High Performance Leadership

The world has always been competitive and it does a leader no good to pretend otherwise. Compete. -- doug smith

Have you recently made a plan that didn't work? I do it sometimes. In those head-scratching moments it's easy to sulk. I have sometimes been a championship sulker. But never did any of those championships produce a trophy. All sulking ever got me was hardship and heartbreak. Enough of that! When plans fail, we get to make another plan. Or, we get to adjust the plan that's leaking. We get to brush ourselves off and move forward. If your plan fails, make another plan. Crap happens and leaders respond. What's your response? -- doug smith

photo by Eric Weber Are your team members ever angry with you? Whether you are a creative artist, a business person, a not-for-profit consultant...whatever -- when we are doing important, passionate work we will sometimes generate anger. It might be unexpected. It might be provoked. People get angry. Anger can cloud our understanding. We can disagree. We disagree every day with some one (and sometimes it feels like half the world!) The better path, better than getting upset, is to clarify. If we disagree, we can figure out how to understand. Unless we understand, all the anger in the world is wasted energy. High performance leaders find ways to disagree respectfully while staying open to new possibilities. Ever been wrong? I'm wrong at least once a day. Disagreeing with my truth is often useful. Getting angry at it seldom is. -- doug smith

Are you confident about achieving your goals? Do you feel positive about your mission? Do your team members know that? Let's not take that for granted. Let's keep our team members updated. Share that confidence. Confidence shared grows. -- for your team members, and for yourself as well! -- Douglas Brent Smith

Trust takes time to build. It lasts from a series of trustworthy acts: telling the truth, making the tough choices, acting with integrity, keeping promises, staying curious, and keeping the needs of all concerned in mind. It's not easy. Most of us violate our sense of trust every day. Maybe even every hour. Centered leaders continue to build trust. They work at it. They bring their character, their discipline, and their strengths in ways that help other people to succeed. They create winners without creating losers. They honor those who trust them by consistently honoring that trust. Leaders who take trust for granted will soon be living without it. And it's not easy to get back, once lost. What makes people trust you? -- Douglas Brent Smith

How do leaders (or anyone else for that matter) increase their happiness? How can you increase your joy? One way is to be aware of joy when it happens. For many people (hopefully) that happens many times a day. To multiply those feelings it's necessary to first truly feel them, savor them, and reflect on your role in creating those feelings. We have far more to do with creating our own happiness than we'll likely ever know. Embrace your moments of joy in order to multiply them. With enough practice, happiness becomes a way of life. Wouldn't you rather work with a happy leader than an unhappy one? So in a way you owe it to your work as a leader to embrace happiness. - Think about your most recent "rush" of happiness. Experience it again by thinking about it with sincere appreciation. - Who can you help create a moment of joy today by bringing your own joy into the room? -- Douglas Brent Smith Teleclasses and Workshops for Front Line Supervisors

How do you, as a high performance leader, reward people for their hard work? Is it in money? Is it in public recognition? Is it in a private conversation, face to face? We do not all value rewards in the same way. People find value in what makes them feel right, feel appreciated, and feel respected. As high performance leaders, we owe it to our people to find out what those things are and then deliver. High performance leaders reward hard work in ways that matter to each person. And the best way to know what those things are is to ask. Talk it over. Take your conversations with each person to a deeper level so that you can truly understand what they are looking for, what impact they hope to have, and what makes them feel right, appreciated, and respected. Then find ways to get them what they really want. Who can you talk with today to discover their real motivations for success? -- Douglas Brent Smith Solving Problems | Achieving Your Goals

Leaders who spin the truth are already dizzier than they know. People can fool themselves, but as I've said before, the truth will always bubble to the top. Would you rather explain your previous story, or confirm it? Would you rather be known as someone who tells the unfiltered, ungarnished, unspun truth or as someone who can't really be trusted. Truth is about trust. Trusting your conversational and communication partners to understand you, to respond with kindness, to ask for clarification when they aren't sure or in agreement. Building relationships of truth requires truth. No matter how difficult that is sometimes, it is a primary responsibility of leadership. Remember, leaders get dizzy spinning the truth. -- Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com

High performance leaders help people identify what they don't know about themselves so they can choose wisely. We all have things that we don't know about ourselves - things that we do or say that may not be contributing to our goals. High performance leaders take the courage and compassion needed to share that feedback with their team members and peers. They also encourage others to do the same. Asking others to let you know what you've been missing about yourself encourages them to give you the feedback you need to raise your own performance. Who can you share this valuable type of feedback with today? - Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com

What do you expect from your people? Could they possibly achieve more toward your unified vision than YOU ever have -- and would you be emotionally OK with that? Confident leaders expect their people to exceed their own accomplishments in pursuit of the common vision. It's how high performance leaders multiply their efforts toward success. Are you confident enough to expect more from your people? Are you making it possible for your people to succeed? What will you do today to open more doors to success for your people? -- Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com

Athletes, actors, and musicians train every day. Shouldn't leaders train regularly? When was the last time that you attended any leadership training? When will you attend more opportunities for learning? What could happen if you neglect your leadership development? How much more success could you achieve by improving your leadership skills? -- Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com

The best way to understand and motivate your employees is to spend more time with them. As a leader, your employees are always watching. They've watching to see what you do. Do you walk your talk? Do you live your values? And, most importantly, do you care about your employees? There is a myth about parenting called quality time and some managers try the same tactic with their employees. Here's the reality: there is no substitute for real time. Quantity time. You can't cram all of your relationship into bite sized pieces and expect it to amount to much more than a bite. Do you want to communicate to your employees that you truly care about their goals, their careers, and their lives? Do you want your employees to be highly motivated and energized? Spend lots of time with each of them. There simply is no substitute. How much time have you spent with individual employees today? Who on your team have you been ignoring? What can you do to spend more time with them? When will yo...

A single leader cannot do it all. A single leader who tries to control every decisions is bound for failure. People need input in what their team does and where they go. Powerful teams share responsibility, and responsible leaders realize this before it becomes an issue. But it's not too late. If you are not already sharing responsibility for your team's success, why not start today? What will you do TODAY to increase the involvement of your team and to share responsibility? -- Doug Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com

Creativity expands possibilities. Clarity defines your boundaries. Great leaders know that you must have both. There is a misconception that creativity has no boundaries. Maybe in some areas, but what great leaders know and put to use is that creativity has is most power when there are some constraints. When you have boundaries it gives you focus. When you have focus, you gain energy. When you gain energy, things get done. So by all means develop your creativity. Just point it in a direction where you can get something done!

Do you always tell the truth? Take your time with a question like that, because the answer is not always as clear as we may think. So many times we can bend the truth until it distorts and slips into an area we can't even see as untrue. If we're not careful we can even fool ourselves. If we're not careful our attempts at hiding our frailties and issues becomes an inner marketing campaign of perpetual dimensions. It takes energy. It takes deception. And it can't last forever. No matter how protected, guarded, shielded and practiced a lie may be, it can not survive forever. Eventually people find out whatever it is that your shielding. The truth will always bubble to the top. High performance leaders make it a practice to tell the truth from the start. Even when it's difficult. Even when the facts may be open to interpretation. Dialogue requires a willingness to state your truth. The truth takes courage. The truth requires clarity. When it is controversial or tough th...