High Performance Leadership

  How many goals are on your list? I've know people to have over a hundred goals on their list. That's fine. Many people have declared great success with an extensive list of goals. For me, that many goals will overwhelm me. To look at a list and see more than fifty unachieved is less than encouraging. Keep the long list if you like, but here's what I suggest:  Show to courage to focus on five top goals.  Put five goals at the top and focus on them until each one is done. Big or small, that's up to you. But leaders get stuff done. Get stuff done! -- doug smith

How many top priorities do you have? The trouble with too many top priorities is getting them done. Too many top priorities means you don't really have priorities -- just a really long list of goals. Have all the goals you want. Goals are great. I've know people who carry a list of 100 goals. They check them off one by one, and some have truly accomplished nearly half. That takes time, and feels more like a bucket list than a goals list. Top goals are what you work on first. Top goals are what you prioritize above all else. Top goals are where your results make a meaningful distance. High performance leaders show the courage to focus on five top goals. How many do you focus on? -- doug smith

Did you ever have someone who kept insisting on a particular deadline, whether or not the deadline made sense? I've had bosses who set arbitrary deadlines and then treated them as if they were the most important thing in the world. One in particular kept asking his favorite question, "Are you done yet?" Deadlines ARE important. What we are working on is important. Deadlines matter. But why we are doing what we are doing may determine how much effort and urgency we give to the task. Why matters. Importance is relative. Priorities are necessary so that we spend our limited time working on what truly matters most. Why is more important than when. As a leader, when you are delegating, help the team member identify why they are doing the assignment. As a highly productive, high performance leader, when you prioritize your own tasks, ask yourself why number one is number one in order of priority. Why matters. Why is more important than when. Wouldn't you rath...

Sometimes I get confused. What should I be working on RIGHT NOW? In many of the workshops that I lead, participants struggle with setting priorities. To achieve our goals, we must know our priorities, work those priorities, and somehow -- SOMEHOW -- make peace with those tasks that are NOT our priorities and left undone. It doesn't make everyone happy. That's not our job. Our job is to figure out our goals, work THEM, and achieve the goals that matter. Easier said than done, certainly, but no reason to surrender. Here's what I tell myself: figure out your goals -- then work your butt off. -- Doug Smith