Easy question. Mine, of course, and that is how everyone who is honest answers the question. That is only true, however, in a static situation where neither of us needs something from the other.
Case in point: In a business setting, basic math indicates that the person with the higher salary is the one whose time is most valuable. The average Fortune 500 company CEO’s time is worth about $4000 an hour and a top 20 US hedge fund manager’s time, $268,000 an hour. This is just math. In-fact, neither of these people sell their time.
If either of these people suffer a heart attack, get shot or hit by a car, in an instant the $30 an hour paramedic’s time becomes more valuable.
That’s the problem with using money as the only measuring stick to define value.
My time is more valuable to me and your time is more valuable to you and then things change. You need something that I can provide and all of a sudden my time becomes more valuable to you than your own. I want something from you and now your time is more valuable to me than my own.
Mutual respect is an essential for people working cooperatively in an organization and it is demonstrated in a number of ways. Respecting colleague’s time is one of them.
If your title, position and ego have convinced you that it is ok to be late to meetings, cancel meetings on a whim, turn a scheduled half-hour meeting into a one hour meeting,or anything else that is disrespectful to your colleagues time, your mind is playing tricks on you.
A leader who jerks people around because they can is a jerk. I’m the Outsider and that’s what I think.