Successful Supervisors Keep Solving

As frustrating as it is to encounter a problem that resists any solution, there could be a benefit. Stay mindful. Stay attentive. Stay alert. Imbedded in that big problem are lots of little problems. Maybe they need to be solved before you can move forward. Maybe solving them will lead to a break thru that helps you in other areas.

The problems that we fail to solve sometimes lead to those we do. And, that's no little thing.

-- Doug Smith

Interested in developing the supervisors in your organization? Contact me today about bringing our two-day workshop "Supervising for Success" to your organization. And if you're really in a hurry, there's a one-day version available.

doug@dougsmithtraining.com

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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

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

Bristling Feedback

Do you ever find it really hard to listen to feedback? I can recall a few times when the feedback that I was getting was either so far off base as to be insulting or so extreme as to be hurtful. Maybe it was just me, but there didn't seem to be any point. Or was there? At other times, when I have kept my feelings at bay long enough to listen, there is some element of truth worth exploring. There is often some kernel of insight that can be useful. Not always -- sometimes the feedback we get isn't even meant to be useful -- but sometimes. Centered leaders suspend judgment of themselves and the person providing the feedback to find the insight that's worth exploring. It may be in the feedback. It may be concerning your relationship. It may be in your reaction. But, it is likely there. We can usually learn something if we are open to the lesson available. Is there someone you work with who you find it hard to take feedback from? What would happen if you listened w...

Team Building Never Ends

What are you doing to build your team? Do you have the talent you need assembled to achieve your mission? Teams are dynamic, constantly changing moving targets. Just when you think you've got your team figured out and moving forward, someone leaves or someone enters and the whole chemistry reacts in unexpected ways. It's like juggling three balls and having one of them turn into an egg. It's like riding a bike and having it lose all but one gear. It's like painting a picture and realizing that the paint hasn't dried from the last time you painted, resulting in an unsatisfying gray smear. It's not always like that, but team building can be tough. High performance leaders keep at it. They keep developing their teams and they know that the building never stops. There are no perfect teams which means that the road to perfection must always be navigated. Keep going. If you don't build your team someone else will diminish it. Keep building. -- doug ...

Embracing an Art of Possibility

The creative arts have taken in on the chin this month. A poorly made trailer for an ill-conceived movie has sparked demonstrations around the world. Are people taking this piece of crap "art" too seriously? Is "art" that dangerous? Art sometimes is dangerous. It has the power to stir minds, to generate energy, to instigate change. It pries its way into our emotions and stirs up feelings we've been pushing down. It offers new ways of seeing things we may not have expected. It frames issues and personalities in plots and scenes we can be uncomfortable with. Shouldn't we talk about our feelings? Shouldn't we open our imaginations to new possibilities? Shouldn't we solve problems creatively by tapping into the creative tools and attitudes we learn from the arts? Ah yes, if we can only do that without throwing dangerous objects at each other! The answer is not to suppress the arts. The answer is not censorship or surrender. The answer is somew...

Harmony or Discord

Centered leaders know when to facilitate harmony or stir up discord. Balancing challenge and support is an art. We all know leaders who specialize in one or the other -- they either always seek to restore harmony or it seems like they are always challenging, always stirring up trouble. Either approach can fatigue a team quickly and prevent efficiency. Centered leaders may want harmony but realize that complacency or stasis is never the answer. Sometimes it's necessary to stir things up. Done positively, and with kindness, this is a high performance behavior. Done carelessly or callously, this is disaster. Challenging leaders realize that people can get tired of being challenged and that sometimes the waves are too rough to sail. Sometimes a leader must find ways to restore stability and create a more harmonious environment. It's more art than science -- and that takes creativity. How are you at stirring up a challenge when it's needed? ...

Is It Really Common Sense?

Do you ever get feedback that doesn't make any sense to you? I do. Sometimes when I'm training a group of people I can spot a person who simply refuses to learn. That person will show with their body language that they don't want to be there. They have very few comments and the things that they do say are caustic. They are probably what trainers call "prisoners" in the room. They didn't want to be there in the first place. Some leader has sent them there because they need to change some key parts of their performance. But since they have refused to so far sending them to training probably won't reform them. Even when they know what to do, they won't let go of their nonproductive or abrasive habits. Sometimes they'll leave a comment on the evaluation form around how the whole thing was just "common sense". Heaven forbid they should actually learn something, so they must minimize the content. I say this with some edge because I know t...

Move from "Me" to "We"

by David Spiegel "The secret to success is to know something nobody else does." -- Aristotle Here is another guest entry from my friend, David Spiegel. I especially like how he ties this together with one of John Maxwell's Words of The Day. As you read this, think about how you can move in the direction of turning what you do best from a "me" effort to a "we" movement. A s I was stretching this morning waiting for my trainer to finish up with his 7:30 clients, I had the opportunity to look around the gym. When I started working with Cris, the head trainer,he had appointments set pretty much back to back for himself. There was another trainer who I saw occasionally. Today, there was Cris working with "the Killer Couple" (these two really work hard!). There were also 3 or 4 other trainers working with clients. Some individuals and some working with two clients at the same time.There was a buzz of activity as these tr...

Negotiate Fairly

Do you negotiate fairly? Dozens of books teach how to take advantage of other people. Is that what you really want to do? Or, do you want to create conversations and negotiations that develop your relationships? If you know a piece of information that could effect your bargainer's position...what if you shared it? If you know about a technological change that will dramatically impact the price of the thing you're negotiating on -- what if you shared that, too? If your negotiating partner (not opponent!) is clearly making concessions based on a recently weakened position, do you grab all you can get? Unless you negotiate fairly you aren't really negotiating. And only fair negotiations count. Anything else is abuse. -- Doug Smithy

Create Better Goals

How do you get better results? Create better goals. It's not all that you need but it's a great place to start. Whenever I create a goal that I find to be energizing that translates into more attention and action. Whenever I create a goal that has a noble outcome, I feel better about devoting resources to achieving it. Great goals are exciting. Great goals contain opportunity for growth. Great goals get you going. Here are what I believe to be the three key ingredients for great goals: ACTION WORD: The action word explains exactly what you will do. Create, make, deliver, teach, propel, design, change, sell, fabricate, transplant, modify, steer, obtain, tell, paint, draw, write...words like that. RESULT: The result is what you plan to achieve, usually expressed with some unit of measure. For example - a 200 word novel, 150 pounds, a graduate degree in chemistry, fifty new prospects, a year without crime, three healthy meals a day...whatever it is that you want to a...

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