High Performance Leadership

Do you sense the pace of change? Is life vastly different than what you remember it to be when you were a child? Things do keep changing. Sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes not. As leaders, it's our job to facilitate change. We're here to lead others in the direction of improvement, for the cause of positive change. Not every leader acts that way, but some part of every leader does believe that they have the right changes to bring about. Part of every leader's job is to make certain that the changes we create ARE for the better. It's our strength of character that keeps our acts of courage helpful. To do that, we need to know how to best align our goals with our mission and our mission with our vision. We need to know what it is that energizes our people. And, we need to mobilize our people by inspiring them with an important mission to begin with. Change driven in the direction of our mission makes all the difference in the

Is your problem unique? Are you dealing with a problem that is so unlike any problem you've ever dealt with that you aren't even sure where to begin? That's OK. That is, in a bizarre kind of way, progress: new and unique problems signify change. Unique problems represent distinctive opportunities to trying the truly different. Revolutionizing. Evolving. Growing. And growth is the key to success. Unique problems call for unique solutions that may not go by the book. Get creative. Get courageous. Get moving. -- Douglas Brent Smith

Do your people laugh? Do you encourage them to laugh? Do you allow time for your team's collective sense of humor to grow? Centered leaders find time for their team members to laugh. There's nothing quite like a sense of humor to get people thru the toughest of times (and to create the best of times). Laughing -- it's good for your team, it's good for you. -- Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com

Is your partner perfect? Are you? I've made enough mistakes in my life and in my relationships to know that the search for perfection is illusive at best and at worst, frustrating. There are no perfect people out there waiting for us, to fall in love with us, to fix us, to bring us what we need, to fulfill our dreams. But that's OK. In fact, that's wonderful. We don't need a perfect person in order to create love. Love creates the perfect person. -- Douglas Brent Smith

What stands between you and success? What keeps you stuck in the routine? What if you were able and willing to move past any wall that stood in your way so that you could clearly and decisively achieve your goals? Centered leaders find and remove the barriers between themselves and success. They do it by seeking clarity, showing courage, thinking creatively and interacting with compassion. They do it by moving forward without stopping. They recognize a wall for what it is: a temporary barrier. It could be a brick barrier, or it could be an illusion. But a barrier to a centered, high performance leader is only temporary. How will you break thru your walls today? -- Douglas Brent Smith Solving Problems | Achieving your goals

How hard do you search for the truth? Are you comfortable uncovering things that may make you uncomfortable? Are you ready as a leader to listen to opinions, facts, and feelings that may take you by surprise and alarm you? The search for truth must allow for truths we may be uncomfortable with . It's the only way to surface truth with clarity and accuracy. How can you make yourself more comfortable with views that you may at first disagree with? Think about a problem that you once solved. Didn't you discover some things about it that you had not expected? Did any of those discoveries make you uncomfortable? It is by first becoming willing to challenge our assumptions and walk beyond the confines of our comfort zones that we make our biggest discoveries. Truth is like that. We think we know what it is, until it starts to speak louder than we expected, bigger than we knew it could, with more energy and courage than we might have previously dared hear.