Insanity is a dish best served microwaved

I’ve spent the last five years of my life being a “professional.”  I use the word loosely, because well, to be quite frank, I’m not always that professional.  I’m okay with that.  It’s not a rebellious streak in me to not obey the rules. In contrast, I’m very much a rule follower. It’s just I don’t see the necessity for the formality.  Let’s be people and make connections.  My life, both personal and professional, are ruled by my personal connections.  I have reconginzed one of my strengths as a person and leader is my ability to make connections with people across the spectrum.  I want to get to that personal level with many people in my life and strive to get to it.

My attire never dictates that I am not serious about what I do.  I always dress approperate for the situation I am participating.  I never expect anything less from people but their best. I also let them know when I don’t receive it.  However, I am not a jerk about it.  I explain my expectations, what could have been done, and see if we can move forward.  I look at it as a way to grow and reflect, not to bicker of what didn’t get done.  Of course, we can’t ignore the error, we just have to fix it and move on.

I think where people draw their wrong impressions about me is that I like to joke and have fun.   I believe work should be fun… otherwise, why do it?  I try to make everything I do, even the minor tedious tasks, fun.  There are many ways in the world to make the hard stuff enjoyable to do without discounting the task at hand.  I think people who see what I’m doing and trying to discount my methods or effort because it’s not being done in the same approach as has been done in the past.  Well, will all due respect, the work is still be done.  So what’s the problem?

I think the main problem is that people are conditioned to conform to the system and not try explore their own skin.   I have done it quite a bit and I’ve got my hand slapped frequently.  That’s okay for me. I know where my boundaries are and I will continue to try to push those boundaries.  I need to have flexibility to be creative in managing people and ideas.  If the traditional way is efficient and works, why not do it?  However, if it is causing everyone grief for being painful and grossly inefficient, then the method should be reviewed.

I ran into someone who works with my friend who doesn’t know me well.   However, she is a person that is quick to make judgements about people.  Within the first twenty minutes of conversing with her, I knew I was toast.  She thought that I was all flash and no substance.  There was going to be little that I could do to change her impression, so I let it be.  I am also aware that I can come off that way.  I am a very macro-thinker.  I like looking at the big picture.  I am very organized to get tasks done.  But, I am smart enough to surround myself with micro-thinkers to get the job done.  To catch all the details that I am not seeing.  I cherish and value those working relationships even when I get annoyed when they are pestering me.  I know they picking up holes in my plan and they are just trying to fill them before its too late.

So,  in summary, I’m not an idiot that’s trying to ascent to higher ground.  I am quite sharp, but have a different way of approaching management.  I might come across flippant, but in contrast, I have a laser beam focus of where I’m going.  There is much flash in my leadership style, but once that dust has settled, I think most people will see there’s plenty of gunpowder behind that bang.