Though our church is only a few days away from our third and final "preview service," today I invested the majority of my day having one-on-one meetings with each of my staff members that had very little to do with this weekend's service.

Instead, I did my best to connect with each staff member relationally. And I'm so glad I did!

Being in tune with their joys, victories, struggles and frustrations as humans is so much more valuable to me than only being in tune with how they are feeling as employees. I want the people who I'm privileged to lead to be convinced that I care more about who they are becoming than what they are doing for the organization. I want them to feel that I care more about the quality of their life than the quality of their work.

This is very important to me.

In other organizations that I've worked for in the past, I have experienced what it was like to work with a boss who only had interest in the value that I brought to the organization and how I could increase that value. And though it is one of my primary responsibilities to do that as well, I believe that truly connecting with each employee in an authentic way is a critical component to employee effectiveness.

Without it, employees are left to feel, what I hope members of our team never feel...used.