Oh sure. Look at the picture. Nice hair there sonny. I have had a lifetime of nice hair as judged from afar (and very near and close up with the senior citizens as a 16 year old bagger at Jewel). Boy, if you are not from the Midwest then that statement ‘bagger’ could make me some (R) Senator’s date. I am talking groceries here not gross-eries.

So, I have nice hair and can attribute that to nothing but genes; mainly from my mother’s side as my father’s had none; hair that is. But what happens when an attribute of compliment churns to the south? My hair, I’m told, looks good in June and September but holy s* when July and the dog days of August hit the street. Not unlike that Life magazine picture of July 1945 when we decided over Nagasaki that enough was enough.  The only real difference (except for the tens of thousands of disintegrated Japanese families) is that my hair is in color. My only real chance of hurting anyone is driving down the highway windows open hair flailing like some old feather duster on acid.

The point is that sometimes, through forces not our own, gentle natural properties become not so gentle. Qualities that are complimentary do sometimes become our own worst enemy.  As we work with those we love and those we don’t (but who pay us) remember this. The discord of humid laden hair is not a ‘fault’ it is nature’s way of calling attention to the unmanageable while sometimes rising to the unimaginable. It’s that way with personal development and it is that way with organizations too. There are natural causes underlying organizational “humid hair”; the natural state gone astray.

The answer then is to understand the nature of the humid-ic unmanageability and to plan accordingly. We are familiar with many of these forces on behavior; social issues sometimes from home, lack of proper training or, more likely, proper managing, and a lack of direction or sense of worth. Responses range from the preventative to the reactionary. While all situations cannot be predicted many more than are now could be; with some awareness.

 

It is only important that responses be appropriate. And they can only be appropriate if we understand. And we can only understand if we consider the other. In life and at work and with all the relationships that intertwine it is the same.

 

Be aware of who you are and understand the forces that move you away from that.

 

Jim Reece

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimreece

jim@thepeopleacademyinc.com