Reflections when you have 4 hours alone
On Wednesday night I hopped on a Air Canada flight to Toronto to help my friends at Highroad Communications and Microsoft with a new launch of a web based product in Canada (More information will be posted at http://sbsc.itsuccessmentor.com when I get the green light). Many people ask me, “Stuart why do you do this stuff” and the answer is really simple. I value the relationships with my vendor partners and those that support them. This is why when Cortney asked me to do this I immediately said yes and made it work. I will have very little sleep as I fly to Toronto, make my way downtown from Pearson and then have a full day on Thursday before returning back to Calgary right away. You see, these people are wonderful colleagues, friends and business partners and core reason is being a true Go-Giver. When we give of ourselves with our vendors, amazing things occur.
On a side note, I love going to Toronto, this is my hometown and still has a very special place in my heart. Every time I come here I am going home. I will not see my parents this time around, they are about an hour away in Niagara. I will call my Mom on Thursday to say hi, on a short trip like this it is hard to squeeze in a family visit. And yes, I am still a Leaf fan - GO LEAFS GO.
Many IT Partners look at their vendors with their palms up like a beggar on the city streets. I often here gimme, gimme, gimme and that is not the way it should be. I have some awesome partners, Microsoft, SonicWALL, Kasperky, Tech Data just to name a few and I always take the approach of understanding how I can help them, what we can do to make their business stronger and better and I have one more rule, my vendors must become my friends, if they are not open to this then I can not do business with them. You see, I don’t work like that. Just ask my good buddy Paula at Microsoft, her and I talk like a brother and sister and although we talk some business we also enjoy the friendship that we have. The same goes for Mark at SonicWALL, Lance, Joanne and Bill at Kaspersky and the entire Tech Data team in Clearwater and Mississauga.
I also had a chance to reflect on an email from my good friend Brad in Duluth on the concept of “Follow Me”. In John, Jesus simply says to his followers “Follow Me” and they do. Amazing, now I am just starting to understand how the life of Christ impacts me as a leader, husband, father and as a person. I can hear Brad right now, just trust in Him and it will be wonderful. As I got thinking about the “Follow Me” approach I came to realization that I first need to be a good follower before I can ever become a great leader. I know that as I develop as a person that life will introduce new challenges and opportunities for me. I believe that this is happening today for me.
Last week I struggled through challenges with Focus, this week I can feel the focus coming back. I just needed to commit to it and learn some new strategies to aid in keeping focused on my tasks and needs at hand.
It was great to run into my good from James from Microsoft as well in Calgary, he is a member of this blog and reads daily the stuff that put up on the web. Sometimes it is my stating the words people read and sometimes I am just the messenger and have no control what is written on this blog, it comes from a higher source than I. Good to see you James, hope you enjoyed Calgary and sorry we didn’t have a lot of time to talk after the event.
So ask yourself this question, can you lead with your vendor relationships and create a culture where you serve the needs of your partners instead of the other way around?
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