High Performance Leadership

"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." Joseph Campbell Responding to my email from yesterday, I heard from a dear friend. She commented "Loved this thought for the day!". It made me smile. It also gave me pause to remember how and when she and I first met. We were freshmen together entering college, away from the comfort and safety of our parents homes. We had the same major at the time, music. It was during those early days of being on my own, that I chose to pledge a fraternity. I truly believe this experience was a significant part of me becoming the person I am and not the wuss that I could have been. This was not what anyone would consider the party animal or jock mentality frat that you often see portrayed in movies. It was however a place where the notion that you stand up to a challenge, rather than run away from one became part of who I am. It would have been easy to spend my college days anonymously,gett...

When it's all important, it's important to determine what is MOST important. Filling our days with little things could squeeze out the big things. The big things matter. High performance leaders keep the big picture in mind from project to project and from goal to goal. -- doug smith

How much of leadership is service? Maybe a better question is, how much should it be? It is not unusual to struggle with serving and being served. As we progress as leaders, it can feel as if we need to be served a bit more. We have people report to us. We have responsibilities and levels of authority. And yet, at the heart of it all, isn't what high performance leaders do most is serve? We serve our mission. We serve our goals. And, most importantly, we serve our people. Team members, customers, constituents, peers, leaders...we serve our community. When we do that, it suddenly all makes much more sense. The strongest motivator is service to others. Are you ready to serve? How will you serve your people today? -- doug smith

Are you working hard on your goals? I hope so. Goals require attention, effort, and energy. And you know what else goals benefit from? Help. Specifically, help from other people. And where do those people come from? They could be your team. They could be your peers. They probably START though with people you have helped before. When you help others to achieve their goals, they become remarkably more available to help you with yours. When you help other people achieve their goals they become more powerful allies. Whether you are working on goals that need help or not right now -- reach out to see who else you can help. Maybe they'll reciprocate and maybe they won't -- but there's nothing TO reciprocate unless you help first. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Think about a friend or co-worker who is working on a project that you are not involved with. Sometime in the next week, call them and ask how you can help.