A Secret for Sleeping Better

Would you like to sleep better than you currently do? Would you like to get to sleep faster, dream better, and enjoy a deeper rest so that you can wake up refreshed?

There's no ignoring the basics of course -- healthy diet, frequent exercise. Here's my own personal additional tip:

Set and achieve a goal for each day and you'll likely sleep better.

There's no substitute for that feeling of accomplishment at achieving a goal -- and since that feeling comes after a focused and centered effort, your mind and body will be much more ready for sleep.

Isn't that worth a try?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

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Strategic and Communication Skills

Supervisors often bring strong technical skills to the job. When they have worked in technical jobs prior to becoming a supervisor, they were often the best at what they do. They know the ground level part of their business well enough to solve problems and deal with day to day issues. Leading is all that and more. High performance leadership requires attention to detail AND a constant view of the big picture: where is your team, your market, and your customer base headed? What does the future hold? Strong supervisors learn to add strategic and communication skills to their technical ability. What are you doing today to develop your sense of the big picture? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Win The Game

It would be nice to win the game. But, do you ever feel like you're in a game that keeps shifting the rules and making it easy to make progress but impossible to win? You've probably noticed lots of game elements creeping into service. Points, incentives, expiring coupons followed by new expiring coupons, leader-boards...on an on a relentless attack on service comes from playing a game designed -- you guessed it -- to maximize profit. If the customer is happy, fine, but the point is to make money. Not to put too fine a point on it but that's a lousy point. What if there could be something better? What if customer service excellence became playing a game where the customer always wins and that makes you happy? You don't have to. "give away the store" to achieve a winning game for all of the players. Just stop stacking the rules against customers and watch how much more they will want to do business with you. -- doug smith

Art Belongs Everywhere

What does it take to be creative? What place does art have in your business? People are naturally creative. As a leader you can put that creativity to good use, or you can hold it back. If you want innovation, new ideas, better ways of serving your customers, and happier team members you probably already know that it pays to keep your environment conducive to creativity. Art helps. Whether it is in the form of fascinating photos, interesting prints, provocative sculpture, or occasional performances by that local string quartet or improv troupe, people benefit from an environment that celebrates creativity. Creativity helps to bridge the previously unseen connections. Creativity helps to spark new ideas. Creativity puts smiles on people's faces. Where does art belong? Art belongs everywhere. What can you do today to add a touch more of creativity to your environment? Curious about creativity? Creativity May Play A Role in Healthy Aging The Power of Ordinary Prac...

Make the Hard Choices

Are you faced with a hard choice? A hard choice is one we don't want to make, and yet realize that sooner or later we need to. It could be making that big career change. It could be ending a destructive relationship. It could be selling that car that costs too much to keep repairing. Make the choice. Moving on is the direction of growth. Gathering the facts, discovering the reality of the situation, and making the choice is the way to go. We might need to get creative to do it. It may take all of our creative juice just to figure out a better way, but there is always a better way. A creative act may close a door or two but it will soon open thousands of possibilities. And possibilities are what we want. Positive, energized, growing possibilities. This all becomes easier when our goals are clear. When we know where we're headed -- and we're willing to do the hard work it takes to get there -- any distraction is more easily exposed. Choices become more clear. Make...

What You Do

Do your team members know what you do as a leader? It's a serious question. I've known leaders who seem to nearly never venture outside of their office, and others who are seldom there. What is it that you do? Answer customer questions? Resolve team conflicts? Make your own boss happy? Develop new ideas? Fill out reports? Answer emails? It's risky to take for granted that your team members know what you do. But, they sure want to! I'd encourage you to conduct daily individual conversations so that no matter what else you do, much of what you do is communicate with the team. Will that take time? Sure. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Are you giving your team members enough of your time? Is what you do vital to your team's success? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Expect the Best

People sometimes disappoint. Whether it is intentional, accidental, or something in between, it happens. People also intend to do their best. Our expectations influence our team members one way or another -- positive intentions and expectations are a better match than negative expectations and whatever happens next. Expect the best from people and let them know: nothing less will do. -- doug smith

The Essence of Leadership

What do leaders spend most of their time doing? Is it planning? Is it counseling and coaching? It is working with customers? The essence of leadership is solving problems and achieving their goals. Whether you solve a problem or achieve a goal directly, or whether you enlist the help of others to do it, that is what leadership is all about. Whether you write your own goals or have them handed to you, chances are you are held accountable for them. And whether or not you expect them, sure enough problems develop that demand your attention. What are you doing to improve your ability to solve problems and achieve your goals? -- Douglas Brent Smith Information on Solving Problems and Achieving your goals .

Behind Closed Doors

How secretive is your organization? Are there mysterious initiatives that you know nothing about? Have you ever been told that a piece of information is "eyes only" or on a "need to know" basis? How does that make you feel. If you reverse the scenario and withhold information from others in your organization, you are contributing to a culture that is difficult to sustain. If you often hear "behind closed doors" in your organization, it's time for major change. Strong, sustainable, noble organizations are built on an open culture where information flows freely and people know what's going on -- not just those in the inner circle -- everyone. To communicate for results leaders must be open and truthful. They must expose their agenda to scrutiny and hold few, if any, secrets. What kind of organization do you want to build? -- Douglas Brent Smith Learn more in the workshop Communicating for Results

Don't Wait for the 360

Are you expecting a 360 evaluation in your organization this year? I spent considerable time with two organizations administering their online 360 evaluation systems. Leaders send out surveys to their direct report (and sometimes peers and bosses) and then wait for the feedback to pour in. And pour in it does. Sometimes it floods in with data so diverse you wonder if everyone had the same survey directions. And sometimes it doesn't pour in much at all. I've observed teams who swore that the feedback was NOT going to be anonymous (it absolutely was) so they withheld it. Why get in trouble? Why tell the truth under observation? Except, isn't it the truth we're after? Isn't that the only kind of feedback that matters -- truthful feedback. Whether or not it's accurate, we want it to be truthful: we want the evaluators to say what they really feel. Or do we? What if they feel hurtful? What if they are mean spirited? Why if they unfairly lambaste a lea...

Bless Your Ego's Little Heart...

Have you ever felt like you had it all figured out? Like you had all the answers and your confidence was exceeded only by your skill? It would be great if that feeling lasted, but if you work hard enough, encounter enough people, and experience enough disappointment you know the feeling fades away. It's an illusion. It can be a nice boost for the ego, but the ego is a lousy boss. The ego sends us places that we shouldn't go. The ego interrupts our growth. Better as a teacher is humility. And in the end, not as harsh. I try to make peace with knowing that I can't know everything...but then I just want to know more. My grandmother was fond of saying "bless their little heart" whenever someone disappointed her. Instead of getting aggravating or judgmental, she gave them that little blessing. We could let our ego's blind us, bind us, or be unkind to us, but why not simply smile? Bless your ego's little heart -- it's doing the best it knows how to do. Just...

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