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Creating Alignment

What is the connection between your actions and goals? How do your goals connect to your overall mission and purpose? Do you have a sense that what you do matters and gets you closer to accomplishing what is most important to you? High performance leaders align their actions to their goals and their goals to their mission. It's how they get things done that matter. It's the filter of success. Does that task that someone is asking you to do contribute to your purpose? Then do it. If it doesn't, negotiate another path, another step, perhaps another set of hands to get it done. Our time is too valuable to spend it on anything that does not contribute to our happiness, and our happiness is largely dependent on doing what matters most to us and that contributes to the well-being of others. We can run, we can hide, but without that alignment of action, goals, and mission how will we ever reach our potential? Alignment creates that guidance that w...
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Success Starts With Action

What will you DO about it? Have you ever asked anyone that question? Have you ever asked yourself? People may complain. People may document faults and shortcomings. People may expect more than they are getting -- but nothing happens without taking action. Success starts with action. All success depends on action. What can you do right now toward achieving your goals? Sometimes we have finely crafted plans for achieving our goals, and yet miss acting on those plans. And, sometimes we miss the plans altogether and simply hope for the best with our goals. Plans, and hope are important but what matters most is action. What you DO to achieve your goals. Actions matter because they place us in motion. Then thrust us toward our vision. Even when we make mistakes and miss our targets, the energy created by action propels us forward. We can correct mistakes. We can change direction. We can accomplish great things. But first we must place our selves in motion through action. Wha...
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At the Root

Why would a happy person ever harm anyone? I don't think that they would. When we are happy, content, and at peace any effort to disturb or harm anyone else will just disturb or harm ourselves as well.  When we experience someone trying to disturb or harm us we can be sure that they are already in pain. Fighting back might seem valid, but will it help? What if we helped heal the pain at the root?  Difficult people did not become difficult randomly. Something, in need of healing, caused it. -- doug smith
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Enjoy AND Improve

Do you enjoy success? If that seems like a silly question (Of COURSE I enjoy success!) think about it from another perspective.  Sometimes we can taper down our enjoyment and appreciation of something because we know it's not perfect yet, and how can we be happy if it's not perfect? I do that somethings. It's not helpful. OF COURSE  it's not perfect: nothing else and nothing ever will be. There are no perfect people, processes, performances, or plan. If we wait for perfection, we'll just keep waiting (and probably without gaining ground...) Let's do both. Let's enjoy our current level of success and achievement while also working to improve it. Performance must constantly improve, AND we can enjoy our exiting improvements. -- doug smith  
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Of Course It's Not Easy

It's not the problem that upsets you, it's not getting what you want. Get clarity about what you REALLY want, and then work relentlessly to get it. If it was easy, how much fun would it REALLY be? -- doug smith  
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A Useful Question

  A useful question: what would be an even more creative way to make this better? -- doug smith
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Solving Problems Requires The Courage to Tell The Truth

Can a problem be so tough that we deceive ourselves about solving it? In any problem there is a temptation to soften the edges, smooth the rough spots, to paint a better picture than we see. Sometimes we take sides and spin the truth in favor of our side, even when that contributes to a conflict or problem. We can do better than that. Solving problems together requires the courage to tell the truth as you see it. Not our version of the truth. Not our ideal of the truth. The truth as it exists, weak spots and all. If we want to clearly analyze a problem, we must be willing to see, and tell the truth. -- Douglas Brent Smith
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Money Isn't Everything

The profit motive is a poor substitute for genuine value. Money isn't everything. It's not even the most important thing. Oh, sure it's incredibly important. As a person who has many times wondered if there would be enough cash to pay the bills, I have come to respect mightily the value of money. But money is transactional. People are more than transactions. What we value most is more than money can buy, is more than a transaction, is a character of depth and peacefulness, and yes, love that is earned, not bought. Think about that for a minute.  -- doug smith  
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Centered Leaders Create Joy

How long does it take to achieve your biggest goals? Even if we're on track, big goals take a while to achieve. There's much work to do in the mean time, and progress is not always obvious. People look around to see where the excitement is. Team members can become discouraged or distracted. What's a leader to do? Centered leaders create joy within their goal achievements. Joy that goes beyond accomplishment. Joy that comes from an inner, centered satisfaction in doing the right things and focusing on what matters. Intrinsic joy manifested by extrinsic celebrations. There are many ways to do this, including: - Recognizing great efforts - Increasing one-on-one communication - Coaching frequently - Smiling! - Debriefing mistakes and looking for opportunities - Celebrating both personal and team milestones - Remembering birthdays and anniversaries - Demonstrating progress thru metrics or charts - Building enthusiasm What ways can you think of to create joy within your team as y...
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