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Making Friends is Part of Leadership 101

Guest post by: Sylvia Lafair

Article Overview: The ability to connect with people in an honest, real way is one of the biggest attributes in leadership.

Making Friends is Part of Leadership 101

One of the powerful forces of the web is the ability it has to connect people in real, honest learning communities. What can be accomplished with the click, click of computer keys is truly miraculous.

We can see all sides of ourselves, the good, bad, true and ugly. When I was visiting at Google several months ago I stood watching the board showing who is searching for what all over the world. It was fascinating to begin to decipher themes that are there from Greece, Peru, Egypt, etc. I stood watching for maybe ten minutes when one of my colleagues shouted out, "OMG, that one just coming across is from my wife".

We are more transparent than ever before, more connected than ever before, and more in need of new, creative friends than ever before. This is no time to get stuck in a rut, the world is moving fast. Those of us wiling to hold hands and fly into the future together are the ones who will stay fit and happy.

That leads to a new friendship I am forming with a woman who lives in Malaysia. Her name is Shafizal Shahidan and she is a trainer of trainers for character building at the Malaysian National Services. She befriended me on Facebook after reading "Don't Bring It to Work".

One comment she made underscored what I believe; that there are human universals of behavior bigger than cultural differences and are like gravity, they impact all of us no matter where we live. Here is what she said' "Because of your book I have been able to see more clearly resistances to change, leadership crisis, and attitudinal shifts."

There was more; yet, here is how her Facebook helped me through a rather tough day: I was in process of moving from Santa Fe to Petaluma. It was a sad/happy day. When I was on the computer and looking at Shafizal's page I saw that she also had recently moved. Her comment to a friend was just right for me at the moment. It said "During this time of moving I keep singing row, row, row your boat life is but a dream!"

Those few words from a new friend anchored me and moved me past my sadness. I'm in my new home and still singing "life is but a dream".

Connections, leadership development, relationships that help, they are all around; It's a spectacular time to be alive and growing on our beautiful blue pearl of a planet.

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Article Tags: attributes, connections, friendship, leadership, relationship



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