Tasks vs Relationships

Average Reading Time: 2 minutes 20 seconds

Who are the one or two people in your life that you would truly do anything for?

Who are those people that would cause you to drop everything if they said they needed you? Or the person you’d take a bullet for, physically or metaphorically?

You may have said a best friend, your parent or perhaps a sibling. For the majority of us, I suspect we would say our partner or spouse though.

Any why is that?

Is it because when we were first dating, we sat down to discuss our respective approaches to long-term financial planning and how that would support the family we might have many years down the line? Probably not.

Maybe it was because we got straight down to business and built a five-year roadmap for the holidays that we would take together? Unlikely.

Or perhaps it was because we had fun getting to know each other and started to really understand what makes us both tick, what we value in life and the things we truly care about? Probably.

And through talking about these non-tangibles, the relationship grew and developed over time until we reached the point where we trust each other unconditionally.

Quite unannounced and without any fanfare, the day suddenly arrived where you realised, you’d do absolutely anything for that person. You’d take a bullet for them or donate a kidney if you were a viable match.

This unity, this level of commitment and trust, doesn’t come as a result of talking about the practicalities and building a 12-step plan for your next 18 months together.

But that’s what we do in business, right?

We focus so heavily on the task at hand and all the ‘stuff’ that needs to be done.

We forget, or even neglect, to invest the time in building relationships that are big enough and strong enough to see us through the tough times as well as the good times.

I’ve worked with countless leadership teams over the past ten years who have told me, one-on-one, how strong and close they are as a team. Sadly, more often than not I find this isn’t true.

They describe themselves as strong and close because they’ve either never truly been tested to the points where the worst of everybody’s character is exposed, or because they’re avoiding the elephants in the room.

So whilst it can be tempting to simply get ‘straight down to business’ on our virtual calls, connecting on a personal level is so important right now. Perhaps more so than ever.

#LeadOn