This morning I was a guest on Jim Blasingame’s nationally syndicated radio show “The Small Business Advocate.” You can hear the interview by clicking on the “listen now” button above. On Jim’s program, we talked about how a company interacts with its customers is becoming more important to competitive differentiation. I believe the past century was about achieving task excellence but the century ahead will be about developing relationship excellence in organizations, including strong relationships with and among an organization’s customers (more on that later).

At the heart of relationships is “the force of connection.” If ever there is a time to connect with people, it is now during the holiday season. I say this for my own benefit too. I’m an achieve-aholic who compulsively lists things I must do and who derives pleasure from crossing items off my list. Attending to the tasks in my life — writing articles, speaking, blogging, teaching workshops, making calls, meeting with people, reading articles and books, checking my email and iPhone (now with 100,000+ apps), etc., etc., etc. — develops an addictive rhythm.

Tomorrow afternoon when my daughter Sarah arrives home after completing her first semester in college at TCU, I want to break free of the rhythm of tasks and spend time with her, my daughter Elizabeth and Katie, my wife. My hope is that I can be present with them and not be seduced by the allure of thinking about my next article, speech, blog post, etc.

Katie talks about “making memories.” That should be the priority of this season. Being together. Doing memorable things together. Connecting with those we love.

That said, I want to wish you happy holidays. May the time you have this holiday season be well spent.

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Michael Lee Stallard speaks, teaches and writes about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation at leading organizations including Google, GE, NASA, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. Most recently, Michael and his colleague Jason Pankau filmed a 90-minute program for Linkage that will be released in January of 2010. Michael wrote the guest editorial for Talent Management magazine’s January 2010 edition and last month his article on how the force of connection boosts productivity and innovation was featured as the lead article in the UK’s Developing HR Strategy Journal. Google just posted on YouTube a talk Michael gave at Google earlier this year. Click on these links to learn more about Michael and Jason in the media and their speaking engagements.

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