DESIGN YOUR VERY TAILOR MADE CONNECTIONS.

CEO's are often viewed as privileged doing only what they want to do and the truth is often the opposite.  Much of a CEO's time can become full of obligations that are energy sapping and lacking in substance and deadly dull.

This is one area where I encourage CEO's to be ruthlessly selfish.
Do not give your time away to anything that does not help you run your business. Really helps.  I am talking about meetings, steering committees, Boards, blah, blah blah.

I KNOW YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO SOME 'have to do's'
But where and how and with who is an areas of self-care for you as CEO.

Try thinking about it this way--

--What connections do you need to keep you and your company going?

--Who do you WANT to talk to?

--How often do you want to connect with your constituents (I'm avoiding the word associate)

--What places do you WANT to go to make connections for your business?

--What people best keep you in touch with the business?  How do you WANT to connect with them

--Do you connect best one on one or in a group?

--What connections energize and excite you about your work?

--What connections do you want to 'create, keep or kill'?

--How do you connect with yourself--by talking, by reading, by quiet, by driving

--What connections actually hold the company together?  Kill all others.

You deserve and the company needs for you to spend your time on what benefits the company AND you.  See if these questions help you think about connections as something different from obligatory meetings.  YOUR CALENDAR SHOULD BE 2/3 full of things you look forward to for the good of the business.