Grey

Work is crazy. I feel like I always say that but this last week has been more so than in the past. I feel like I’m finally hitting my stride in leadership and managing which only means more work, especially as my department expands and grows. I’ve got a game plan but waiting until we can staff it is making me go bonkers… and go grey. Last Friday I tried to take a picture of a new chunk of grey hair. Picture is horrible so I’ll just use my words. The grey suddenly appeared, just at the front of the part - a little bit on both sides.


Funny thing, this has happened in the past. You know how when you get stressed your body always finds a way to yell out (eventually) “whoa, hold up, this is a little too much.” The last several years, one of my stress symptoms is grey hair. Which actually isn’t too bad since I’m not vain about my hair and it doesn’t really slow me down like headaches and all the other physical ailments.

And in the past, I have usually tried to listen and slow down, regroup or change environments. When I do and things get a bit more calm the grey hair disappears as suddenly as it reappears. Don’t get me wrong, I still have some grey but just the normal random strands. I don’t know what happens. They must just fall out.

Well, I meant to post this Friday, and then things got crazy and it got left. And then today, I was going to post about my marvelous weekend and before I get a chance I get sucked into the craziness of work. Today was a caricature of a Monday. Not one, nor two, but three major mess-ups by staff. Luckily, I was smart and went to bed at 8:30 last night so had a good 9 hours of recharge after a busy weekend (more on that later). And I was able to keep internal cursing to a minimum and move on to how to resolve/damage control the issues in an even-keeled manner which the staff later said they appreciated (they knew how much they had messed-up). I figure it’s all part of the learning curve - you learn from your mistakes and these were all first time offenders. I have less patience when it’s a mistake that was made before and no lesson learned. I wish I could give more oversight and time to staff but in some cases I give more than I have received in the past.

I’m great at delegating but what do you do when the people you delegate too are maxed out? Time for more staff! Just need to find the right people to add to the team which is challenging - I only bring on the best. Fingers crossed it’s a short waiting period. If nothing more than keeping the grey hair at bay!