Today is August 29th.... my next free date for lunch at Thrivent is September 26th. I need to caveat this with the fact that I only work 3 days/week and I'll be out of town a couple of days next week for that conference. Even so, I find it interesting that my lunches are so full these days... these lunches cover the spectrum of walking across the room to build relationships, others seeking lunch with me as a mentor, re-connecting with former co-workers, and just lunch with friends.
One of my greatest ongoing leadership lessons is the power of relationship. It's not always convenient to "do lunch" with people, but I have learned to love making time for this. Interestingly, this lesson is being learned primarily in my church role, but the greatest changes in lunchtime behavior are occuring in my corporate job. I'm hoping I start leveraging the power of lunches in building relationships during my days on the clock at church -- if you are reading this and want to do lunch on a Monday or Tuesday, let me know... I love doing it, but might need a push. If you don't have time for lunch... how 'bout a soda?
This blog represents my personal journey and comments do not necessarily reflect those of New Hope Community Church
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Who is Steve?
- Steve Fredlund
- Cambridge, Minnesota, United States
- Married since 1991 (Tracy) with 3 kids and 1 cat.
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- 1) Blue Like Jazz (D.Miller)
- 5) Integrity (H. Cloud)
- 2) Velvet Elvis (R.Bell)
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1 comment:
Hey Steve! As someone in the Corporate world, I see a wonderful message here. In the Corporate world we all tend to get so wrapped up in our responsibilities that we neglect to take time for important things like connecting with others. It was so commonplace for me to spend 10-12 hours a day running from meeting to meeting, analyzing reports, managing my people, and staring at my computer screen that I seldom, if ever took time for lunch, rather I settled for grabbing something from the cafe and bringing it back to my desk or shoveling it down my throat on a way to a meeting, instead of taking a "pause" from what I was doing and spending time building relationships. I made a big change here a few years ago and what a difference it has made. Four days a month, lunchtime is spent with a great group of individuals delivering Meals on Wheels, Three days a week are spent with mentees, co-workers, etc., one day a week is spent with someone on my staff, and one day a week is just for me to take an hour to just sit in the cafe alone, eat my lunch, read, meditate, etc. I think the experiences and lessons from your church role are intended to work toward a shift in your Corporate role to build stronger relationships and to take an occasional pause and remind you that there doesn't have to be differences in our actions dependent on where we are and the impact we make on the lives others is magnified if we simply "walk across the room". Either that or it's God way of saying you need to do something other that looking for cheap ways to get a haircut during your lunch hour! :)
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