Did you dress up for Halloween while at work this year?
Did your team?
It is no secret. I love Halloween.
I’ve been managing veterinary hospitals since 2006, and every year except one (more on that later) I’ve dressed up and encouraged my colleagues to do the same. Particularly at my current practice our embracing of All Hallows’ Eve has become part of our identity.
Part of our culture.
My first Halloween at my current practice was only a couple of months after I had started. The staff and I were still getting to know each other. We did not know each other’s boundaries. I’m sure none of them expected for me to turn up as Scooby-Doo with an oversized head.
Note the name badge still identifying me as the Hospital Administrator
While I was not the only person to be in costume that morning. There was a clear division between those who trusted that I was serious about dressing up and those that did not.
I really was serious that it was ok to go “all out” as long as they obeyed a couple of simple rules: Still be able to do your job, and don’t be inappropriate.
Something interesting happened that day as the first shift gave way to the mid-shift, and then to the second shift, and pictures were posted to our company Facebook page. The ratio of those dressing up to those who were not exponentially increased. Some of the costumes had obviously been hastily thrown together, but they were all fun and it culminated in a great group photograph.
The next year more people dressed up, this time evenly across all shifts and departments. The morning shift trusted that other were going to dressed up and they would not be alone.
I’m in second row, on the left, in the wolf mask and dinner jacket.
The following year there were far more people dressed up than not. If you were not dressed up, you were the odd one. The year after that, forever known as the year of the squirrel (see below), even the practice owner, and the majority of the doctors, got in on the act. Halloween was entrenched in our culture. It was a day when we could all be a little silly, and still be the professionals that we were for the other 364 days of the year.
Yes, the tail did make the day… “challenging.”
A couple of years later I screwed up, however. I booked myself on a business trip over Halloween. Halloween, went on without me, of course, but participation was down significantly, and traditions, such as our group photo, never happened.
The following year a majority were in costume again; but we were still down from the heady days of the “Year of the Squirrel.” By not being around the year before, to be the guarantee that there was going to be someone who was going to go all out.
To be silly.
To lead.
As a leader, one has to be prepared to stand up and take the initiative; to literally lead the way. Show others what and how to do things. To be prepared to look ridiculous, even to look ridiculous alone.
My colleagues do not dress up for Halloween for me – I’m not quite that that deluded. Dressing up for Halloween is fun, it’s a change in routine. But creating a safe space for your team is the job of a leader. To allow your team to make mistakes, look silly, and take risks takes the same set of skills as creating an awesome Halloween.
And if you are not dressing up, maybe its time that you start.
Mike Falconer 