How Linkedin has Strategically Sharpened My Face to Face Meetings
Before Linkedin and social media, I felt significant pressure to meet face to face with as many people as I could schedule into a 70 hour work week. I was exhausted and my family suffered...but I felt productive. So many of my face to face meetings did not result in any lasting relational or organizational good. Often I found myself in a meeting with a person or more, in which I had opportunity to contribute toward their good, but I was "spent." I relied on scripts and prayed that whatever I said would be helpful.
Enter Linkedin trailing on the heels of social media. With little effort I was connected to thousands of people interacting in cyberspace. I felt valued and needed. "Look at how many friends I have! Wow! I'm connected!" Now and then, online connections resulted in face to face meetings - some productive, others no so productive. It took a few years before I discovered one of the actual benefits of Linkedin and social media.
Getting past my need to connect with as many people as possible, I realized that I could focus my precious time on arranging strategic and productive face to face meetings. The setting of such an appointment ceased to be "a pat on the back" I craved. In the past, I would respond "yes" to any invitation to meet with a person. Now, I began to be assertive in setting up strategic appointments. I began to carefully screen my meetings and better yet, I began to prepare for those fewer meetings.
In less working hours than 70, I discovered through feedback, that I was actually helping others. I was able to focus on others rather than upon myself. I hate to say it, but as a young minister, I would review my past calendars to count the number of face to face meetings. If the number met my personal expectations, then I felt productive. After Linkekin and other online connections, I stopped this pathological behavior. I focused on fewer, more strategic meetings, leading to ongoing relationships.
Nathan, thanks for your thoughts along these lines - I appreciate and actually echo them in my own ministry. Sometimes busier is not more effective. Thanks, brother.