High Performance Leadership

What goes into developing leadership character? Values - how you choose to live your life. Ethics -- how you operate. Morales -- how you respect other individuals.  It's also willingness to learn, willingness to hear feedback, willingness to listen. Add more to that (what do you think?) and the list of qualified leaders with positive character gets small. And yet, we need leaders with character. We need leaders who will do the right thing. We need leaders who consider the needs of the whole team, organization, and (yes) planet when making decisions.  Leadership character matters no matter what you lead. -- doug smith

What are your outside interests? In addition to working as a trainer and consultant, I'm active in the arts. I'd love it if you'd check out these additional blogs that I write and maybe even subscribe. It's something. douglas brent smith : one of those places I park my poetry, collage, and music. doug smith training : my company originally started out with this name and you shouldn't be too surprised if it goes back to it when I relocate. The focus is also likely to shift to developing communication skills such as better conversations, more productive meetings, and more powerful presentations. centered problem solving : leaders must do two things well or face losing their leadership: solving problems and achieving their goals. this blog focuses on what i call centered problem solving. Thanks! -- doug smith

Has someone ever said something to you that stung, sounding like a sharp insult -- only to be followed up with a quick "just kidding!"? Are they kidding? Or not? The sting is still there. The truth behind their statement unclouded and set free like running dogs in a department store. Things are going to get knocked over. Expectations are going to change. Just kidding. Maybe you're in the middle of a deep examination of important problems. Maybe the challenges in front of you are adding tension. Maybe the stress causes nervous laughter and crude joking. Maybe they are kidding after all. Have they found a sensitive spot? Is this your soft white underbelly of pain? Could they even know how close they are to your nerve? Just kidding. When someone says "just kidding" find out what they really mean but haven't said. It's there. No kidding. -- Douglas Brent Smith

Do you ever wish that your team members were a little less emotional? Do you ever find yourself wondering why people are so upset? We want to be productive. We want to get things done. We do want to achieve our goals. Sometimes emotions get in the way. The very same emotions that get in the way can also propel us toward our goal. There is energy there. Maybe it's misdirected. Maybe it's obtrusive. Probably, it's inconvenient. But there is solid useable energy. Listen. Pause. Breathe into it and out of it. Let another person's emotions be there own. You don't need to adopt or adapt it. But before either of you can move on, you will need to accept it. Validate it and move forward. There are better things ahead -- it just will take even more listening, suspending of judgement, and work. Logic has very little influence over emotion. We need to understand how that emotion feels. -- Douglas Brent Smith  

How do you react when you are pulled from your center? It starts out natural, centered. It's our normal state of life. Focused. Alive. We grow. Forces enter our lives. Distractions pull us from that center, sometimes so far that we forget our center entirely. The tough stuff is rough enough and then suddenly it seems something so trivial can knock us off balance. The most surprising little things can pull us from our center. - critical feedback we did not expect - flat tires - lines at the department of motor vehicles - beggars in the fast food drive up window lane - team members who casually disagree without listening - not listening ourselves Endless possibilities. Relentless temptations. My, oh, my sometimes. Still. Embrace the stillness. Remember we started out in that stillness, centered. Sometimes returning to that centered stillness takes everything we've got. But it gives back more than we ever held. Staying centered is worth it. -- Douglas Bre...

Are you a people person, or a results person? People tend to favor one or the other: results, or relationships. Naturally, we like to think of ourselves as leaders as being versatile, flexible and well rounded. Of course we DO value both results and relationships. Truth be told, we likely lean on one more than the other. It doesn't make us good, bad, or indifferent; it just makes us people. Centered leaders remember to nurture relationships as they communicate for results. It's not one or the other. It's not either / or. We can have both results and relationships. We simply need to know which one we are favoring at the moment, step back, and make clearly certain that we take care of both. That's what centered leaders do. How about you? -- Douglas Brent Smith   

Does it sometimes feel like you're caught in a dog eat dog fight? One of my favorite TV quotes from an old episode of "Cheers". Norm enters as he usually does to the usual rousing greeting and imparts his insight of the day. In this episode it was, "it's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear."  That about describes some days, doesn't it? As leaders, we impact that. We often create the environment for our people. At the very least we influence the environment. Will that be a competitive environment of winners and losers? Or will that be a place where everyone, absolutely everyone can create a measure of success far beyond their previous expectations? Our success does not require anyone else's failure. It's not about winning so that someone else loses. We do no need to behave like beasts in the jungle fighting for survival. If we are higher, more centered, more focused compassionate and courageous beings we can create m...