High Performance Leadership

Life's too short to spend all of our time working on goals we don't like. Maybe you have a boss who assigns you goals you don't like. Have you tried changing your relationship with your boss? Have you tried finding more exciting goals? Find goals that are exciting enough, noble enough, and useful enough and you'll find other people who are excited about them, too. Stick with goals that are stuck to you, and you stay stuck. It, like so much else, is a choice. What's your happy-face goal? Maybe it's your happy-face goal because it's so preposterous. Maybe because no one else would dream of it. Maybe because it will turn your life around in ways that make you giddy. Go for it. Always have at least one goal that makes you smile when you think of it. Giggling occasionally is healthy! -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Consider your current goals. If none of them make you smile, it's time to create one that does!

High performance leaders surround themselves with positive people. They recruit and develop people who take positive actions instead of complaining or blaming. They set the example by modeling positive behaviors. They spot their counter-productive habits and redirect them to positive ones. Reading everyday. Developing collaborative relationships. Taking competition seriously without destroying anyone. Solving problems with the strength to create solutions that leave no victims and no losers. A positive leader builds a positive team. What you see may be what you get -- but it's also true that what your TEAM sees, from you, you will get. -- doug smith

Do you know what bothers me the most? Behaviors from other people that I struggle with myself. Anger, disappointment, impatience, disorganization. When people give that to me, I don't like it, because I don't like it in myself. It's not always that way, but when it is, the emotions can be high. Our flaws are reflected back at us. Usually, the reflections get stronger and stronger until we correct those flaws in ourselves. It's never ending, always important, vital and obvious: we can't fix other people but when we improve ourselves other people get mysteriously easier to deal with. It's not magic, but it sure feels that way. As leaders we often find ourselves with team members who share the exact flaws that bother us the most -- our flaws reflected. I'm working on fixing what I can fix: my own flaws. How about you? -- Doug Smith

Are you a happy leader? The people on your team know. Maybe you should ask them. They can see when there is joy in your face and a jump to your step. They can also tell when you're filled with stress and clutching onto something dark and hurting. They don't like you that way, how about you? It can be hard to declare that we're happy when so much is troubling us. Happiness can even seem frivolous. It's not. Happiness is to be embraced and most of all to be created. Because happiness is contagious. Happy leaders have a better chance of building happy teams. What makes you happy? Why not do more of that? -- Douglas Brent Smith Build the skills your leaders need to take their teams to the next level. Contact me today about bringing our workshops  to your location. doug@frontrangeleadership.com