Blue Hair, Don't Care

One of many wigs…

I am quirky.

Always have been, always will be. Not in any way that harms others but in general rebellious ways of self-expression. My hair is a different cut and vibrant color each month - and miraculously hasn’t fallen out yet. I also love dramatic wigs and will occasionally wear them to work. I have multiple piercings and tattoos, many of which are visible in everyday settings. Growing up, my parents were relatively strict but also didn’t need to corral us with boundaries as we were generally well behaved, excellent students.

However, by the time I went to college, I had burst out of my uber shy shell and there was no going back. Upon graduating from school in the Midwest, I packed up my little 2 door coupe and drove myself across the country to Southern California. It is true that basically, anything goes in LA. With so many cultures and people, you grow accustomed to the colorful, interesting, and eclectic sights and sounds.

In my mid-twenties, I was working at a small contract manufacturing company. The management there had some fairly conservative, even old-fashioned ideas of how employees should dress and interact. I always pushed the boundaries there especially as we were in the hair and cosmetics industry - why stifle my creativity on hair color when we develop these types of products?!

Fast forward to where I currently am employed for a huge global healthcare company. It was a shock to move from a small company with rather conservative views to a global company with more liberal views who appreciated how your brain was functioning and cared less about what color was the case containing it. The sense of professionalism at my current employer feels more authentic than that of my previous employer.

My professional coach and I had our second session recently where we discussed several topics including my “power adjectives” (authentic was one of them) as well as humor in the workplace. I like to use humor to diffuse tension in meetings (with audience consideration) and generally prefer to laugh at work overall. I try to have fun at work since that is where I spend the majority of my waking hours each week. In discussing this concept with my coach, I learned that there are many studies suggesting laughter in the workplace provides many benefits and stumbled across this post on LinkedIn this week: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-great-leaders-use-humor-foster-teamwork-morale-work-strauss/?trackingId=trackingId149

The same day, while in a project overview meeting with many cross-functional partners, I found myself giving the meeting a gentle shake with some humor. While the intended moment of chuckles and regroup worked its way around the conference table, the colleague sitting to my right looked at me slightly surprised and said to me “You make it [work] more interesting.” It was clear she meant that positively and it stuck with me and reinforced my belief that laughter is excellent medicine.

I share all this to remind you, gentle readers, that you really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Creativity can show itself through many channels and having diverse perspectives at the table can often help the task at hand progress more quickly.

Cheers, Heather :)