High Performance Leadership

Why would a happy person ever harm anyone? I don't think that they would. When we are happy, content, and at peace any effort to disturb or harm anyone else will just disturb or harm ourselves as well.  When we experience someone trying to disturb or harm us we can be sure that they are already in pain. Fighting back might seem valid, but will it help? What if we helped heal the pain at the root?  Difficult people did not become difficult randomly. Something, in need of healing, caused it. -- doug smith

Clarity creates understanding. Understanding facilitates agreements. Agreements offer peace. -- Doug Smith

What's your image of an assertive leader? We have been bombarded (and that's the right word) by images of strong, forceful leaders who get what they want no matter the cost. The image of a boss taking charge, firing people, embarrassing people, pushing people beyond their limits has shifted from normal, to unacceptable, and back to normal. Many people see that kind of boss as respectable and even admirable. A forceful, narcissistic, people-be-damned boss is not normal and it is not admirable. Centered leaders have no need to force people. Centered leaders have no appetite for or need for coercion. The brow-beating, chest-thumping, cave man boss of the media belongs in the cave. Declarations about carpet bombing to express our will or closing our borders to prevent immigrants from entering our blessed country do not come from a place of peace and can not lead to peaceful outcomes. Any expression of violence simply leads to more violence. Any indignity forced on a person or...

When things unravel, when life goes crazy, when people are losing sense over senseless things, how do you keep it together? For me, the key is to pause long enough to breathe. The expression "center yourself" is meaningful to me because it helps me find some calmness in what otherwise would be chaos. We only get a few seconds to find that center, but the good news is that's all that it takes. As a person of faith, I also take that brief moment to check in with that higher power. Call it what you will, for me G-d fills that space with the peace I would not normally find on my own. The center. When we're in conflict we can center ourselves before trying to influence anyone else. Why would they respond to any attempt to calm them down if we're flying off the edge? Operating from our center, we can best help others center as well. It's worth a try, isn't it? -- Doug Smith