High Performance Leadership

What do you consider the most important traits of a high performance leader? We could create a very long list of those. Five core strengths of a centered, high performance are clarity, courage, creativity, compassion, and centeredness. High performance leaders also show confidence and curiosity. Not so much confidence as to appear arrogant, but enough to assure the team that you are headed in the right direction and developing every day. High performance leaders also show an above-average amount of curiosity. Curious about questions, curious about answers, curious about what motivates the people on the team. To build your team to become its best, stay curious about each team member. What makes them tick? What motivates them? What challenges them? What do they need to bring their top performance to the team. Because high performance leaders build their teams, improve performance, and achieve their goals. They also operate effectively under pressure. How much pressure are you...

How determined are you to achieve your biggest goal? It's great to set a noble goal. It's necessary to design a robust plan for achieving that goal. And you'll need to relentlessly act on that plan. You'll also need determination. A goal is only as good as your determination to achieve it. No matter how good it sounds. No matter how great your intentions. Sometimes we need to dig in and work hard to get the goal moving. Determination matters. How determined are you? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High Performance Leadership Training doug smith training:  helping people communicate more effectively What have you learned today?

Do you know someone who always blames someone else for their problems? I think we've done that - blame someone else. It's so easy. We'll be so much happier just as soon as THEY fix their problems. I've come to learn, through hardship and heartbreak, that a lot of the time that I'm hoping for someone else to get their act together that it's ME who needs to improve. The good news on that is that I can control what I do. I can take steps to improve. I just need to know what to change. When we share responsibility for success, instead of spreading the blame around, it no longer matters who is at fault. We are all at fault. None of us is perfect. If the issue didn't initiate with us, we likely did something to spark it or perpetuate it. Sharing responsibility for success allows us to move beyond that and take hold of better habits, better ideas, and better solutions. Once I accept sharing responsibility for success in solving a problem I realize how silly i...

How is your most important project team doing? When we lead projects we must stay on top of the performance. No matter who is on our team, it's best to not take performance of their goals for granted. It's best to occasionally follow-up. I'm a focused and goal oriented person, and yet I know that I benefit from a leader following up with me to keep me accountable. We're all so busy, it's easy to take our eyes off the target and drift from our center. High performance leaders help people stay on track. High performance leaders follow-up. No matter how reliable your project team is, they still need follow-up. What follow-up will you do today? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  High Performance Leadership Training doug smith training:  helping people communicate more effectively What have you learned today?

Do you ever get feedback that irritates you? I've had feedback that just bothers me so much that I can't even do anything with it. But then I stop to assess the source of the feedback. Just because someone gives you feedback doesn't mean that it is correct and it most likely doesn't mean that it's complete. There's more to the story. One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite college professors from graduate school, Dr. Jay Desko, is this: "feedback says more about the person delivering the feedback than it does about the person receiving the feedback." I quote Jay on that often because it's so important to keep that in mind. Yes, feedback is important. Yes, I know that I need MORE, not less feedback. And, yes, we should do something with that feedback positive and useful. But sometimes we can safely let the feedback go. Let it drop. Release it. It's safe to disregard feedback from someone who is so unhappy with themselves that t...

Did you ever stop to review the problems you've already solved? It's likely an extensive list. Sometimes we can get bogged down by all of the problems that we face. It seems like so much. How will we ever make progress? But if we take some time to think about how far we've already come, we can get a renewed sense of confidence and that leads to more energy to solve those upcoming problems. If we created a list of all the problems we've already solved we might be amazed. Amazed, and energized. Next Steps... Create a list of problems that you've already solved. How does it feel to have solved them? Take that energy you feel into your next challenge. You can, and will, do it! -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership: High Performance Leadership Training doug smith training: helping people communicate more effectively What have you learned today?

Do you have a constraint that's bossing you around? Maybe it's a budget that's too small. Maybe it's a lack of time. Maybe it's a process that isn't optimized and keeps slowing you down. Manage that constraint. Give it attention, but not surrender. Give it focus but not control. Centered problem solvers manage their constraints rather than letting their constraints do the managing. A constraint is asking for attention, not giving you a command. You're still in charge. Now, what constraint is pushing you around today? How will you deal with it? -- Doug Smith