By Daniele Souza, Executive Legal Recruiter

In reflecting on the past year, I have so many topics that come to mind, so many controversial topics to discuss.  It is overwhelming.  We are now living in a truly global economy and there is just more of everything. At work, and in my personal life, no matter what I do to try to slow things down, there is more to think about and life just continues to get busier.

I see more companies continue to get bigger:  mergers, takeovers, international expansions.   This is great, but as demands on all of us increase, the question I find myself continually asking – How does one stay true to their core values while trying to keep up with the crazy life we are expected to live?

This is the challenge I was throwing around in my head, when I came across a blog post by Richard Branson. Here is a person that could easily sit behind locked doors bogged down with stacks of paperwork and respond as a stressed out, sleep deprived, overworked individual.  However, he appears to be quite the opposite; he seems like a guy having a really great time! His post,  “How you should treat one million people the same as one person”,  does not elaborate enough on the issue, but it did get me thinking.

When we are all so busy,  it is even more important to slow down and make sure we are treating each other special.   Although we now live in a global, social media, world, I do not want to lose site of the importance of individual relationships.  Looking forward to 2013, this is something I intend to practice more of- (hoping I have had some success) focusing on one conversation at at time.