Next StoryPrevious Story✕ 28.11.13

Team work

Pictures by Ellin Anderegg

BUSINESS CHAT Okay so the other day I was browsing through my hard drive when I found these images that were actually shot not that long ago and I realised that I never shared them! Crazy-wazy. Especially since I love them so much. It’s very rare that James and I appear on the pictures together, I mean first of all usually he is the photographer and he doesn’t really like to give his camera to somebody in the street so we can get a pictures together. Plus, he is a very discrete person. He perfers to be backstage more than in front of the camera (so he can wear sweatshirts and let his beard grow as much as he wants to… ah guys… they don’t know the work it is to always be as pampered as we are right?). I managed to convince him to appear in these images shot by my amazing and so talented friend Ellin Anderegg while we were in Zürich though! While in town, we were staying in my favourite hotel, the Park Hyatt. Their team is just the best, the most welcoming and warm people I’ve ever met. We had a wonderfull room where we shot these images. They represent quite well our regular lifestyle routine. Hotel life doesn’t mean relaxation mood on, in fact when we travel and get to the hotel after a long day that’s where all the administrative work begins. The most difficult part with travelling that much is that you’ll work on a project all day, let’s say a shooting, a new campaign, some events, some meetings or whatsoever and once you get back to your room the e-mail work starts. The phone calls, the texts, the article preparation and so on… So let’s just put it that way : I usually don’t enjoy the cozy king size bed of my hotel that much. If you know what I mean. But I definitely am not complaining a single second about that! Why? Well because first of all I feel super gratefull to have a job that interests me that much and second of all… I am kind of a workaholic…

It’s hard for me to switch off my computer and go to sleep. It seems like there is always something to do, some more e-mails to answer or to write. Some more information to google and some more blogs to quickly catch up on. And then when the computer is off, I’ll hang on Instagram for a while before finally switching off the light completely. For a very long time actually, I had troubles getting to sleep as my head was buzzing with information, it was my head that I couldn’t switch off! I’ve spent almost year and a half dealing by myself with most of the organization and management on Kayture until I had a little burn out and had to go to the doctor every two weeks. A lack of sleep is never good, for anybody. So James and I felt like we asbolutely needed to make some healthy yet smart changes in the way we work. It was super hard for me to relay work. I mean, I am such a control freak, everything always needs to be perfect and I like to follow everything that is happening. The problem is that taking too much upon your shoulders is bad for yourself and especially for your health. When I arrived to the point where I couldn’t really work as efficiently by myself anymore, that’s when we needed to make a change. James who was always in charge of all the visual part of our work started to manage some collaborations and partnerships. Currently he’s our project manager and I can really concentrate on the creative side of things, the content, the ideas, the extra projects we are working on, the social media chanels and so on… Accepting to get some help is probably one of the healthiest things I’ve ever done. There’s nothing wrong about that, and you certainly won’t loose your credibility. 

It sometimes seemed to me that I couldn’t ask for help because I thought I could do it better than anyone else. I mean Kayture is kind of  like my baby, right? In french we say “On est jamais mieux servis que par soi même” which means that nobody serves us better than ourselves. And that was exactly my mantra. It still kind of is, you have to be independant and be able to solve situations by yourself, but accepting help and allowing for other people to contribute into the evolution a business, of a project, of an essay or whatsoever is so enriching and it also shows some maturity. It brings a new perspective, a freshness yet allows for each and every person of the team to really concentrate on their field and be experts at what they do. Multi-tasking is great, and is definitely an essential skill for the modern day business person however if you want to build yourself an expertise at what you’re doing, it’s better to really focus, concentrate on one thing, on one field, something that you love more than anything else. So yes, I still do come back to my hotel room and turn my computer on, but now it is mainly to write my article for the next day and it is quite theraputic to share my thoughts with you before going to sleep. I feel like I empy my head and am able to go to sleep afterwards like a little baby. So folks, never be afraid to ask for help. Accepting to get some help won’t diminish your merit and certainly won’t make you look bad for accepting effort contribution. Team work is also a challenge by itself, but it shows a flexibility and open mindness yet brings something new to the table, perspectives you might not have considered. It is definitely a step further. I won’t hide that James and I have our high and lows, like everybody. We are such big perfectionists and sometimes it turns out that we don’t agree on certain things. But it’s okay because having different approaches on things is key and we complement each other pretty well. So tell me guys, how do you feel about team work? Does it sound difficult for you to ask help as well?

FashionView Comments
You may also like
Search anything and hit enter
Suggestions