High Performance Leadership

When it's all important, it's important to determine what is MOST important. Filling our days with little things could squeeze out the big things. The big things matter. High performance leaders keep the big picture in mind from project to project and from goal to goal. -- doug smith

I'm still looking for someone who can do everything. Every task on their list, every task on their boss's list, every goal in their endless stream of goals. I still haven't found them. I'm still looking for the person who can finish everything they've started, who can achieve any goal while tackling all goals, and who never gets nervous in the process. I still haven't found them. No one can do everything. Not even you. Chaos comes when we try to do everything. Chaos comes when everything looks like it's as important as everything else. Chaos comes, and it screams. Do you hear the screaming? Do you enjoy the screaming? Chaos screams! Prioritize. Prioritize and chaos will settle down. -- doug smith

It feels harder than ever these days to prioritize. We get pulled into so many directions it's hard to know what to do first. Every day feels like life on the edge of (or in the middle of) chaos. What to do? Common sense says priories. Decide what is most important and focus first on that. Build the future you want by working on it today. The place to start? The place to start prioritizing is with your goals. Limit how many you have. Rank the ones you have set by priority, and then focus your efforts accordingly. We all have to start somewhere. It might as well be with our goals. -- doug smith

You know how to set goals. You do your best to lead. Are you setting more noble goals? Here's what i mean by noble goals: achievements to make the world a better place to live. Goals that do no harm. Solutions without side-effects. That's tough work. It starts with setting the right goals. They might be bigger than you can ever imagine achieving. Don't wear yourself down. Be reasonable. But, set those noble goals anyway. We all need something big to work toward. And, heaven knows, we all need a better world. -- Doug Smith

When will you get to the big stuff? Are you working on the big stuff right now? Are you working on the energizing, team-changing, life changing problems and goals that make the difference between a leader-in-name and a high performance leader? No time? No room. Listen, nobody has room for the big stuff. We all have room for the big stuff. It's all a decision. Make that decision. Work on the big stuff. Need to find time for the big stuff? Get the little stuff done. Finish it. Get it out of the way. It probably will take less time to finish than fret over anyway, so get that stuff done. The report you've been putting off. The schedule. The budget. The cleaning. The decorating. Get it all done. The big stuff is waiting. -- Doug Smith P.S. Here are the big goals that have my attention. I have no idea how to achieve any of them, but thought that sharing them is a start. I shared them previously on one of my other blogs: dougsmithtraining.blogspot.com Here are ...

Collage by Doug Smith How does it feel to work on goals that don't matter? Frustrating! And yet we do it. Once committed (or worse, once assigned) we plug along on some goals that have lost their relevance. They don't matter. No one really cares, least of all us. What's the point? That slows us down! In my workshops I often quote Brian Tracy on setting priorities. "In order to prioritize we must have the courage to de-prioritize." No one can do everything. Since we can't do everything, we must decide what we will not do. Often, as unpleasant as it may feel, that means letting go of goals that don't matter anymore. Drop those irrelevant goals. Work on those that matter. Work on those that energize you and lead you toward your mission. Time marches on. March to the band that makes your heart beat with verve and happiness! -- Doug Smith

If everything is urgent then nothing is urgent. Centered leaders prioritize with clarity. Have you ever had a boss who told you that everything was urgent? Everything had to be done RIGHT now, with no excuses, and no differentiation? How did that work for you? If everything is urgent, how do you know what to do? Prioritize according to your vision and mission, and the rest clarifies. What is truly important emerges from what truly matters. What matters in your vision and your mission. Most everything else is "nice to have". If everything is urgent it all becomes the same. There's no time for that. Centered leaders prioritize with clarity -- so that people truly know what to work on first. - Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com