High Performance Leadership

Teams that enjoy spending time together are working with an advantage. What's that advantage? The advantage of better relationships. A closely-knit team develops a quiet second language of understanding that is hard to define but easy to see. You just know. Few teams develop this second-nature way of working because they simply do not remain together longer enough for the chemistry and skill to emerge. But when it does, the team not only delivers astounding results, it enjoys doing it. Why not enjoy achieving your results as a team? Why not develop your team chemistry, relationships, processes, goals, and results? Build that team. You are not done. - Doug Smith

Clarity requires courage to persist. There are so many distractions and perspectives. People will even do their best (or worst) to cloud our vision and distort our truth. To remain clear, focused, and balanced takes large amounts of courage. Stay clear on your values and then stay courageous about keeping them. You are not alone. -- Doug Smith

Sometimes we need to let our notion of what a good team is in order to build a great team. -- Doug Smith

Development Exercise:  Write 5 goals for the day and achieve them all by noon. If it's past noon now, do it tomorrow. See how it makes you feel. Then, in the wise words of the shampoo bottle: rinse and repeat. -- Doug Smith

Why do we lie? That's a compelling question worth exploring. I once read that on average we tell about 26 lies a day. That's a lot of lying. But as leaders, don't we rely on our people to tell the truth? Aren't they (and our customers, and our families!) relying on US to tell the truth? What if it's not exactly our fault? What if we can dramatically reverse the amount of lies we tell by adding a bit of mindfulness? I like this video. It involves behavioral science and while it would be nice to have even more research on this, I do find the evidence compelling that very often we lie unconsciously. Watch the video and see what you think. Interesting experiment? What opportunities can you think of where you work to wake-up the moral foundation in your people? How can you remind people that you are counting on the truth? High performance leaders must communicate for results. That means finding, and delivering, the truth. How can you hold yourself and othe...

Who needs bad meetings? And yet, so often we tolerate them. We sit thru meetings where nothing is accomplished or where people are so uncomfortable that true and honest communication is avoided. It does not need to be that way. When I have control over the outcome of a meeting, I make certain that it includes both careful planning and skillful facilitation. The planning includes: The agenda The goals Processes for achieving each goal Agreements and guidelines for how people behave during the meeting Roles (facilitator, time-keeper, recorder, and whatever else the meeting needs) Feedback / Evaluation Depending on the meeting, I might add other things such as warm-up activities, breaks, refreshments (and refresher activities.) When I do not control the meeting, I seek to influence it in advance to include those things mentioned above. When I do not control or influence the meeting, I decide ahead of time how necessary is it for me to attend, and if the answer is...

Teams are built from the inside - and from the outside. I saw a message from a famous person today touting the merits of promoting from within. It build morale, it sends a clear cultural message, it motivates people on the team. That's all true. It's also true that our teams may not have every strength that we need to make it to the next level. It may be necessary to add some spice to keep growing. Promote from within? Absolutely! AND build your team by constantly looking for talent interested in joining your cause. Who do you know who might serve your team incredibly well, but is not yet part of your team?  Have you talked with them lately? -- Doug Smith