You’re reading this on a Monday morning and not on Sunday so the title is a little misleading. Lo Siento, My family and I are vacationing in Spain and the seven hour difference got the best of my writing time. The truth is I was on the beach enjoying the amazing weather and waves and just forgot to sit down and write. Let’s just say I’m immersing myself in the culture. But I’m glad I did, because I was inspired by what I did see yesterday afternoon. Another example of what the people of this country get so right, among many other things.

Connection, it’s everything. This variable of leadership has revealed itself to me several times over the course of the week. As leaders we must connect with the people we lead if we are to establish trust, a relationship (more than rapport), and truly inspire people to do great things for themselves. Today I’ve also been inspired by tapas. I’m going to offer you several small morsels of great advice and examples for your attention to how you connect with the people you lead.

This country and its people are amazing. It’s not my first time to visit, but it has reminded me of why I fell in love with it, kindness. Everyone we’ve encountered from grocery stores, the beach, buses, trains, and walking down the street, have been polite, kind, and positive. While in a restaurant our waiter referred to us as familia and again on the beach a local lost his umbrella to the wind and it almost hit us. His response was, “lo siento familia.” The beach was so packed we were all sitting in one another’s space. Strangers sharing precious water front property, try that in Florida…. But he referred to us as familia. It costs nothing to be kind. It’s the positive part that jumps out at me and has truly been the thing that I needed most to experience and take to heart. Jon Gordan speaks constantly on positivity and he’s spot on. Without a sense of positivity the things I’m going to offer you wouldn’t even get off the ground. Here are four examples of leadership advice related to connecting with others that Spain has shown me in a week.

1) Faith - Regardless of where you are in your faith walk or if you haven’t even put your shoes on, to enter the Malaga Cathedral is to step back in time and to be emotionally engulfed by faith in action. It’s a chance to get a glimpse at handiwork done so meticulously and so masterfully that it is honestly difficult to fathom how it was actually done without modern technology. The answer to that question is, intent. The intent of the artists was not to get the job done. It was to glorify God. What does your intent in leadership look like? Do you have faith in the people and purpose you are entrusted with? Not only did this experience make me question what I do for my lord and savior, which pales in comparison to the passionate effort and attention given to these altars and sculptures, but it also forced me to compare my work efforts to theirs. As leaders, we are commissioned artists. Yes, leading is an art form! Are you just laying bricks, or are you “building a cathedral to the almighty.”

2) Flights: What lesson can making a boarding call possibly hold for us in leadership? Accuracy in communication and attention to detail! You hop off of a plane kids and bags in tow and hurriedly sprint through the airport. You’re reading signs, sometimes in another language, as you run, turn, avoid people, pick up your kid and your luggage, you have to go to the bathroom, you need water, and you haven’t slept in 24 hours because you crossed the international timeline and are jet-lagged, yet you MUST navigate your way to the connecting flight or you’ll be stuck for who knows how long in the airport. This is feels all too similar to trying to coach a playoff game in a double overtime! Or to leading others when a deadline is approaching. Intentional and accurate communication and attention to the smallest details will get you and your family to your terminal just in time, and your team to the deadline with a product you can be proud of.

3) Football: Just like any culture and group of people, there are things that divide. Causes, belief systems, political parties, El Clasico (Visca Barca!!), they all can create schisms. Your organization is no different. The Euros are currently being played in Germany and the country is fervently supportive of La Roja. The national team is the glue that brings everyone back together. What’s your team/organization’s glue? Let me encourage you find it this week and exercise it vigorously. Maybe it’s a project that your team is passionate about and can move you forward. Work together, encourage one another, & celebrate individual successes.

4) Family: I went into our local grocery store on a Saturday morning to pick up items for the coming week. It was packed with moms and grandmothers. There was fresh seafood on ice and freshly baked bread on the shelves. Absolutely very little space to turn around or stand without bumping into someone. I must have said, “Perdon,” a dozen times. I went in again on Sunday to grab chicken for supper and it was a ghost town. No bread, no fish, no people. Where did they all go? The beach that’s where. They shopped on Saturday so they could spend Sunday together. And how do we Americans spend our typical Sunday? Probably getting ready for the week ahead. Let’s take another tip from the Spanish this week. Set aside a time this week to really sit down and connect not only with your family and friends, but with the people you lead. Help them with a work task, ask how their week is going, or offer to get them some “creature comfort.” Make the time and do it on purpose, and while you’re in that moment, BE in that moment, not thinking of what work has to be done.

Develop a deeper connection to your family and team this week. Have faith in your purpose and the people you lead, find the glue that unites your team and practice it often, communicate intently and clearly paying the closest attention to details, and make time to connect and to be present in the moments that matter most. Gracias España for the lessons this week. And the weather, and the history, and the geography, and the tapas. And. The. Tapas. Have a blessed week familia.