Carmine Coyotes Slow Leadership blog is one of my favourites. In this post she describes with great eloquence the importance of ‘Right Relationships’ to effective leadership. Carmine writes:
Dealing with people takes time. You need time to get to know them, time to establish trust and respect, time to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, and time to help them develop and grow. Perhaps the worst aspect of the frenetic management pace that’s becoming the norm is the way it deprives leaders of the time to spend with the people they’re charged with leading.
How do your colleagues, friends, and subordinates know that you’re interested in them? I mean truly interested in their welfare and progress, not just focused on them as useful to you in some way: shoulders to cry on or “worker bees” with a tough budget to meet in honey output.
The answer is simple: it’s the amount of quality time you spend with each one.
Absolutley!
For most managers it is not about spending more time with their team members. It is about focusing the time on them – the team member – rather than on the manager or the organsiation. It is about scheduling the time in advance rather than relying on impromptu meetings. It is about preparation and follow through.
Weekly, 30 minute, documented 121s.