High Performance Leadership

What are you learning these days? Leadership is a matter of communication, dedication, and learning. If we expect to stay ahead of the changes constantly coming our way, we must keep learning. High performance leaders keep learning. We're either developing ourselves or falling behind. You don't want to fall behind, do you? -- Doug Smith

Did you get the owner's manual to life when you were born? Me, either. And, ever since it's been one learning experience after another. Some were pleasant (oh, so that's how she shows me she love me!) and some were awkward (maybe I should have measured the room before I cut the carpet!) If we do nothing else, we'll learn what we need to learn completely inductively -- by stumbling around, discovering, exploring, and more-often-than-not making mistakes. So if breaking things, crashing systems, mangling relationships, and crushing communications is not your idea of fun, I'd recommend doing some proactive learning. Read ahead. Study. There is good news: Life is an open book exam. Once we finish school, there is absolutely nothing preventing us from finding the information we need and turning it into knowledge (and then into action) before we fail a test. Even before we get a dreadful "C" on that test. With so many learning tools available, we can abso...

Do you challenge your team members with tough lessons? Life changes, project changes, team realignments, product ends, process modifications, and the harsh reality of competition are just a few of the tough lessons that our team members endure. Sometimes it's up to us to prepare them for those lessons. It may even be necessary for us to teach them. Adults are not always happy to learn what they most need to learn. For example, some lessons that have been rough (but necessary) for me include: It does no good to run from negative feedback Sometimes the mistake was intentional Maybe my perspective is the one that is skewed We all carry hidden biased points of view Even though people say anything is possible, that's not always true Sometimes the critic is right ...and more. What harsh lessons have you learned that maybe at first you avoided? What tough lessons should your people learn from you? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  Training Supervi...

Do you have it all figured out? Last week I had a couple of people in one of my workshops who thought they had it all figured out. There was nothing left to learn. There were no tips or tricks or tools or techniques that could make their lives better. It was what it was and that's all there was to it. I feel sorry for them. They have doomed themselves to a life of overwhelm. Smug in their suffering they get to continue to suffer, like some technician stuck in the hellish hole of routine disaster. It doesn't have to be that way. It isn't that way at all. High performance leaders continue to learn. If you care about achieving your goals, you keep learning. New ways of doing things. New ways of improving your personal productivity. New ways of adjusting your perspective to a view that matters and helps. There's never been a perfect model for education but that's never prevented people from learning. Build your own model if you need to. Find one that works. But ...

If you've ever worked in an organization that provides no leadership training you already know what a challenge that is. Leadership training prepares front line leaders for providing the kind of high performance leadership needed to solve problems and achieve their goals. Here are some quick articles I found that point out additional benefits to training. Invest in Experiences From FastCompany: Science explains why it provides more happiness to spend money on experiences rather than things. In experiences we share with other people, collaborate, feel, and learn. The best training provides that as well. Employee Training Is Worth The Investment Many of the benefits of training include: improving retention, helping in recruiting, adding flexibility and efficiency, helps in job transfer. I would add that it provides the growth we each need to move forward toward achieving our goals. How Employee Training Benefits Everyone More benefits are identified here plus the eye-ope...