In this world of cell phones, skype, email, instant messages, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In (must I continue?) It seems hard to believe that we build communities around the world better than we do right . . . next . . . door.

Consider this:

According to social scientists, from 1974 to 1998, the frequency with which Americans spent a social evening with neighbors fell by about one-third. Robert Putnam, the author of “Bowling Alone,” a groundbreaking study of the disintegration of the American social fabric, suggests that the decline actually began 20 years earlier, so that neighborhood ties today are less than half as strong as they were in the 1950s.

This comes from a New York Times piece this morning, written by Peter Lovenheim who is writing a book about neighborhoods. (Read the full essay here.)

So Let Me Ask You?

When was the last time you focused on building the community with those who live near you rather than logging into Facebook? When was the last time you worked on your relationships at in the office rather than doing more email?

Networking, social media, and being in touch and available is great, but what are we trading for those wonderful new things?

Get some balance today - for yourself, your co-workers, those you lead, and for your neighbors.

Everyone will win.

Also posted in Leadership and Teamwork.

Labels: relationships

Staying connected is important for us in any number of roles in our lives: as leaders, as friends, as businesspeople, as marketers, as parents, as family members, as people.

Labels: connection, relationships

This is the eighth post in a continuing series designed to help you create a great 2008 - using questions to reflect on last year, and project into the future. All of the questions and additional information can be found in this tool, available for you to download now.

The eighth question is:

What relationship(s) do I most want to develop?

While there are many relationships I want to deepen and develop, including some from my post to the last question, this question begs focus. And while I won't pick one person, I'll pick just three:

Lori - my wonderful wife
Parker - my quickly maturing 15 year old son
Kelsey - my beautiful 9 year old daughter

While there are many relationships that are important to me, none compare to these three. Whatever goals I have set, whatever plans I have made - and you have some sense of those if you have been following these posts - none of those matter if I don't have the most important people to me, ever closer to me.

More than the achievement of any other goals, accomplishing this will bring me success happiness and joy.

Several of the past projection questions have been inwardly focused. This one and some of those to come will be less so. I encourage you to consider this question, as well as the logical follow-up of "How are you going to deepen those relationship(s)?"

As with all of these questions, I welcome your comments and answers.

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training.

Labels: questions, relationships

This is the seventh post in a continuing series designed to help you create a great 2008 - using questions to reflect on last year, and project into the future. All of the questions and additional information can be found in this tool, available for you to download now.

The seventh question is:

Who do I want to meet?

Oooh, I love this question!

I have a long list of people that I want to meet. Some are people that I already "know" from online and phone conversations, but that I look forward to meeting. People like:

• Mike Robbins
• Jonathan Farrington
• Jon Gordon
• Rosa Say
• Kevin Hogan
• Dave Lakani
• Bob Burg
• David Zinger
• Mollie Marti
• Daniel Decker

(This is a partial list!)

I also am looking forward to meeting large groups of John Deere dealers (which I will do in sessions over the next couple of weeks), many new Clients and participants, all of those who are our partners in promoting Remarkable Leadership, and many other members of the Top Sales Experts group.

I also have a long list of "famous" people I would like to meet for a variety of reasons. I wasn't going to share this list, but I decided that by sharing these names I may be improving my chances of meeting them. (Who knows, maybe they, a family member, or colleague will read this - or maybe you know these people!)

Here is part of that list:

- All of the former Presidents
- Oprah (ok, so I want be more than meet her, I want to be a guest on her show!)
- Vince Gill (and while we are at it, my wife would like to meet his wife, Amy Grant)
- Garth Brooks
- Seth Godin
- Larry King
- Warren Bennis
- Patrick Lencioni
- Tony Dungy
- Jimmy Buffett
- Warren Buffett
- Joe Vitale
- Mark Joyner
- Michael Masterson

I want to meet these people for a variety of reasons, but the one reason that is in common is to learn from them. I admire all of these people in one or more ways and I believe that in meeting them I could learn more than I could from afar.

I encourage you to ask yourself this question and think big - not only those people who you "know" you will meet (like, in my case future participants and Clients), but also build a list of those that might be a bit more of a stretch.

One of the things that answering this question (on paper) does for me is that it helps me realize that making this happen in many cases is easier than I might first think. Even in reviewing this list to write this post I am energized by the connections and network that I already have that can help make some of these meetings.

Of course, I am open to your introductions to any of these people as well!

So, again, let me ask you - who do you want to meet (this year)?

As with all of these questions, I welcome your comments and answers.

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training.

Labels: network, questions, relationships