Conducting a simple internet search of the term leadership, one will find over six billion results appearing in the search engine. Attempting to narrow the focus in efforts to reduce that overwhelming amount into something more manageable, one might try the University library site and whittle it down to only 200,000 results. As shared in a previous post, I am an avid reader; however, even that quantity intimidates me as it already appears that if I could read every hour for the rest of my life, there would only be slight progress made in my desired reading list. Gratitude for the existing technology which enables easy access to a wealth of resources abounds; however, sometimes there is a struggle to discern whose writing should receive an investment of my time.

Because God has given us all a limited, yet unknown, amount of time on this earth, He asks us to be good stewards of that time and how we invest our time matters. Repeatedly in this blog, you will be asked to consider not only who you are investing time in (mentoring others and being others-focused), but how you spend your 24 hours in day. What type of relational equity, or capital, is being established based on your current time investments?

For the majority of us, many hours of our day are consumed with transactions such as transportation from point A to point B, adding fuel to our automobile, or dining on a meal for nourishment. Even making a selection about which book to read is a choice categorized more as a transaction rather than participation in something which might be considered life transforming. Now, the challenges an author may pose within the pages of their writing could lead to transformation, but I will touch on identifying resources to help us flourish at another time.

The focus in this post is recognizing the difference between an occurrence which might be categorized as transactional and one which might be described as transformational. Many knowledgeable writers have covered the topic of transformational leadership and one of my favorites is Transformational Teaching in the Information Age by Rosebrough and Leverett where the authors share strategies for relevant learning experiences for students. The assumption could then be made that transformational teaching requires more than a simple transaction of information between educator and student. There is a deeper investment between the two parties and greater capital, or relational equity, is created when the shift occurs from a transaction to a transformation.

Both types of relationships, transactional and transformational, exist in our day-to-day life and we might need to be challenged to examine which relationships and encounters might need a little more investment of time to change from transactional to transformational. Consider the opportunities God has placed before you today. Which of these opportunities would you categorize as transactional and which as transformational? As you begin to mull the ideas presented here over in your mind and let them steep a little, I will ask you to return as future posts will delve more deeply into the relationships around us and how God uses both transactional and transformational encounters as an influence in who we become both personally and professionally.