Team hug!

There is no advice here today, no words of ‘wisdom’, no links to bloggers much better qualified than me. Today is just a little story of something that happened to me this week that made me smile.

This last two weeks or so have seen big changes at our place. They may not appear big from the outside, but we’re now working together so much better that the output of improvements has rocketed. I’ve been so enthused by this that I’ve taken on quite a bit of work. It’s good. I’m not complaining. But I do have more work than previously and that has meant a little extra pressure. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about crazy pressure… just remember I do spend a lot of time having barbeques on the beach, so pressure is relative.

So, here I am getting a little pressured and then we get broken into. Luckily there was nothing major stolen and the biggest expense was replacing the office doors, but still… an unexpected issue to deal with. More pressure.

Finally, this week, I came in to find that we had left a door open to the office. I couldn’t believe that this had happened given the recent break in. Nothing bad happened, but it really set me back. Of course it was just a simple mistake, and nobody was to blame, but it really knocked me. It shouldn’t have.

That morning I felt the pressure spilling over the rims of my tolerance cup and I could feel I was projecting unhappiness and was not being a good manager. I knew I needed to fix it but I just couldn’t shake it off. I couldn’t think my way out of the cul-de-sac of self pity, and it wasn’t even 9am yet.

Then, when one of my team arrived, a guy that is normally very dead pan and low key, he saw I wasn’t my usual self, and came and gave me a hug. Then another one of my team joined in and tried to cheer me up. Of course their actions helped, although there is always an awkward back slapping moment when two guys hug... but hey. More than that though, what immediately cheered me up was to realise that I have a team of people around me that care about how I feel. It isn’t just one way traffic where I’m giving to them – of course it isn’t. In fact, now I think about it, a few weeks previous to this, a member of one of my other teams said that I was always helping other people and that if they could ever help me then I should let them know. How had I missed this?

What’s the point of this post? I’m not sure really. All I can say is that something amazing exists in my teams. Something that I think I’ve been working to create all of the time without really knowing it. It’s the reward that I’ve secretly been working to create but have never acknowledged; a team that cares about their manager. Now there’s a thing of beauty.

Have a lovely day.