It takes a village to raise a kid. But, how about your profession, your career, your side hustle, your dream project?
We believe in our fierce independence and often resort to I can do it all attitude. The year 2020 has made us humble, helped us realize we got to band together emotionally albeit with physical social distancing in place.
When I was growing up in the early 2000s, vision 2020 was a fascination. How would the world look like I wondered? We have read about world wars, the deadly disease spreads in history books but as a grown-up adult this pandemic was an eye-opener as it helped me wonder about how serious we all have been in our life. When I look back at the year that was 2020 one thing pops up and that is the lack of levity in our lives to live through challenging situations.
As career-oriented professionals, we want to get our work done on time but one thing that makes us all human is levity. What is Levity?
Levity is described as “humor or frivolity, especially the treatment of a serious matter with humor”
- Is there a way to handle work stress?
- Is there a way to break the tension on the zoom work call?
- Is there a way to ask your colleague for help?
- Is there a way to have a fun-filled background instead of your standard zoom background? Yes, for that smiley background!
As adults, we believe we are out of the fun age and have to be serious to be considered as leaders, team players, C-suite executives. But, a little bit of a fun joke about you, self-deprecating humor, a fun smiley share during your team pulse check goes a long way in building team camaraderie. At the end of the day, we all need appreciation, validation, and the fact that we are humans.
So, the one piece of career advice I would go back and tell myself is to add a bit of levity to your work life. And, that goes a long way to build your team spirit. Turn up that smiley background and make your team do the same and see how that goes!