tl;dr: Shoot the breeze and just “be.”

If there are two things for which I am grateful about for my time as CMO of Gtmhub, it is

1) having a better understanding of what effective strategy execution looks like (powered by OKRs) and

2) becoming a better leader

I’m not the best leader out there. Not even close, but I have been applying my effort to becoming a better one.

Given the fact that I joined the company in the middle of Covid and didn’t meet any co-workers in real life until 14 months later, I’ve had to spend a lot of time thinking and acting as a Zoom/Slack/Outlook-based leader.

With a team that spans 6 countries, and as many cultures, it’s really important to think about how to do the job right.

I took some comfort in a recent article I read called Why Emotionally Intelligent Leaders (and Jerry Seinfeld) Refuse to Believe in Quality Time because it reinforced something I had been doing, albeit a bit subconsciously.

Our “business” meetings are relatively quick. Thanks to the powerful OKR methodology, we are able to stay focused on what matters most and have pointed conversations without getting too off track.

However, what the article reminds us of is just how important it is to just “be.” Hang out. Listen. No agenda. Get to know people.

It’s obvious, of course, but in the middle of a busy day full of 1:1’s and other activities, it’s easy to feel pressured to rush on to the next thing.

The concept of “garbage time” that Seinfeld talks about in the article is the “in-between” time. It’s the moments that can’t be planned or orchestrated, it’s just existing together.

As the world moves more and more to hybrid, globalized workforces, I suspect this leadership skill- appreciating the “garbage time” and encouraging it- is going to be highly valued.

If you can make a distributed team that has never met in person and lives in different places feel connected and aligned to an objective, I think that’s a competitive differentiator.