Prior to relaunching my business, I was a COO at a regional professional services firm—a role I held through the majority of the pandemic.
I don't have to tell you that it was a scary, uncertain time. At the same time, we were trying to understand what the pandemic meant for our company and employees, we were also trying to coach our own clients through it the best we could.
As a leader in the organization, I learned three actions were important above all else:
1️⃣ When in doubt, go with your gut—especially in a situation that is completely new.
2️⃣ Protect your people. It was essential that we keep a degree of normalcy while doing as much as we could to acknowledge that it was a strange and uncertain time.
3️⃣ Make everything as simple as possible. We brought the business down to the essentials and worked hard to not complicate things.
The pandemic taught me that crisis in leadership is a lot like sheltering—a lesson that I work on with my executive coaching clients today. When you're able to provide that shelter from the storm and be a buffer, that's when you create loyalty.
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