Energize Your Work

How do you get going in the morning?

I'm not talking about coffee - I like that as much as anyone. What practice or ritual do you do to energize your mind, spirit, and body for work? That's important, because that's largely how we energy our work, by energizing ourselves.

I do some things on a consistent basis. I pray each morning, mostly giving thanks for so many wonderful blessings. Sometimes I ride my bike, sometimes I walk and in either case it becomes a kind of moving meditation that is both relaxing and reinvigorating.

I write. I list. I focus on my goals. All of these things get me going.

Because I live a diverse life that straddles many disciplines, sometimes my warm-up practice varies based on what performance I'm taking on. But there's always some kind of warm-up.

Singers warm-up their voices. Athletes warm-up their muscles. Writers warm-up their ideas (one great way is thru automatic writing, simply writing whatever comes to mind as a way to get ideas flowing, especially as detailed in The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, one of my favorite books.)

Every practice needs a warm-up; every goal needs a spark. How will you energize your work today?

If not today, how about tomorrow?

-- Doug Smith

Comments

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

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

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

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

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

Decide

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

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

The Problem With Compromises

Think about the last time you compromised on something. Whether it was a big compromise or a little compromise, how do you feel about it now? While we often call it "meet in the middle" it seldom does. Compromises are not automatically fair, no matter how implied that fairness is. Someone usually gets more out of a compromise than the person they are "compromising" with. If the low end is you, you don't like it -- and you remember that. If the top end of the compromise is you, you probably forget all about it even though the inequity simmers in the background. Compromises must be constantly revisited because they are inevitably unfair. If you get the chance to balance things out, your relationship will prosper. If you miss that chance, the relationship will suffer. What's your choice? -- 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

High Performance Leadership

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