As my summer is wrapping up, and we are in the throes of back to
school in triplicate for our girls, my favorite time this summer was
taking one of my daughters, Naomi away for three days. One on one kid
time is precious. It also is a ginormous sanity saver for parents.
So when Naomi didn’t want to go camping last month I took one for the
team and said I’d be willing to take her somewhere else. (In a hotel.
Sleeping in a really comfortable bed, I know, it was tough!)
She is obsessed with penguins so we spent three days at Long Beach
watching penguins, doing exactly what Naomi wanted to do when she
wanted to do it. Oh and we adopted a penguin and named it Waddles.
It reminded me of how little time leaders spent one on one with their
team members, and when they do it is an
auto-scheduled-reoccuring-meeting squeezed into a calendar reminiscent
of a Tetris game gone wrong.
Take one of your team on your next customer visit, let them join part
of a board meeting with you, let them shadow you for a day, block
empty space with one of them to consider the future possibilities of
your technology, brand, and products.
What can you do that provides a meaningful connection for one of your
direct reports?
Dedicated to growing your business,
Val
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