Imagine the following situation: You need to talk to your boss and call his office to get an appointment as soon as possible. His assistant tells you that you can come by on the 1st of December, i.e. in 3 weeks from now, at 3:00 p.m. sharp and that you have 15 minutes. She also tells you that this will only work, if his prior meeting ends on time. If not, a new appointment has to be fixed. At the end she asks why you want to see him. Actually this situation is not hard to imagine, as it's reality in many companies. Big fail!

That boss is definitely not a leader. Not only that, he also squanders two of the companies most valuable resources: People and time.

I once had a boss, who made sure to answer every email from his employees within 24 hours. He often went out of his way and answered late at night or early in the morning. He had realized that this was time well spent and you know what? It made us feel important and valuable, we were extremely motivated. We didn't moan about extra projects, tough deadlines and occasional Saturday brainstorming sessions.

He also found time to look up his people in their offices from time to time. Not like many, who only come by once a year to wish everybody 'Happy New Year' - 15 seconds per employee for 'greeting plus handshake'.

Of course, we didn't have to wait 3 weeks for an appointment either :-)

Amongst other things, leadership means to valuate highly your time AND that of your employees. After all, it is a very scarce resource and nobody's day has more than 24 hours.

I look forward to your comments.