High Performance Leadership

  Given a choice between creative and selective, go with creative every time. Life loves possibilities. Keep the doors open and the path becomes clear. -- doug smith

  Stay open to possibilities -- the ones that surprise you may please you the most. -- doug smith

If you had to build a winning team, what kinds of team members would you recruit? I haven't ever heard anyone ever say that they'd start with subpar performers. No one wants to build a team of strugglers. Wouldn't we rather have a perfect team? Ah, yes, but there are NO perfect performers, are there? We are all flawed. We are all in various stages of growth. Superstars, as well as subpar performers all need to grow, all need to develop. How do we do that best? As high performance leaders we must do two fundamental things very well. First of all, we must support our team members. Give them the resources, the training, the attention, and the respect that they need in order to prosper. The second fundamental we must master is to challenge our team members. Challenge them in ways that they've never been offered before. Give them tough projects, delegate them advanced tasks, push them beyond their initial expectations until they see their own potential as something ...

How many choices do you have? We have more possibilities than we know, more than we consider, and far more than we use. Limiting ourselves to two or three choices when we are solving a problem or setting a goal limits our chances of success and (more importantly) joy. Go for joy. Go for success. Start with endless, limitless possibilities. Anything less is cheating yourself. -- doug smith

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...

Stuck? Sitting still? Blocked by some hardy wall? The secret to motion is possibilities. The key to progress is motion. The heart of growth is uncovering what choices remain (and here's a secret to the secret, the choices are unlimited.) It's a leader's job to find better possibilities and bring them to life. Start digging. -- Doug Smith

How many possibilities are there? Endless possibilities! So when we're working on problems, there are always more possibilities to draw from. We just have to identify them. When we are building teams, achieving our goals, communicating for results, building relationships -- there are always new possibilities for how to do it better, faster, and smarter. It takes possibilities stop solve problems and solving problems opens new possibilities.  It's a virtuous cycle of innovation. Come up with new possibilities, solve problems with those possibilities, and enjoy the new possibilities that emerge. What's your next possibility? -- Doug Smith

Do you ever wonder where your best choices are hiding? I've had times when I felt painted into a corner by circumstances. It's easy to get emotionally stuck in that corner. Easy, but not very useful. Climb out of that trap and look for possibilities. Creativity teaches us that there is always a new way to see and do. There is always a new combination, a new set of rules, a new world of possibilities. Simply looking for those possibilities is usually enough to uncover some. I've know people who give up on their dreams because they no longer seem possible. What I've learned about that (having let go of a few dreams along the way) is that it is well worth the time to figure out what is it about that dream that appeals to you. What makes that dream cool? Why do you want it? What do you want out of it? Maybe there are far more choices and permutations to that dream that you'd considered. Living your dream could be much more flexible than you realize. The next t...

Stay with me for a moment on this - are you happy about your problems? If you're like me, "Yes" would not be your first answer. What makes them problems is what makes them aggravating. And while it may sound like a cliche, problems really are both a pain AND an opportunity. Each problem represents a very real opportunity to make something better. Each problem means that have a field to play and grow in. It's a lumpy field, a gnarly field, a field where we may fall and skin our knees, but it's a place to grow. More problems just means more possibilities. Not that we want to create more problems. Life will present us with all the problems we need without us looking for them. But those problems are gifts. Those problems are possibilities. What possibility is confronting you today? -- Doug Smith

Do you focus mainly on possibilities or on limitations? We need people who focus on limitations so that we can determine how to overcome them or avoid frustrating our efforts. We need people who focus on possibilities because the answers are out there, we just need to find them. There are always better ways to communicate. There are always better solutions. There are always new ways to bring joy and to reduce suffering. These are all in the possibilities that we develop. I'd much rather talk about possibilities than limitations . Often, by expanding possibilities we overcome what we had perceived to be as limitations. We can get creative. We can patiently pursue perfection without judging our imperfections. Possibilities are our future. Without thinking critically of those who think critically, I like the expanded (and expanding) view. What's your view? -- Doug Smith

Do your limitations ever bother you? I don't like my limitations. In a perfect world everything would be possible and nothing would hold us back. We just don't live in that perfect world yet. Every team, every project, every goal has its own constraints. There are things that hold us back. But within those constraints we have many choices. We always have available creative possibilities. Looking for those possibilities is half the fun. Find those choices keeps us focused and working toward our goals. Centered leaders see choices in every constraint. Are you uncovering your choices? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  Training Supervisors for Success doug smith training:  how to achieve your project goals

Do you  believe that anything is possible? I'm careful about going that far - I know for certain that I will never play basketball in the NBA or play bass with the Beatles no matter how much I want to or believe it. Belief does have limits. For many people those limits are far more restrictive than they need to be. Despite our limitations, the world (the universe!) is filled with wonderful, exciting, curious possibilities. We could (and should!) spend our lives exploring those possibilities. Not in regretting what is no longer possible - in discovering what is. One of my favorite books is The Art of Possibility - Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. It's a great guide in how to see the possibilities and potential in people, processes, places, performance with an attitude that welcomes success. Imagine that - an attitude you can carry with yourself in every endeavor and every interaction that invites success. New ...

Collage by Doug Smith Are your possibilities endless? Do you search for more possibilities every day? Solving problems is all about finding solutions. Creating innovation is all about finding possibilities. Living a rich, full, robust life is all about exploring possibilities. Places to see, people to meet, experiences to touch. New combinations. New environments. New games to play. Centered leaders focus on their possibilities to achieve their goals. Your creative process is always ready for more possibilities. Are you? -- Douglas Brent Smith

The creative arts have taken in on the chin this month. A poorly made trailer for an ill-conceived movie has sparked demonstrations around the world. Are people taking this piece of crap "art" too seriously? Is "art" that dangerous? Art sometimes is dangerous. It has the power to stir minds, to generate energy, to instigate change. It pries its way into our emotions and stirs up feelings we've been pushing down. It offers new ways of seeing things we may not have expected. It frames issues and personalities in plots and scenes we can be uncomfortable with. Shouldn't we talk about our feelings? Shouldn't we open our imaginations to new possibilities? Shouldn't we solve problems creatively by tapping into the creative tools and attitudes we learn from the arts? Ah yes, if we can only do that without throwing dangerous objects at each other! The answer is not to suppress the arts. The answer is not censorship or surrender. The answer is somew...

Life is too short. Life is full of infinite possibilities. Which scenario are you working? It's your choice. There's no doubt that time is our highest premium. And yet, there is so much that we can do. So many possibilities. So many problems to solve, so many goals to achieve. High performance leaders go after those possibilities. They find the people who can best help them, and they find people who they can help. Possibilities are right there for the right leader to move forward. Why not get busy on them today? -- Douglas Brent Smith