High Performance Leadership

  Do you work on your emotions? Turns out that emotional intelligence is important. Being able to manage your own emotions, adjust accordingly, recognize the emotions of others, and influence those emotions is powerful. Leaders do well to develop their emotional capacity. My problem has never been too little focus on emotions. My life long adventure has included struggles to control those emotions. It's like this classic exchange: "I think you've got an anger problem..." "What the HELL are you TALKING about?" Or this one: "Where did you go?" "I just had to get away..." "To sulk?" "..." "You can have your problem and get upset about it or you can just have your problem. It's completely up to you..." None of us are perfect. But as Groucho said in a famous movie line "Nobody's perfect, but you're abusing the privilege." Working on it. Getting better at it. Recognizing, managing, and control...

  If you paint, paint a lot. If you write, write constantly. If you sing, sing everywhere. Creativity thrives in the doing. -- doug smith

  How many goals are on your list? I've know people to have over a hundred goals on their list. That's fine. Many people have declared great success with an extensive list of goals. For me, that many goals will overwhelm me. To look at a list and see more than fifty unachieved is less than encouraging. Keep the long list if you like, but here's what I suggest:  Show to courage to focus on five top goals.  Put five goals at the top and focus on them until each one is done. Big or small, that's up to you. But leaders get stuff done. Get stuff done! -- doug smith

How often do you talk with your team members, one-on-one? Not counting the group meetings, are you scheduling and keeping regular conversations with each and every team member? They need that level of attention. They require that level of attention. They have a much better chance of meeting your expectations when you give them that level of attention. It's an effort. It takes discipline. But, what could be more important than clear and regular communication with your team members? I would say, just about nothing would be more important. High performance leaders talk with each team member about what comes next. High performance leaders talk with each team member about performance. High performance leaders talk with each team member regularly, openly, honestly, and deeply. It's your best leadership tool. Talk with your team members. -- doug smith

  We're never done. There are always more goals. There is enough to keep us busy as long as we like. As leaders, there's our choice: do we continue to lead? Do we tackle new goals? I think, yes. Achieving a goal does not promise you perfection. There is always another goal. -- doug smith

Have you ever felt like you had it all figured out? Like you had all the answers and your confidence was exceeded only by your skill? It would be great if that feeling lasted, but if you work hard enough, encounter enough people, and experience enough disappointment you know the feeling fades away. It's an illusion. It can be a nice boost for the ego, but the ego is a lousy boss. The ego sends us places that we shouldn't go. The ego interrupts our growth. Better as a teacher is humility. And in the end, not as harsh.  I try to make peace with knowing that I can't know everything...but then I just want to know more. My grandmother was fond of saying "bless their little heart" whenever someone disappointed her. Instead of getting aggravating or judgmental, she gave them that little blessing. We could let our ego's blind us, bind us, or be unkind to us, but why not simply smile? Bless your ego's little heart -- it's doing the best it knows how to do. Just...

Everybody wants something. Some people seem to want everything, or at least everything that interferes with what we want. That's a problem. And when what causes us a problem turns out to be an advantage, a benefit, a payoff...for someone else the problem is compounded.  If your problem is someone else's benefit don't expect them to help you solve it. Find another way to provide the benefit first, and then maybe they'll listen. -- doug smith  

How fast are you growing? Can you feel yourself evolving and developing into the next better version of yourself? As old as I am (and if you ask my best friend, she'll tell you I'm OLD) I am still evolving. Still growing. Still experimenting, trying, striving, and stretching. Not as fast as before, perhaps, but there are no additional boundaries -- just opportunities. I aim to do as much as I can as long as I can. As Judi tells me, "you can sleep when you die." Well, I do need sleep BEFORE then, but in the mean time she's right: there's a lot of work to be done. Get busy. -- doug smith