Quote-A-Day: Day 116

A leader who is too busy for people is a leader who is too busy to lead. #QuoteADay #Day116 #edchat #edu #MakeTime #AllAboutRelationships

I made a poor leadership move yesterday.  It was about 3:00 PM, and I was anxious to complete a number of important items before the weekend.  I had just finished an extremely worthwhile team thinking session, and I was excited to have about an hour or so to wrap up a few loose ends before ending the week with a short meeting.

As I was getting into the work, and really feeling like I was in the zone, one of my colleagues stepped into my office and asked, "Do you have five seconds?"

I inhaled and made that noise you make when something hurts or you expect it to (you know what I'm talking about).  I was torn.  Should I finish up items that needed to get done, or meet with my colleague?

I responded, "I can do five seconds," and we met and chatted.  The meeting wasn't lengthy (of course it was more than five seconds), and I was able to get back to work shortly (long story short, I did wrap up the items I needed to).

But, I felt bad about my response.  The way I see it, if we're too busy for those we work with, we're too busy to really be effective leaders.

Now, we've all been in this type of situation before, and I admit, there are times when there is much on my desk I would like to accomplish.

Still, if we're to be the best leaders we can truly be, we must always make time for people, because they are the most important.

My response troubled me because I really do consider myself to be "all about the relationships."  But, it proves a very relevant point:  No matter where we are in our learning and leading lives, we can always get better.

I'm still not yet at the point where people always come first, even though deep down, I know that is how it needs to be.  The good news is, this is another goal for me to strive towards.