High Performance Leadership

Remember a time when you saw someone so completely centered, so completed on their game that you wondered what it would be like to try their style on for style? Long ago I wanted to be Wilt Chamberlain.  If you were a basketball fan (and player) at the time you might want that, too. He was dominant. He was relentless. He could score at will. But I was not even close to his size or stature or skill. It was not the style for me. Later I wanted to be Bruce Springsteen. To sing like him, rock like him, give more than anyone else in the business (except maybe James Brown at the time) was able to give. And, in many ways The Boss is style a big influence on my guitar and vocal styles as I play in a band even now. But I'm no Bruce, and there's no point in pretending that I could be. It's up to each of us to rock our own style. To be our own leader. And within that, to develop the skills and character we need to be the best leader that we can be: a leader operating with clarit...

How to you react to being lied to? I'm going to guess that it makes you angry. It likely creates an emotional storm, whether you discover it later or earlier. Deception is a bite out of integrity. Maybe people deceive us because they think they can get away with it. Maybe they try to deceive us hoping to get caught. There is something desperate about deception. It is irritating and much weaker than it appears. Deception begs for justice. Give it what it craves. Squash deception wherever you find it. Truth rules. -- Douglas Brent Smith

Do you find your projects getting bigger and bigger? Is scope creep more than a concept to you and more like a way of life? I call it the "wouldn't it be cool syndrome." Our bosses do it to us, our clients do it to us, our customers do it to us, our team members do it to us, but most of all we do it to ourselves -- we let our boundaries disappear and work expand endlessly. Do you know what that leads to? Unfinished work. That's not what you probably want. While your job might be without boundaries, your projects need them. And guess what -- if you don't set them and enforce them, why would anyone else? Centered leaders, high performance leaders create project boundaries. Shouldn't you? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Do people who follow you make mistakes? Of course. All people make mistakes. How you as a leader respond to those mistakes will determine how many risks they take and how creative they get. And, you want them to be plenty creative. Give your people lots of chances. Chances to succeed. Chances to learn. Chances to grow. The cost is incremental, but the payoff is geometrical. It's worth it. Giving someone another chance doesn't take any chances from you.  Your chances are unlimited. There. I said it. Your chances are limited. What's the point in being stingy about them? Centered leaders give lots of chances. Who do you know who would love another chance today? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Isn't it tempting to keep our mistakes to ourselves? We're just glad to get through them and really don't treasure parading our weaknesses around. But, what if by sharing our mistakes we can do some good? The lessons we learn from our mistakes can be multiplied by teaching others. It provides useful information (whether or not others take it). It shows our own humility. It demonstrates our compassion for others with the hope that they can avoid some pain or hardship that we've already experienced. We might have a hand in helping others avoid mistakes. And if others make fewer mistakes, won't that be good for us, too? -- Douglas Brent Smith

Do you remember missing a goal but also learning from it? If we are truly setting stretch goals, we will sometimes miss. It doesn't make us unsuccessful -- it changes us, it refreshes us, it develops us -- if we take the time to learn the lesson inside. Why did we miss? What should we do differently next time? What part of our goal plan did work? Sometimes we learn more from a stretch goal that we don't achieve than from an easy one that we do. Pick the stretch goal. Grow. -- Douglas Brent Smith

Do you like it when someone blames you for something you didn't do? For that matter, you probably don't like it when people blame you for things you DID do either. Blame creates more ill feelings. While it may be intended to build in accountability, does it seem to you that it works that way? Instead, problems get escalated. People point fingers. Guilt is transferred. When justice is required, seek justice. But assigning blame -- randomly or otherwise -- seldom improves the situation. Blame brings shame so play a better game. It might take courage. It might take compassion. It might take the clarity of seeing the bigger, better picture and working to create the better relationship. Find ways to get past the situation to a mutually shared goal. Play a better game. -- Douglas Brent Smith