High Performance Leadership

Leaders do not settle. Good enough is not enough. Almost will never do. As my dad used to say, "Anything worth doing is worth doing right," and leadership must be done in a fully attentive, fully focused, high performance way. High performance leaders insist on ever increasing performance. To get there, they encourage positive action after positive action. Step by ever reaching step to a higher level, to a better degree, to a higher quality. It's what high performance leaders do. High performance leaders provoke positive actions. What positive action will you provoke today? -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action The next conversation you have with anyone on your team today, take a moment to provoke a positive action. Encourage your team member to do more, to add quality, to add value to something otherwise routine. Keep provoking until that positive action is a reality -- and then keep provoking until that positive reality is a habit. You can do it. You...

It might seem obvious, but it's worth remembering: strong goals provide you with strength. They provide you with strength of purpose, strength of direction, and strength of endurance.  A goal that you truly care about, that's written with clarity provides help when others try to hinder. Lots will try to get in the way. The best goals resist this resistance and persist to achievement. A solid, clear goal can withstand any judging. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action Check in on your top three goals today. Are they providing you with strength of direction? How could you make them even stronger? What will you do today toward achieving them?

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.

This brief video poses the theory that in order to build an effective team it is important that the people on the team get along. Interpersonal dynamics are important. While this may seem obvious to anyone who has worked with many teams, it is still important. How well do the people on your team get along? What are the interpersonal behaviors that your teams needs and wants? Why not explore that idea at your next team meeting? It's cheaper than a retreat, requires no trust falls or zip lines, and might just be the best thing you do for your team this month. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Gather your team. Plan a substantial portion of your meeting (or maybe nearly all of a meeting) to asking your team members the following questions. Make sure that someone is capturing the answers on a group memory (white board or flip chart or similar display.) What interpersonal behaviors do you find most helpful when working with others? What habits or behaviors are...

Even high performance leaders can get stuck trying to solve a problem. Tough resistance stands against the solutions tried and keep the problem around. What makes that problem so tough? What is it that stands in the way? What if it's you? (or me, I must ask myself!) What if the part of the problem that's so hard to solve reflects that part of you that you don't want to change? You might need to change! -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Think about a problem that you are struggling with. What can you change about YOURSELF that might wiggle you free from this stasis?

Do you like to give advice? High performance leaders are often asked for advice. The temptation is to give it no matter what. After all, aren't we the experts? If someone is asking for advice, doesn't that mean that they trust us and believe we have the wisdom needed to answer? Maybe. Giving advice is limiting, though. What if you helped that person think thru their possibilities instead? What if they already knew what they wanted and needed to do, and were only hoping that you'd advise them accordingly? And what if your advice doesn't work? It's better to stay curious. Ask questions. Help them with their thinking. You could still end up giving them advice, but probably not. Probably, they'll develop a strategy all of their own, one that they can own and implement and achieve. "I wonder what you'll do about that" is more powerful than "here's what you should do..." -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Stay cu...