it's not possible. "My supervisor gives me my goals" they might say, or "Upper management decides what our goals are and if they're not related that's my problem..." What do you do about that? How about making every goal centered conversation a centered conversation. Bring in your key leadership skills. Be clear about your purpose. If your boss isn't clear, ask and help to clarify (yes, you really can do this). Get creative in your approach to your goals. If it's not aligned obviously with your vision, what ways can you move it in the direction of better alignment? How can you optimize your n...

Is That Problem Solved?

How do you feel after solving a problem? Usually, there is a rush of joy when I think I have a problem licked. The effort, the work, the time feels altogether worth it. But, sometimes there can be a lingering doubt. There can be a flicker of uncertainty. The faint sounds of the problem still ticking away are heard. Maybe that problem isn't solved after all. Maybe there is still work to do. Sometimes our inner radar will tell us. Centered leaders have ways of knowing when their center is still off. Balance is impossible to fake. If you don't feel better after solving a problem maybe you haven't solved the problem. Ready to go back to work? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Should You Judge Ideas?

How did your last brainstorming session go? Having been thru tons of brainstorming sessions, I know that they don't always go well. Sometimes people judge ideas too soon. Sometimes people don't give themselves enough time to develop the best and most creative ideas. Sometimes, people settle for stupid ideas. Yes, we do need to generate lots of ideas. Yes, we do judge too much without letting our imaginations go wild. But, there does come a time when reason must rule. There does come a time when we must fall out of love with our ideas enough to see them for what they really are. Because, as a matter of fact, there IS such a thing as a stupid idea. And you wouldn't want to run with that, would you? -- Doug Smith

Roll With Your Creativity

You have a secret healing power. Sometimes you use it without even knowing it. If you're like me, you could use it even more. It's a power that heals each person and when we heal ourselves we are much better positioned to heal and help others. Creativity energy heals. Bring that creative energy out. Encourage your creativity. Avoid shutting it down when it inconveniently offers to embarrass you with a really wild idea. Roll with it way more often. When you've gotten to the point where people ask you what's gotten into you because you seem a little more wild and spontaneous than usual -- that's when you know you're on the right track. You're headed in a creative direction that will burst open the veil of constraints you think you see but is only a mirage. It's all available. The possibilities are endless. Creativity rocks. Might as well roll with it. -- Doug Smith

Lead On Level Ground

How does it feel to be stuck in the middle? Maybe you know what I'm talking about -- stuck in the middle of your organization with tough customers above you, tough team members below you, and fascinatingly frustrating peers beside you. The life of a supervisor is one surrounded on every level by challenges. It may be the toughest spot in the organization. Supervisor may be the toughest job because you can always be over ruled from above, undermined from below, and ignored from your peers. What's the solution? Lead on level ground. Find ways to leave everyone's title at the door. Think of people as peers -- no matter where they sit in the organization. Your boss is a person with needs and dreams. Your direct-reports imagine themselves as critically important (and they are). Your peers want and need your help in more ways than they can express. It's all much more easy once you believe -- and behave -- as if titles are must less important than goals. People a...

Stay True to Your Values

Do you have a set of values that guides your work? As you seek to optimize processes and improve your world, do you keep in mind a set of principles that helps you to make decisions and stay on course for your mission? Values are critical. Knowing what is most important to you and standing by those values will prevent more problems than you'll ever have time to solve. Goals change, but genuine values persist. Do you know what your top five values are? Centered leaders stay true to their values. Do you? -- Doug Smith

Encourage Your Creativity

Do you find time each day to be creative, to do something creative? It doesn't need to be a big deal. Maybe you aren't going to finish that novel today or wrap up that film. But you can still be creative. Your day, your life can be filled with creative things. Try something new. Take a different way home from work. Read a magazine you've never read before. Draw, and then frame that doodle. Cook a new dish ...we can always find new ways to exercise our creativity. It sparks new ideas and helps us refine old ones. Your brain likes creativity. Why not make sure it gets the creativity it craves today? -- Doug Smith

Step Up Creatively

How's your creativity doing today? We all have days that are more creative than others. If we're not careful and if we let the non-creative days become routine it can squeeze the creativity right out of our lives. Suddenly we stop drawing, stop paining, stop writing, stop exploring fun conversations, stop doing the extraordinary. Let's not let that happen. We're more creative than that. Sometimes when we feel the least creative we need to be the most creative. Overcome the routine. Break out of the rut. Draw anything. Draw it again, better. Write a poem about anything - then write it again with a deeper meaning. Force yourself out of the mundane. Imagine yourself in a room with five of the most people you can think of. You wouldn't want to be the lump on the log who sits there doing nothing creative, would you? You need never be that person. Creativity is always there for the developing. We just need to disconnect from the routine and reconnect to that chi...

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