I Wear Many Hats At Once, Don’t You?
How many times have you heard people tell you they wear many hats? What does that really mean? What are they telling you?
We are a multi-faceted culture. We are acutely used to being on our computers looking at spreadsheets or other projects, while watching our email in-box and maybe social media too. Let us not forget being aware of our cell phone text message and instant message communication that keeping on coming. Needless to say we are over stimulated and working multiple projects all at the same time. It’s a wonder how anything gets done.
Wearing many hats to me refers to the multiple roles we can take on throughout the day. Just to name a few: mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son, friend, co-worker, president, participant, observer, negotiator, counselor, coach, mediator, cook, housekeeper, and more. There are so many hats (or roles) we take on during the course of a day it’s hard to keep track. Right? The feeling of being overwhelmed and the confused often occurs as a result of taking on too much.
The simple answer is to know these two things:
1. Know what are your priorities are.
2. Clarify expectations.
Often when we take on so many roles we don’t know if we are coming or going. Sometimes when we left we are not sure when we left if anything was accomplished. Knowing your priorities will help you identify if you are spending time in roles that are not helping you reach goals within your list of priorities.
Clarifying expectations helps you to identify to a deeper level what you are committing to, what you are going to do, and know when it is due. This heightened new awareness will help being aware of the feeling of being overwhelmed. Once you notice that feeling you can put the above practices in place and make a positive proactive change.