High Performance Leadership

  Thriving leaders thrive as their teams thrive. It's a partnership. It's a deal. It takes constant support and service to sustain a high performance team. Thriving leaders recruit with the enthusiasm they show for their team. People can tell when your team is cohesive, cooperative, and collaborative and people crave that for themselves. Create and support a team that supports each other and others will rally to the cause. You have no weak links. You have no poor performers. You have no superstars. You do have team members who need your guidance and support. That's the role of a leader. -- doug smith

 "An enemy is a person whose story we have not heard." -- Gene Knudsen Hoffman Without contrary evidence it always seems like we're right. Even WITH contrary evidence we get stuck often defending our story, our view. The story may not be wrong, but it is surely incomplete. Listen. Ask questions. Understand. Learn. High performance leaders look for common ground. -- doug smith

Resistance to change is our most natural and unproductive impulse. Helping people thru that change changes their lives positively. It's s something that high performance leaders do. -- doug smith

Have you ever danced to a tune you didn't like? Maybe it was at a wedding, or a holiday gathering, or a nightclub, or some other place. Dancing was around you and so you danced.  Dancing is usually a choice. Unless it is against your belief system (as a child I remember people in my family who thought that dancing was a sin) dancing is on the whole more beneficial than difficult.  I used to believe that I was a good dancer -- until my partner broke up with me and I discovered that SHE was the good dancer, so good that she makes anyone she dances with look like a better dancer (even me). And yet, still I dance. I remember the celebration dinner for a project that I worked on when the president of the company joined the rest of us on the dance floor to do a fun line dance. I'll admit, he danced better than me. For one of the programs that I teach I offer the participants the opportunity to dance in a brief virtual dance party. Some people do (and seem to enjoy it) and some peopl...

How often do you check your work? When you're leading others you've got to check their work, too.  High performance leaders verify and then verify their verification. Things change.  Mistakes happen. Check to be sure. -- doug smith

Do the people on your team get enough appreciation? Are you sure? No one wants to be taken for granted. We all benefit from recognition and appreciation. Plus, when high performance leaders give out appreciation, they discover that not only does the person who is receiving the appreciation enjoy it, it's also enjoyable for the giver. It's free, and the results are wonderful. Appreciation brings its own reward. -- doug smith

Bold assertion here, but here goes. The truth is always incomplete. We simply can't know all of the facts all of the time with 100% certainty, especially considering that the truth is filtered by our perspective. You likely believe some things that you didn't previously believe. Most of us do. We get more information, and what we see (and experience) as the truth shifts. As my friend and fraternity brother, David Spiegel might say, "shift happens." Clarity is essential for high performance leaders. A muddled message translates to a troubled team. But clarity is not necessarily fixed.  To speak with clarity tell the truth while remaining curious about what the truth is. Even people on the road to perfection (especially people traveling in that direction) should keep learning. As a recovering know-it-all you can be sure that I will tell you once I have figured out the absolute truth. I'll be wrong, of course. What do you think? -- doug smith

High performance leaders find out what their teams need. Teams won't always ask for what they need in a productive way. They might simply slow down or stop being productive. When they do, there's always a need, frequently one that they cannot fulfill on their own. Better communication... Motivation aligned with their skills... Personal development... Interpersonal intervention (when people just can't get along)... Clarification of goals, duties, responsibilities... The list is long. Do you know what your team needs? What are you doing to fulfill those needs? -- doug smith

  Opposition feels easier somehow. We disagree. We argue. We stand our ground.  When we stop listening, we stop making progress. What if there IS a middle ground? What if there IS a middle way? What if by listening, and talking about it, we can learn to understand? What stands between us could be a barrier or a bridge. It's a choice. -- doug smith

We all get upset. We all have troubles. Even high performance leaders need to talk about their troubles -- just don't talk about them with your team.  They've got better things to do. -- doug smith

Great leaders take care of their people, true. Popular leaders gain followers, also true. High performance leaders do all that and, most importantly, they get stuff done. There is no substitute for taking responsibility and getting stuff done. What are you working on? -- doug smith

Team members will let you down. They're human, flawed, and easily distracted.  When team members do let you down, it does no good to get upset and to take it personally. As much as a high performance leader may influence a team member, the employee's performance is still up to them. They don't need the riot act, they need redirection. Point them back to where they need to be. Guide them gently back toward your expectations. They don't need to get yelled at. But, they don't need to make excuses, either. Accepting excuses is accepting defeat. That's not for you. Nobody cares about excuses -- and there's no reason to accept them, either. -- doug smith

Leaders are faced with difficult choices every day. Unexpected challenges push our buttons. Constraints rain on us and governments reign us in. We struggle to make our goals and then our goals change as conditions surrounding us change.  Temptations pop up everywhere: cut corners, reduce staff, lower benefits, attack your enemy. High performance leaders remain ethical even when times are tough. We can be assertive without being aggressive. We can fight the good fight without cheating.  It is possible to confront evil without becoming evil. -- doug smith

  Should high performance leaders smile more? If you've ever worked for a leader who did NOT ever smile, you probably yearned for a bit more human touch from them. How can you know that you're pleasing your leader if they remain cold and unfeeling? Sure, it can be annoying if a leader is happy-go-lucky all of the time. Tough leaders face tough situations with toughness without tearing their people (or themselves) apart.  Smiling is essential. Smiling keeps us grounded. Smiling puts positive energy to work for us, regardless of what's going on. Think about it: you can smile whenever you want to, it is completely up to you. When you do smile, it makes you feel better. When you do smile, it makes other people feel better, too.  There is more power in your smile than in anyone else's smile. Go for that power: smile. -- doug smith

What would you consider the highest power? I don't mean a diety or supernatural power -- that's something else. When it comes to earthly, leadership power -- the ability to influence people and results -- what is the source of that power? Inner strength? Can't hurt. Intelligence built from learning? That's a great contributor as well. But the highest power? That comes from collaboration, cooperation, and service. In comes from working together toward a common good with no hidden agenda and no victims. It's a high standard that generates high performance.  That means no power grabs. No hoarding. No manipulating people using tricks and coercion. It means true sharing and caring. The highest power is available to you but only if you share it. It isn't anyone's to keep. -- doug smith  

When we declare that something is true, it is because we tend to believe that it is true (unless we are deliberately lying). And, it may well be true, but what if we're wrong? Leaders are often wrong. Even high performance leaders. Here's one way to navigate that.  Instead of telling someone my truth is absolute, I will ask them to think about it. What if? Maybe we don't have to convince people immediately. Maybe we'll be more influential if they believe that they can think it over. What do you think? -- doug smith

I haven't flown in an airplane (not that I can fly without one!) since the pandemic started and truthfully, I don't miss it. Traveling had gone from an enjoyable vocation to an aggravating chore. And the worst part of it was flying. Once upon a time there were lots of flight choices which meant that some of the airlines had to do a good job just to compete. But then consolidation greatly reduced the choices (remember PanAm? Allegheny? Midway?) and the squeeze commenced. Seating space got smaller. And then smaller. And then smaller. Food disappeared or turned into nuts or pretzels and then even that disappeared. First class got bigger and coach got broken -- broken seats, broken window shades, broken promises... Flights got later, and later and often just cancelled altogether. Some months every flight I took had a maintenance delay of one kind or another. Lines were longer. Luggage space smaller. It all got worse and worse. I found myself becoming grumpy as my tall frame squeeze...

Do you ever get lost? Before GPS, I spent way too much time being lost. It wasn't that I was too proud to ask for directions, it's that whenever I did I would get directions that weren't right. Even people who have lived in a place their whole lives can get their directions wrong. Well, what about maps? I find maps more useful, although GPS has definitely spoiled me. But maps can become outdated. Maps can be damaged. And sometimes, maps can even be deceptive. That's a bit like following bad advice: it just gets you lost. Lots of people will give you advice. Lots of well-meaning people will provide you directions with how your life should go and what your work should look like. Whether or not you trust those directions depends largely on your relationship.  Leaders take the time to build relationships. High performance leaders test their assumptions, check their directions, and pay attention to the landscape, because these days things change fast. The right directions ca...

  Some problems are actually negotiations -- you can't solve them until someone else agrees. High performance leaders spend more time building agreements. -- doug smith

  Standing still is not an option. We can pause, we can relax, and we can certainly breathe, but there is work to be done. There are problems to be solved. There are goals to achieve. The status quo is not for you. High performance leaders push beyond the status quo. -- doug smith