Leadership is About Relationships, Not Tasks
As a leader, you’ve got a lot to do. No doubt about it, there are tasks galore. Probably a mountain-load, right? And yet, if you want to be a great leader, you’ve got to understand that the mark of your leadership lies in your ability to build quality relationships. This is the most important task for you to undertake. Whatever your to-do-list says on it, if you do not invest time in building relationships, it won’t matter how many tasks you cross off your list.
Building relationships requires you to be present to those around you. You’ve got to listen, you’ve got to connect, you’ve got to invest time and energy in others. This applies to team members, absolutely, but relationship building goes beyond this particular parameter. If you’re the leader of a political party, you must build relationships with constituents. Leader of a religious group? Build relationships with your members and would-be members (and everyone you run into is a would-be member!). Leader of a corporation? Build relationships with your managers, your staff — everyone from the most entry-level position to your most senior manager. No matter what your leadership title, you must hone your ability to build relationships. Without this skill, it won’t matter how productive or efficient you are. People want to feel connected to their leaders. People want to feel connected to you.
Bottom-line: as a leader you’re probably very effective and efficient at getting things done. One of those things, however, has got to be relationship-building. If you’re not so good at this, all the other stuff won’t matter.
Having said all this, let me share that I will be on holidays from now until the 3rd of January — time for me to build relationship with my family 
So, the next blog post will be on January 3rd, 2011. In closing, because I celebrate Christmas, I offer you the traditional greeting of Merry Christmas — and for those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, I wish you all the best of the season. May you enjoy celebrating whatever tradition is yours at this time of year. And may 2011 come in a light-filled way for you and yours!
Do Little Things Count?
Well, I’m smack-dab (or “dam-smack” as my 7 year old says!) in the middle of a full-fledged writing week, the first of 4 scheduled for this year. The writing weeks are something which my co-author and I co-created for ourselves, as a structure and container within which to honour our commitment to work on the 2nd book in our series, without compromising or sacrificing the integrity of our individual coaching companies. With this structure, we can throw ourselves into the writing for one whole week at a time, feel the momentum, harness the creativity and really make progress, before letting things percolate for a while before we dive in again. So far, it’s been a thing of beauty — momentum galore, productivity abounding, and laughter that I’m sure would have people wonder about our sanity, if we were working out in a public setting.
As great as this all is, one of the things that happens during this sort of focused week is that I can’t be fully immersed in my coaching company. Makes sense; when I’m focused on one thing, I can’t be focused on another. I get it. I have allowed myself time at the beginning and end of each day to attend to the absolute essentials of my coaching practice — these vary a bit from week to week, but they’re the things that help keep me grounded and moving forward — follow up calls, mini-meetings, admin tasks, etc;. Again, they’re essential — and they feel “little”, compared to the bigger things such as proposal writing, concrete coaching and seminar delivery. Which has me ask the title question: do the little things count?
Even as I ask it, I know the answer. Of course they do! In some ways, they count at least as much, if not moreso, than the “bigger” tasks. These are the things that set the foundation and keep my business afloat. These little tasks are the things that lead to the bigger accomplishments. And sometimes, doing these little things requires a modicum (if not a big whack!) of courage. And commitment. And trust. When I can tackle all of these little tasks with these three qualities, what I know for sure is that I’ll be able to handle the the inevitable big tasks with as much courage, trust and commitment. The little tasks, in some ways, are a training ground for the big things. And the eventual accomplishments and successes that come out of these tasks — big or little — can be savoured that much more. Because I’ll know that I actually did what needed to be done to have the experience of this particular success.
Bottom-line, as a leader, I must be prepared to do the little things and the big things, even as I hold the vision and move towards my envisioned success. Not only do the little things count, they are the things upon which the foundation of true leadership success is built.