Are you wearing many hats?

I love a hat.

When I started coaching a talented and experienced fellow coach told me that when a conversation looked like it might be going down the coaching route and she wasn’t quite sure if a friend wanted just a friendly chat or some coaching support, she would make a point to ask them “Do you want me to wear my ‘friend hat’ or my ‘coach hat’?” Now it’s something I occasionally do too.

As a business founder, I feel like some days I’m switching my metaphorical hats by the hour. I need to operate differently when I’m coaching clients compared to when I am developing my practice, managing the operations, or doing business development.

After many years in HR, slipping that hat on can be pretty comfy too. Recently I was doing some further professional development, where the useful feedback from a course leader was a gentle reminder to take my HR hat off again and put my coaching hat back on!

I’ve realised, I wear a variety of different hats in my life outside of work too. Different hats for different occasions – family; friends; volunteering.  Sometimes they get mixed up too!

So how about you? Are you happy wearing many hats?