Touch Choices Are Still Choices

Opposition feels easier somehow. We disagree. We argue. We stand our ground.

When we stop listening, we stop making progress. What if there IS a middle ground? What if there IS a middle way? What if by listening, and talking about it, we can learn to understand?

What stands between us could be a barrier or a bridge. It's a choice.

-- doug smith

Comments

Something Good In It

Adversity creates urgency for you goals. You might not want the conflict, but it just might catalyze your actions toward success. Find the good in it and move ahead. Any important goal will spark a bit of conflict. Use that energy to help you achieve your goal. -- doug smith

Get Specific

Unless you want a fuzzy result, get specific about your request. No matter how great a leader you are, no one can read your mind. -- doug smith

Win Within The Rules

Everybody wants to win but to win within the rules is the road to excellence. Any cheating at all cracks the character that holds long term quality together. Win, sure. Win within the rules. -- doug smith

Strategic and Communication Skills

Supervisors often bring strong technical skills to the job. When they have worked in technical jobs prior to becoming a supervisor, they were often the best at what they do. They know the ground level part of their business well enough to solve problems and deal with day to day issues. Leading is all that and more. High performance leadership requires attention to detail AND a constant view of the big picture: where is your team, your market, and your customer base headed? What does the future hold? Strong supervisors learn to add strategic and communication skills to their technical ability. What are you doing today to develop your sense of the big picture? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Stay With Compassion

Leaders need courage. They also need compassion. We can use our compassion to balance our courage, and use our courage to increase our compassion. Compassion is so vital we must never give up on it. No matter how angry we are, no matter how disappointed we feel, no matter how high the stakes -- stay with compassion. If it cannot be done with compassion, it should not be done. -- doug smith

Invest In Yourself

Have you ever known someone who clearly needs training and isn't getting it? Or, maybe you've had a moment of your own when you could have bought that book or joined that workshop and decided to cut corners? No need to feel any shame about that; I've done it, too. But what if we took another approach? What if we always chose yes to opportunities for developing ourselves? Invest in yourself. Develop yourself. Learn constantly. Grow. It's the path of power even though it's not always free. If you don't invest in yourself who else will? -- doug smith

Push Beyond

Standing still is not an option. We can pause, we can relax, and we can certainly breathe, but there is work to be done. There are problems to be solved. There are goals to achieve. The status quo is not for you. High performance leaders push beyond the status quo. -- doug smith

Double-Check

How often do you check your work? When you're leading others you've got to check their work, too. High performance leaders verify and then verify their verification. Things change. Mistakes happen. Check to be sure. -- doug smith

Healthy Leaders

How many eighty-hour work weeks do you put in? That's not meant to judge, but to ponder. I've put in plenty of eighty and more hour work weeks and while I don't regret any of them I know that they haven't all paid-off proportionately. It's possible to work so hard that you miss what's important. It's a frequent paradox that the longer one works they less productive they become. I've learned to tell myself: Take a break. Relax. Let it all come to you, flow thru you, and go on its merry way -- if only for a little while. Drink water, exercise, meditate, pray, and relax. To be truly centered, to be truly focused and balanced, high performance leaders need to be healthy. Healthy leaders build healthy teams. Take care of yourself. -- doug smith

Talk Yourself Into It

Do you ever get stuck in a negative phase? When things get rough (professionally OR personally) it can hit me right in the leadership center and throw me off kilter. That's no way to set an example and it's no way to lead. People count on their leaders to keep their focus and remain positive, even when the world is throwing a crap sandwich down the lunch box of life. Sometimes I have to talk myself into a positive point of view. When I do, it works. So if you need to, talk yourself into it. Stay positive. Given the choice between falling into the gnarly crack of negative thinking and keeping the course with positive energy, I'd go with positive. How about you? -- Doug Smith

High Performance Leadership

Search This Blog