Waste of Time?

I'm one of the "early arrivees" at work. I generally pull into the parking lot sometime between 7:15 & 7:30 (depending on how much of the TODAY show that I wanted to watch). Most mornings, it takes me another 1/2 hour to 45 minutes to get to my office, because I end up sitting in the main office, having coffee talking (SHOCKING, I know -- that I would be talking!) This morning it was me, my boss Kerry (she's way cooler than just a "boss," but that's another post someday), Mark (he's the head of all of campus services -- basically everything that has to do with the building & grounds), and Wayne (he's a "retired guy" who works part-time and fixes anything & everything). We talked about the presidents speech last night, Oprah on Monday, James Fry, snowmobiling, our computer network, zone cleaning for the building, coffee, and the unseasonably warm weather.) To someone who's main goal is to be efficient, what I did this morning was a complete and utter waste of my time. But if the goal is to be a good leader, I can't imagine taking 1/2 hour of my day to simply build relationships with a department other than mine. When conflict comes (and it always will in a church this size between "ministry departments" and "operations departments") I believe that my 1/2 coffee talks, and the relationships that we've forged will help us through the conflict. Anyway, I think the moral of the story is -- no matter where you are in an organization, I think taking the time to forge relationships is one of the most important things that great leaders can do (and something that, in my experience many leaders ignore).