High Performance Leadership

30/30 - 30 minutes, $30 Leadership Teleclass on October 10, 2018 at 11:00 am Ten Keys to Leadership Success Explore ten key ways to quickly improve your leadership performance. But it's more than a list. You'll also hear how to implement these keys in your leadership role. Perfect for new leaders and people who have recently been promoted to leadership (or expect to be soon!) And, even if you're NOT a new leader, it's never too late to get yourself on track for truly high performance leadership. Next session: Wednesday, October 10 at 11:00 am ET Only $30 SOLD OUT! Download the Leaders Guide here

Give your front line supervisors two days of training that will pay off in improved performance, engagement, and motivation for years to come. Agenda: Developing leadership capacity, strength, and flexibility Ten keys to leadership success Achieving your supervisory goals Communicating for results Building your team Motivating yourself and others Manage your time without driving yourself crazy Coaching to improve performance Facilitating highly productive meetings Solving team problems collaboratively Supervisors are challenged in every direction. They usually don't get the training they need and end up with more problems and headaches than they'd ever imagined possible. It doesn't have to be that way. The key tasks of a supervisor can be learned. Our time tested and field tested training methods get your supervisors to explore, discover, and practice the key skills that will make a positive difference in their performance, their teams, and their lives...

Do you like criticism? I'll admit that I don't. I'm blessed with overly-sensitive sensibilities, and criticism triggers all kinds of defensiveness. But I'm working on it. I'm learning. Criticism can be harsh, but not all criticism is harsh. As don Miguel Ruiz says, "don't take anything personally" (The Four Agreements.) Instead of taking criticism personally, I'm working on finding the value. Finding the feedback that I can use. You might not be able to use all of it. Some days, you can't use any of it. When you can - do. If you can take criticism without getting defensive you'll find the benefit it's meant to give. It's part of good leadership. It's integral for communicating for results. And, it will help you to achieve your goals. Use that to make your situation better, and it's all good. -- Doug Smith

Working the wrong goals gets in the way, and yet we often find ourselves working on things that are assigned to us or poorly chosen. High performance leaders push against that. The final answer isn't the final answer if it doesn't serve the team. Work suffers when our goals stink. Fix that. Negotiate great goals. Reach agreement on exciting, ambitious, nobel goals and see what happens next. When our goals are right, our work is better. Give that a try. I think you'll like it. -- Doug Smith

When the goal speaks to your soul nothing will stand in your way. Not for long. Not forever. The goals that speak to your soul prevail. What soul shaking goal are you working on today? -- Doug Smith

I had a boss once who insulted me every day. It seemed like nothing would please her. And, it wasn't just me -- she insulted everyone on the staff. It made coming to work far more stressful than it needed to be, and took the joy right out of the job. Don't be that boss. Sure, we need to provide feedback for improvement - but that's what it is, not insults. No one is looking for judgments that make them feel bad. No one wants their self-esteem cut to shreds because the boss is having a bad day. Keep your bad days to yourself, please. Feedback designed to harm or insult is better left unexpressed. Your team will feel better, and you will, too. -- Doug Smith Bring our two-day workshop "Supervising for Success" to your location for just $149 per participant for organizations within 50 miles of Newtown, PA. For more info: Supervising for Success

Do you believe in endless possibilities? I'm not one of those people who believe that anyone can do anything if they just believe. Here's why. No matter how much I believe, I will never play major league baseball. Even if I could learn to hit a fastball (my reflexes haven't kept up with these young pitchers' arms!) let's face it: I'm way past the age of sports prime. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other horizons to gaze into, explore, and travel. The possibilities don't shrink as we grow, they expand. They're just different. It is primarily important to pick the right goals. Sensible, achievable goals. When we do that, the possibilities are endless. I can't say that ANYthing is possible, what what IS possible is plenty. Seek that. -- Doug Smith ------------------------------------------ Shameless Promotion Department If you'd like to increase and improve your possibilities as a supervisor I can help you with tha...

Are you the hardest working member of your team? When I worked at Aon, the CEO Pat Ryan said that "the speed of the leader is the speed of the team." That made an impression on me then and it still does. Are you the kind of supervisor who sits back and waits for your team to do their job -- or do you set the pace? Do you show how important the work is to you? Do you demonstrate commitment to your customers AND to your team members? Set the pace. See what happens. You'll like the results. -- Doug Smith Need help getting your supervisors to set the pace in your organization? Bring our two-day workshop, "Supervising for Success" to your location. Contact me today: doug@dougsmithtraining.com

How do you like change? Are you on-board every change that comes down the pike? Do you accept every new idea? Neither do your constituents. Neither does your team. Resistance isn't always right. But, it isn't always wrong, either. Someone who tells you their objections is doing you a favor: now you know. Now you can do something about it. Change the "thing" or change the way you deliver the "thing"...or dig deeper to figure out what's behind the resistance. Even the most brilliant projects need acceptance to succeed. Work on that while you work on your brilliant goal. -- Doug Smith

What have you learned today? That's my favorite question. Admittedly, as a professional consultant, coach, and trainer I am biased in the direction of development. It's what I do. Still, think about it. To keep pace, to keep strong, to keep happy, isn't growth essential? Grow. Learn. Develop. Get the leadership training you need. Discover new things. Stretch. High performance leaders know that there is no standing still. High performance leaders grow. Do what you need to do to stay sharp and grow. What's your next step in your leadership growth journey? -- Doug Smith

Have you been through Leadership 101? There may be hundreds (maybe thousands) of courses, workshops, and trainings on Leadership 101 to prepare a leader for action and success. Many of them are useful. Many of them are not. If you are in preparation to become a leader or you are a front line leader just starting to figure it all out, here is my shortcut list to the skills you must develop to succeed as a leader: take charge build trust solve problems achieve your goals When new leaders work on and accomplish those things the chance for success are much greater - possibly even assured. Take charge: step up to your new responsibilities and accept the idea that you may no longer act like a victim in anything. You are in charge. Make decisions. Stay true to your word and tell the truth. Consult with people, collaborate with people, listen carefully to others and remember that there is no passing the blame for leaders. Whatever else happens it's up to you. Build tr...

Daniel Pink has famously said that everyone is in sales. What do you think? I think he's right. Whether it's internally convincing your boss or your board about a project or doing your best to connect clients with goods and services, we're all selling something. That's not a bad thing, it's just a thing. We all must influence. We all seek to add value and to do that need to convince someone of something. That's sales. Occasionally, I'll receive feedback (criticism) about my sales pitch. Yes, I sell. I sell resources, I sell training programs, I sell my services as a trainer, consultant, and (sometimes) entertainer. It used to bother me, but now I see the benefit. Think of it as marketing if you like, but it all starts with sales. No sales, no organization. It's as simple as that. I promise not to judge your sales pitch if you promise not to judge mine. Let's share feedback instead. Let's listen. Let's evaluate. And whenever we can...

Did you get the owner's manual to life when you were born? Me, either. And, ever since it's been one learning experience after another. Some were pleasant (oh, so that's how she shows me she love me!) and some were awkward (maybe I should have measured the room before I cut the carpet!) If we do nothing else, we'll learn what we need to learn completely inductively -- by stumbling around, discovering, exploring, and more-often-than-not making mistakes. So if breaking things, crashing systems, mangling relationships, and crushing communications is not your idea of fun, I'd recommend doing some proactive learning. Read ahead. Study. There is good news: Life is an open book exam. Once we finish school, there is absolutely nothing preventing us from finding the information we need and turning it into knowledge (and then into action) before we fail a test. Even before we get a dreadful "C" on that test. With so many learning tools available, we can abso...

Are your people getting the training that they need? Full disclosure - I provide training for a living, so of course I believe that people should constantly train and keep their people in training. But aside from that, I've seen so many dysfunctional teams fall to pieces and clash with each other simply because they haven't developed the skills that they need to effectively do the job. Communication skills. Leadership skills. Problem solving skills. Goal attainment skills. People need training. Training is more a sleep-inducing e-course. Training is more than orientation. Training involves exploring, practicing, discovering, and performing the skills needed to prosper and achieve your goals. Are you people getting enough training? It's probably impossible to over train your people. What do they need to learn next? What will do to support their learning? -- Doug Smith

Who sets the goals on your team? It's absolutely necessary to set clear, meaningful goals for every team. Certainly, as a leader you have goals of your own. But who sets the goals for your people? The best bosses I have worked for always let me set my own goals. They had to be goals that aligned with the goals of the team, of course. And, they had to be ambitious and in some way, noble. I got lots of guidance on writing those goals but the writing was up to me. The goals we eventually agreed on may have been revised a few times, but they were MY goals and so I was fully energized around achieving them. Isn't that what leaders want? Fully energized team members who relentlessly act on their plans to achieve their goals create great teams. Be careful about giving people goals, especially those that will not improve their situation. It's much better to quietly collaborate and, in the end, let your team members clearly set their own goals. What do you think? -- Do...

Did you ever have to learn something that you didn't want to learn? Maybe it was a required course in school and nothing about it appealed to you but you had to take it anyway.  How much of that do you remember? Did you put much of that learning to use? We tend to gravitate toward what we like. Why would learning be any different? With so much available to learn, our results will be much better when we look to learn in areas that interest us. The learning we seek is the learning we keep. Why not focus on the learning that we both need AND want? -- Doug Smith High Performance Leadership: Solving Problems. Achieving Your Goals. doug smith training: how to achieve your project goals

If you've ever worked in an organization that provides no leadership training you already know what a challenge that is. Leadership training prepares front line leaders for providing the kind of high performance leadership needed to solve problems and achieve their goals. Here are some quick articles I found that point out additional benefits to training. Invest in Experiences From FastCompany: Science explains why it provides more happiness to spend money on experiences rather than things. In experiences we share with other people, collaborate, feel, and learn. The best training provides that as well. Employee Training Is Worth The Investment Many of the benefits of training include: improving retention, helping in recruiting, adding flexibility and efficiency, helps in job transfer. I would add that it provides the growth we each need to move forward toward achieving our goals. How Employee Training Benefits Everyone More benefits are identified here plus the eye-ope...

Does that current problem look a lot like a previous problem? Are you tempted to try the same solution that you've used before? Just because a problem looks like a previous problem doesn't mean the same solution will work. In fact it could mean exactly the opposite - the previous solution didn't work. If it had, you wouldn't be recognizing the same old problem. High performance leaders learn how to find and encourage creative solutions. They dig deeper, beyond the obvious answers. They discover the actual causes and move to create better paths to their goals. Think of that old problem as a new problem and find a new solution. Wouldn't it be nice to solve it once and for all? -- Douglas Brent Smith Learn to deal with your team's problems more effectively by bringing our one-day workshop " Solving Problems " to your location. Ask me how here: doug@frontrangeleadership.com

What's the biggest project mistake you've ever made? I've been doing projects long enough to have made some big ones. But sometimes it's the little ones that cause the most grief. Little mistakes like forgetting to thank people for their work. Little mistakes like assuming that customer will be delighted by the brand new process or product my project is delivering. Little mistakes like failing to track expenses until they exceed the budget. On second thought, those aren't small mistakes after all, are they? And yet, in each case there were valuable lessons learned that transferred directly into better projects later on. Learning from my mistakes (not that I'm done making them) has powered my projects into more creative areas and kept me on my toes. When it seems obvious, it's probably not. When it seems too good to be true, there's probably a problem lurking under the surface. When everything is on schedule and under budget how can we be sure that ...

Do you agree with Daniel Pink that everyone is in sales? I sure do. I used to resist it. I even resented it. I thought that my work was so much more noble than that. That will keep you feeling superior perhaps but it also keeps you from helping as many people as you could. Why not reach more people with what you do best? That's sales. So here's my sales pitch for today. Each Saturday for awhile now I've been trying this little thing I call Shameless Promotion Saturday. It's what I offer you today: I deliver high performance leadership training. The two primary ways I do that is with one-day workshops and with one-hour webinars. What's your attention span? (and what's your budget?) Either way, you will find the choices to be fast, affordable leadership training. I invite you to email me today here: doug@frontrangeleadership.com ...to find out how these interactive workshops can develop your talent fast and affordably. Supervising for Success  - ...