High Performance Leadership

Creativity expands possibilities. Clarity defines your boundaries. Great leaders know that you must have both. There is a misconception that creativity has no boundaries. Maybe in some areas, but what great leaders know and put to use is that creativity has is most power when there are some constraints. When you have boundaries it gives you focus. When you have focus, you gain energy. When you gain energy, things get done. So by all means develop your creativity. Just point it in a direction where you can get something done!

Do you always tell the truth? Take your time with a question like that, because the answer is not always as clear as we may think. So many times we can bend the truth until it distorts and slips into an area we can't even see as untrue. If we're not careful we can even fool ourselves. If we're not careful our attempts at hiding our frailties and issues becomes an inner marketing campaign of perpetual dimensions. It takes energy. It takes deception. And it can't last forever. No matter how protected, guarded, shielded and practiced a lie may be, it can not survive forever. Eventually people find out whatever it is that your shielding. The truth will always bubble to the top. High performance leaders make it a practice to tell the truth from the start. Even when it's difficult. Even when the facts may be open to interpretation. Dialogue requires a willingness to state your truth. The truth takes courage. The truth requires clarity. When it is controversial or tough th...

What is your organization's vision?   All of your strategic direction and clarity begins with an inspiring, articulate vision. It should be something worth striving for and something that prods you on even when times are difficult. Your vision should prevent you from wandering into endless distraction. It should focus and energize everyone who comes into contact with it. High Performance Leadership is the official blog of Front Range Leadership, a metro Denver area leadership development company. Our vision: Developing centered leadership with courage, creativity, compassion, and clarity. From time to time I'll be writing more about that and what it means, not only to FRL but also to you as a leader. What does it mean, and what does it take to develop courage, creativity, compassion and clarity. Why are they so important to high performance leadership? And what exactly is centered leadership? Stay tuned and drop by for the conversation.  -- Douglas Brent Sm...

While looking for something else, l  found this quote: "Appreciate you without judging. Join you without invading, Invite you without demanding. Leave you without guilt." --  Virginia Satir It reminded me that part of a leader's role is in leading relationships. That's not the same as directing or controlling them. Leading relationships has more to do with taking personal responsibility for what you bring to a relationship -- whether that's at work, in the community, at home...anywhere. Relationships can not be taken for granted. To truly lead, we must remain attentive to the kinds of relationships we are co-creating. Appreciate you without judging We don't always have the answer, but we usually think that we do. Effective leaders listen with their whole being. We bring our soul to the game. We wait to be touched before reaching out to correct. We appreciate and allow for differences.  Courageous leaders correct dangerous situations, but hold ...

In the Boulder edition of Craigslist last week was an ad for an actor with the capacity to withstand physical pain. Why would an actor need to withstand pain in a role? Because this actor will be portraying an investment banker. If that’s not enough to bring the wrath of the audience on the actor, there will also be paint guns – fully loaded and aimed at the actor. The actor will have protective gear of course (which is more than the investment bankers from the major banks living on life-support right now had given to those of us now holding incredibly shrinking 401-Ks) but in this art performance piece is sure to take on some of the overflowing anger we feel at our shrinking economy. How did common sense fail the executives of some of our biggest companies? How could they not see the folly in insuring your own losses, in attaching derivatives and poor mortgage risks and over-leveraged assets to their books without any plan for risk control when the cycle trended down?...

Developing leadership skills has similarities to training to be a fire fighter. You need a combination of study, direction, and experiential application. But the experiential part of the training should build according to your skill level. A first day fire fighter trainee for instance never sees any real fire – they could easily get hurt or hurt someone else. The really difficult tasks must build on skills that have been learned before. Knowledge must be internalized and feel fully integrated before you apply it on a dangerous ground – and leading others can often be dangerous ground.  Leadership develops in scalable stages I’ve been both a fire fighter and a manager and so I can find many similarities in the development process. You can be a novice and inexperienced fire fighter and still contribute to the effort of the crew, provided that you are surrounded with more experienced, patient, and yes even insistent fire fighters who will be assertive and courageous enough to keep y...

I t's official!  Front Range Leadership, LLC has been launched to develop leadership skills through highly interactive in-person workshops and sharply focused leadership teleclasses. We also work with clients through coaching and consulting to help them develop their leadership skills. Here's today's press release: http://www.prlog.org/10181913-front-range-leadership-launched.html Front Range Leadership is a metro-Denver area training and development company. For more information: http://frontrangeleadership.com