High Performance Leadership

There's no reason to believe in false choices. There are always more choices. If you can't find them, create them. High performance leaders are creatives so create the best choices for you.  -- doug smith

  Find the most positive choice. Choose that. Repeat. -- doug smith

How many goals do you have? How many of those goals are contributing to your mission, your sense of purpose, your reason for being? It's a smaller list, isn't it. The right goals help make the right decisions. Which list are you working on? -- doug smith

Do you share leadership? The most powerful teams share leadership responsibilities AND attitude. When you develop a team where people feel empowered to take charge, take responsibility, and take ownership you then no longer need to do all the difficult work. Delegation becomes easier. Collaboration feels more natural. Start with decisions. It's fast and easy as a leader to make all of the big decisions, but when you include your team in the conversations it takes to gain mutually shared understandings and collaborative decisions, you no longer have to "sell" your decisions --- people simply know what you as a team have decided and act accordingly. No passive aggressive resistance, no passengers on your team "bus" -- just fully engaged team members. Start with collaborative decisions. The rest will be much easier. -- Doug Smith

When I worked for GE and I was learning project management, they had a popular expression that was often spoken with pride and just a touch of arrogance. "In God we trust, all others show us the data." We used to say that opinions were like noses. Everyone's got one. So what. What does the data say? Since then data has become even more important. We rely on data for so much. It drives decisions. It sorts product offerings. It calibrates without feeling the temperature of the times. And yet...what about the heart? Haven't you sometimes had a feeling that something wasn't right and discovered that you were right? There wasn't any data to tell you, it just hit you as true. Relying on your gut instincts can be dangerous. Our intuition is wrong at a surprisingly high frequency. But data isn't everything. How we feel matters. How our customers feel matters. What we bring to our work through our emotions matters. Rely on the data. What other choice do...

Do you like working for a leader who makes all the decisions? Important decisions, little decisions, scheduling decisions, work distribution decisions...one after another? I know I do not. I like to work for and with a leader who allows me to share in the decision-making. We talk about the details. We compare the options. We align our work to our goals. How involved is your team in your team's decisions? It can be a trap to justify a "decide-and-announce" approach when it feels like those same decisions are being handed down to you from your manager or above. But don't do it. Find the choices. Explore the options. Share them with your people and see what a difference it makes in their productivity and morale. Of course you're in charge. The bottom line likely does stop with you. But you don't need to make every decision. I'm going to work at sharing more decisions. How about you? -- Doug Smith

How does your team decide? There are many different ways to reach a decision. Everything from full concordance (unanimous agreement on the best decision) to executive fiat (one person decides for everyone) we have lots of choices. Centered, high performance leaders involve their people in their decisions. I've found consensus to be a robust, durable way of making decisions. But, we don't always have time (or need) for consensus. Whatever the method of decision making, the leader must stand by the decision. No criticizing the group for its poor choice. No backing down and pulling support from a team decision. If you want to build your team, give it lots of influence on your decisions. Empower your team and get out of the way - but remember, the results are still your responsibility. However democratic the process, centered leaders take full responsibility for the decision. No blaming others. No blaming the process. The leader is still responsible. What big decisions ...

How do you like to make decisions? I'm a fact-based guy who likes to keep the emotions out of the decision, so there's my bias. Some people are emotions based deciders and don't like the facts to get in the way. What if we considered both the heart and the mind? I'm learning to listen better, with my heart. To hear what is really going on and not just what I think I hear through my heavy filters. Sure, one of those filters is my heart, or how I feel. That requires a certain mindfulness to be able to discern which emotions am I bringing to the decisions apart from which emotions is the decision bringing about. Yes, there is a difference. By finding a place of center, of neutral feeling, we can hear what emotions are going on within the choices. We can better discover possibilities if we refrain from judging them for a while. We can better understand the full picture if we listen with a heart that's open. If you want to supervise for success, listen with your ...

Have you ever hesitated to make a tough decision? Maybe you even knew what the decision should be, but something held you back? That's happened to me. Sometimes it's that struggling performer who isn't willing to get better and needs a decision about moving on. Or, maybe it's a strategic change that will basically rebrand something important I've been working on. Why do we hesitate? Will the decision get better? Will time add a dimension of security to what we decide? Or, are we simply stalling. We must make the hard decisions. Sometimes the best decisions are the hardest ones to make.  People are effected. Strategies shift. Customers could even be surprised. Slowing down doesn't help. A needed change knows only change. The sooner we make that tough but certain decision, the better off we are. High performance leaders make the tough decisions quickly. And then we keep on moving. What tough decision have you been delaying? -- Doug Smith Front Ra...