Use That Strong Foundation

High performance leaders are intense. They also take the time to reflect, regroup, and reconnoiter. Knowledge of the past informs the needs of the future.

The past got us here. Let's be grateful and eager to build a better here and now.

-- doug smith

Comments

David SpiegelJanuary 4, 2020 at 10:41 AM
The stuff legends are made of...........................
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Leadership Decisions

Decision making is never a burden when leaders share the load. Leadership decisions can be made in many ways. Often, the situation determines which type of method a leader uses to make a decision. Some ways include: Decide and announce : the leader does all the work, makes the complete decision, and hopes that everyone follows. This method is useful in a crisis (like a fire fighter captain at a fully involved blaze) and less useful in other situations (for example, picking an organizational strategy for next year). Consult and then decide : the leader talks to key people, gather information, and makes the decision. Sometimes that decision is close to what others have recommended, and sometimes it isn't. This method is useful when the decision is complicated and technical in an area where the leader has authority but not all of the expertise. The method fails if the leader consults the wrong people or disregards all advice without ever explaining the rationale for the f...

The Benefits of Supervisory Training

When was the last time you had any leadership training? How often do the supervisors in your organization get training? If you are like most organizations, it's never enough. Some teams go without any supervisory training at all and expect supervisors and managers to learn as they go, on the job. Unfortunately, while it is memorable to learn from your mistakes, it comes at a high cost. People get tired. People leave. Important accounts go away. Customers complain. And teams struggle without the skills and knowledge it takes to build cohesive teams that are capable of solving problems, improving performance and achieving goals. Admittedly, I can be expected to support training since I'm in the business. Still, take a closer look at your own leadership career and decide for yourself. Are leaders better off with more training and development or with less? Supervisory training can generate benefits that pay off long after the training is over. Here are just a few of the things sup...

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 ...

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

Centered Leaders Preserve Dignity

How important would something need to be for you to surrender your dignity in order to achieve it? That question reminds me of an activity that required heavy loss of personal dignity. Maybe you're aware of it. Pledging a fraternity or sorority demands that the pledges surrender all sorts of personal inhibitions in the service of obtaining membership. They may be asked to recite weird incantations in public. They may be asked to procure obscure objects (like the driver's side door of a police car). They may be harassed until tears seem like the only release. Yet, at the end of it, they may even call the experience valuable. They may especially treasure their friendships with their new brothers or sisters. That kind of surrender is likely rare, though. If an action you are contemplating requires you to surrender your dignity to the extent that you compromise your values, maybe it's one best avoided. There are very few answers worth paying for with your dignity. ...

Create A That Sounds Awesome List

Guest Post from David Spiegel I often find myself writing about things that are perplexing me. When I am feeling uncomfortable about something, I find that writing about it helps me shed some light on the matter. Sometimes the results are immediate and at other times it is a process. Today I am writing about something I find fascinating. I think inspiring is a better word.In fact I find myself awestruck by it. 24 years ago, while planning my son Max's Bris, a friend and mentor told me "David,all you can do is set the stage. You can not predict an outcome". The message was simple, have no expectations ,just do it the way you want it done. Fascinating! Today that same person is fulfilling one of those bucket list items herself. After standing track side at Churchill Downs to watch California Chrome run for the roses, I next heard from her in Baltimore where she watched C.C. take the second leg of the Triple Crown. Today she is in Queens at the Belmont in posi...

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...

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...

Add a Touch of Kindness

What would your customers say about you, as a company and as a person? Would the words "kind" or "compassionate" be a part of their description? Think about a person you know who you would describe as kind. Whatever is is that they do for a living, what is it that makes them kind, or compassionate? Is it the way they show that they care? Is it the way that they listen to you, even when you know you might be babbling just a little or way off base? Or maybe is it the way that they lightly touch you by the hand -- on your shoulder or on your back in a non-threatening willingness to feel and to help? We can all be more kind. We can all be more compassionate. When I think of those who have been most kind in my life they just happen to be those who are also the most trustworthy. Their agenda has always been open and gentle: simply to help. It's the nurse at the glass factory who dressed my cut and sent me back to work not with judgment but with encouragement...

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...

High Performance Leadership

Search This Blog