High Performance Leaders Make the Tough Choices

Are you ever faced with tough choices?

As leaders, we are often forced to choose between and uncomfortable decision and one that impacts people in negative ways. How do we make budget cuts without cutting people?

How do we change our direction without leaving some valuable people behind? How do we innovate while maintaining our cash flow?

These and more frequently create the need for quick and decisive actions.

Centered leaders make the tough choices without regrets or blame.

That takes a balanced, experienced, and practiced amount of clarity, courage, creativity, and compassion.

Clarity to know your vision and mission and all that includes (and does not include).

Courage to make the tough decisions even when they may be unpopular. The strength to get the help you need in making those decisions and in pushing questions forward to get what may be unspoken or hidden answers.

Creativity to find solutions that expand your possibilities, rather than limit them. Taking the chances to discover what you don't know, to combine unique ideas into revolutionary ideas, and to make something out of what appears to be nothing.

Compassion to consider the needs and feelings of other people. Treating people with respect and honor. Finding ways to keep dignity at the forefront of all of your relationships.

No, it's not always easy. That's part of the reason that not everyone is equipped to lead.

Centered leaders make the tough choices without regrets or blame, but with plenty of help.

Who can help you today with your toughest decision?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

Developing Leadership Skills

Comments

High Performance Leadership Combination

We can rationalize anything without making it justified. Leaders should always ask: who is this good for other than me? High performance leadership does NOT mean performance at any cost. It means performance that serves a noble cause while also benefiting people. High performance leadership is a combination. Results without relationships are shallow and temporary. Take care of both, and you'll be a high performance leader. -- doug smith

New Ideas

New ideas won't break you but they can make you bigger. -- doug smith

What You Need

Use what you've learned to become what you need. -- doug smith

For example

Get good at something that won't obsolete itself. For example: emotional intelligence creating great conversations encouraging people leadership What would you add to the list? Which ones are you developing? -- doug smith

Your Reputation

More authority means higher levels of responsibility. More power requires more service to others, not less. What you do with your power is who you will be known as. Also, how you use the power you have creates who people will remember you as. How do you want to be remembered? -- doug smith

Decide

What do you want? Are you getting what you want? Intention is direction. Decide. And, then go. -- doug smith

Start With Kindness

When you start with kindness you don't have to stay there, but you probably will. It works better for others. It works better for you. If you're human, you'll probably relapse. It does take practice to stay the course. The course starts by starting. When you start with kindness, it becomes more naturally the way. High performance leadership develops from the core leadership strengths of clarity, creativity, courage, and compassion. Build one of those strengths today thru some act of kindness and the others will get stronger as well. -- doug smith

Show Integrity

The goals we seek bring a lot of pull to them. We get wrapped in them. It's useful and it's powerful when we care about our goals so much that they propel us forward and keep us working even when we're tired, beyond the boundaries of our usual limitations. But they should not take us beyond the boundaries of our usual values. They should not trick us into bending the rules just because the rules are in the way. Truly high performance leaders of character who are focused, and centered, and noble maintain integrity. No cheating is ever worth the outcome. Integrity is so rare that many people don't even recognize. If you do, be thankful. We need leaders like you. To truly understand integrity you've got to keep it. Even when it's hard. Even the lines are blurred. -- doug smith

Measures Matter

Some people measure quantify first and quality later. Some people measure money first and impact to the team later (not even second!). How you measure productivity might determine your character and your reputation. Put people first. -- doug smith

Personally

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership

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