Relationship Building

At yesterday's Governance Institute meeting, a presenter actually made the statement that "60% of every CEO's time should be spent on relationship building throughout the organization."  When I heard the statement, I thought, “Get a real job beyond consulting and see just how realistic that statement is.”  I love it when, in this a case, a psychologist who has never worked a day in his life as a CEO in a hospital--let alone in a hospital, period--throws out such a ridiculous statement, especially in a room filled with board members.  If I spent 60% of my time out and about building relationships, I wouldn't be a CEO for long.  

After that presentation as I was walking down the hall on my way to another meeting, I overheard a group of guys talking about the 60% statement.  One CEO said to the other, "Did I hear him right? Was that 60 minutes a day?"  The other one said he thought so.  I stopped and said, "No, it's worse, it's 60% of your day."  For a 12-hour day, that would be 7.2 hours spent on building relationships.  We all laughed and the other CEOs said that they thought an hour a day would be tough to achieve.  

Now, don't misunderstand, relationship building is important in what I do, along with every other CEO does, but so is the plethora of other responsibilities that we have to accomplish each day.  Crazy