Advice for Leaders in the Covid Crisis
TWENTY-SIX MILLION people out of work. People spending their stimulus checks on food. Family members and loved ones at high risk of serious complications from COVID. Team members spread out all over the world, all of us alone together. We were caught unprepared. We’ve lost time when the stakes are life and death. We know what needs doing but we can’t get it done. Time’s running out.
Then I wake up.
I wake up to more hurt, more need, more uncertainty than any of us has ever known.
People say I’m good in a crisis. People say they want me beside them in a firefight. People remind me I never give up. Ok, but what do I do now?
These days, with my mixed reality startup on hold, I’m looking for ways to support other leaders. I see so many of us chasing wisdom in webinars. I know, deep inside, that there’s more distance between a screen and a beating heart than there was between Odysseus and Ithaca.
If you woke up this morning like I did, looking out on the same bleak dawn that I did, and if you or your family or your organization asked me, “What do I do now?” Here’s what I’d tell you.
Be your own true compass. There is no North Star. When you set out down a path driven by your own highest values, every step will be in the right direction.
Take your tasks step by step. There is no reliable data. There is no relevant experience. Meet the need in front of you. Be the change that’s needed now. Encourage everything that helps your people adapt. Raise your eyes to scan the horizon once or twice a day.
At the end of the day (or whenever you’re most inspired) close your eyes. I mean it. Close your eyes. Take some nice, deep breaths. The world’s not going to end. You won’t go off course in just a few minutes of actual contemplation. So close your eyes. What do you see beyond the horizon?
Steady as she goes. Just showing up being who you are and walking the walk every day is what people need from their leaders right now.
Everything runs on trust now, more than ever. Make decisions every day. Doesn’t matter how small they are. Execute with speed.
Decisiveness + speed = trust
When people see that your decision is leading them and the group forward, they will trust you. Day after day of this, and you will build the unity you need to make bigger decisions and take bolder actions. Or else decide to hang back in wait-and-see mode. But for all of that, you need the power of a unified team.
Trust + time = unity
Nourish yourself. I mean really nourish yourself. Garbage in, garbage out.
Wisdom = experience + insight + reflection
Every epic tale turns on lessons that love and nature and culture teach us. CEOs read more fiction. Don’t believe me? It’s in HBR. This is not the time for bingeing on crap and overdosing on TV news when you’re exhausted. It’s time for recharging. Try good food and drink, good books and great music, long walks and looking at fine art. Get connected with what inspired you back in the day. It’s also time for connecting with creative communities that can open you up, keep you from getting closed up—and closed off.
If you’re not alone, hold a hand that loves you. If you’re alone, hold yourself. I mean, like, really do this every day. Feel the power of that loving energy go into the ground from your feet. Say to yourself, I’m grounded here. This is how a leader is grounded.
And then maybe it makes you start to weep. Which is ok. A leader is human, just like a follower.
So I woke up. And I didn’t know how to start the day. And so I put on a little Jackson Browne.
Everybody I talk to is ready to leave with the light of the morning. They’ve seen the end coming down long enough to believe they’ve heard their last warning. Standing alone, each has his own ticket in his hand. And as the evening descends, I sit thinking about Everyman.
Seemed like I’ve always looking for some other place to get it together. Where with a few of my friends I could give up the race and maybe find something better. But all my fine dreams, well thought-out schemes to gain the motherland, have all eventually come down to waiting for Everyman.