When you are busy, one of the most precious things is time – time to yourself, time spent with loved ones, time to consider or to plan your career, time to read a book, or time to collaborate on projects. There are always stresses. Everything is a rush.

If you are like me, however, you will also find that even on the busiest of days, there are moments that you can carve out to provide a small space for the things, projects or people that you most passionately care about. This is where technology can help you out (and why most blogs are available as RSS feeds). Not only can you now have the news delivered to your cell phone, you can listen to audio books, podcasts and even watch movies (if you can stand the small screen).

At the moment I am listening to the audiobook of Seth Godin’s new book Tribes. I am finding it inspiring and exciting – inspiring because Godin is a supreme communicator – distilling his ideas in an easily consumable and actionable manner – and exciting because the subject matter – tribes – very much aligns with my own thinking around leadership (after all, sometimes it takes a village to achieve a lasting outcome). For example, Godin says:

Managers manage a process that they have seen before and they react to the outside world, striving to make that process as fast and as cheap as possible. Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in.

… and this buys into the whole debate around leadership vs management – while also recasting it into a clear light. In this way, to determine whether you are a manager or a leader you only need to ask a simple question: “What’s your problem?”

Your answer tells you everything.

Nina Nets It Out: Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes, asks some interesting questions of leaders. Start by asking yourself where your problem lies. Are you trying to solve something or react to a situation? Or are you trying to take your village into a new space?