When Worlds Collide

It's been an interesting summer so far. My friend James is back from college, and has decided to take a job here with one of my non-profits in San Diego, so he's staying at my house on the weekdays. I watched James grow up from practically a toddler to an adult, and it's been an interesting journey. I met him when he was about three, and I was fresh out of college. Since both of us never had any siblings, we both really don't have a frame of reference. However, if observations of countless friends with siblings are accurate, I do think that the bond we have goes beyond friendship. We're probably more like brothers. I just can't stop looking out for my "little brother," no matter how old he is. I guess I just worry too much, which is why I originally got out of the management game a long time ago. I'm glad that James has a lot more patience than I do.

Speaking of the management game, I have been a bit overloaded lately with the increasing demands at work and my work with the non-profit organizations that I also support. I may have gotten out of management a long time ago, but for some odd reason it just called back to me about five years ago, and I decided that I needed to get back into the game. With companies spinning off, and non-profit agencies requiring triple the time I usually give them, it has been a bit stressful. We're getting things done, and making quite a difference on all fronts -- the day job and the volunteer time.

I've also been playing mentor to quite a few people lately. I've got a few proteges that I believe have incredible potential. James is the top one on the list. My former associate, Alton, also has an extraordinary potential as well. It's kind of strange to see a lot of the characteristics and questions that I had many years ago surfacing in both of them. Maybe I should have stuck with a career in human resources instead of moving into sales and marketing. Someone told me today that I'm not a typical manager, because I actually do try to take care of the people and careers entrusted to me. Based upon that statement, I'm interpreting that to mean that most managers don't necessarily look to career development for their team. I've often thought that if you're not going to mentor your staff, and help to develop their careers to make the most out of their talents, then you really have no business being a manager in the first place.

In the past, I've often kept various facets of my life completely separate. I played several roles -- workaholic employee, manager, mentor, volunteer, and friend. This summer, the barriers that I had erected to separate those different planes of existence completely shattered. I introduced two of my proteges, James and Alton, to each other, and then introduced them both to the work that I do in the non-profit sector. I started weaving a few relationships between the non-profits as well. I even introduced my company to one of my non-profits, to help them establish some community volunteerism for the new company spin-off. So now, I'm a bit perplexed, as the different facets of my life have suddenly been thrown together, shaken, and maybe even stirred.

OK, I've been rambling on and on for this post. I don't think I had a specific point to make during this round. I do know that when the summer ends, and my life returns to separate silos, I'm not quite sure I can be all of those separate people once again. It's kind of like separate lumps of silly putty. Once you blend them all together, they aren't quite the same when you pull them apart.

See ya.