Leading During Covid-19: Lessons Learned For a Better Future

“I’m so proud of the communications from our Executive Team. Every other Friday, our Executive Team has a call. The CEO invites people to share their personal stories. I feel so much more engaged with the Executives because we are communicating more. I communicate more, too, by sharing videos with people leaders.”

“Concise decision making about difficult topics has shaped how I communicate in writing. I am noticing in this season of the height of crisis, language with too
many adjectives does not serve others. Cut the fluff in what you say and keep the most important pieces central. Communicate deeper, more intentional points of view.”

“People want and appreciate constant communication. They want to be treated as adults and have the information, even if it’s not good information. People
can handle information. They just want it. This has built trust. If we want people to feel safe to return to work, they need to trust us and know we have their best interests in mind.”

“Much of the effectiveness comes from early, frequent, and consistent communication. As information came in, we tried to process it and work with our teams. Interpersonal communications, increased touch points, reaching out and asking how people were, and showing genuine care and empathy on changing schedules were all part of what we did.”

“Communication is key. We rolled out videos on how to set up your home office in an ergonomically correct way. For managers, we rolled out videos on communicating with your team, managing people remotely, and leading with regard to change management.”

“A leader shared that she got COVID-19. She was embarrassed to admit it, but her transparency helped people stay vigilant.”

“We had a real communication cadence with weekly updates from the CEO and Head of HR.”

“We had a weekly tech talk and a virtual monthly happy hour, where two people each present their life story. It was good.”

“Communication needed to happen really fast. We also need to listen and stay in tune. We introduced new policies and made changes with amazing speed.”

“Be open, real and honest. Don’t try to be the superhero that is unaffected by this.”

“Show yourself and others grace because things work differently. You might not get everything done that you expected because you have interruptions at home (kids, dogs, etc.). We’re in this together. The expectation to be perfect is overwhelming and research has proven it’s not effective. Excusing someone’s behavior isn’t acceptable, but we need to first pause, assume positive intent, and then be curious about what’s going on and ask for clarification.”

“Staff were frustrated and had differences of opinion about how and when to return to work and relationships became more polarized. I acknowledged the frustrations, encouraged the team to discuss the conflict in the room, and reminded them that I, too, won’t have all the answers.”

“Don’t assume everyone on your team can comfortably work from home. Many are in tiny apartments, have slow Wi-Fi, and might not be comfortable.”

“Practice self-compassion. Give yourself time to adjust. I haven’t thought about it before but I now ask myself and my people, ‘How much time do you give yourself to do this?’ I ask this question to my team members. My leader asks this question to their teams.”

“The team leads. Managers have done a great job because they were supportive and let people know it’s ok to miss a meeting or ask a workmate for notes after the meeting.”

“You don’t always know what is going on with people, so be kind always. You might have an employee at home now who is also trying to teach their child, or who has other challenges.”

“Show that you care because some people are doing well and others are struggling.”

“You do not know what people’s circumstances are, even if you have worked with them for years.”

“It’s important to have empathy for your co-workers and be flexible. You get a chance to see what things are like for them when you are asked to do more outside your own job and work in other departments.”

“Empathy is important. For example, I told my team that beyond the protocols, when someone has COVID, I want them to reach out to that person to see how they are feeling.”

“My most effective leadership is around human care by listening, absorbing anxiety and calling attention to my teachers’ role to serve their students, to over-communicate with students and to each other more than anything.”

“Remember that people have their own struggles outside work. I am deeply affected by home-schooling. I cannot concentrate properly. This is my reality today. So be kind to each other. Ask how people cope with their everyday lives.”

“There’s an appreciation for wellness and the whole person; not just about business results. I’m not sure it’s new but there’s a greater appreciation for the what and the how and the how is critically important. How you do that supports people. Understanding where there are really challenging situations for people is important. Give individuals the space they need.”

“My successful peers show compassion and empathy toward others.”

“Senior leaders didn’t have to show up in person but they did anyway to check in, to serve lunch and to offer friendly hellos and thank you’s. This was a great example of leading by example and showing that you care.”

“Understand that the home situation is not as simple as you think. It’s easy to forget that some people can be impacted in an adverse way (e.g. mental capacity – misnomer that Type A people can get through anything). This empathy is important for career longevity, retention and engagement. Ask yourself: Do your employees feel they can speak about challenges outside of work? You need to make sure your employees are happy.”

Every leader has had to exercise flexibility. March (of 2020) was that month when the new year plans really took off and it all stopped. This is where true leaders shined. At a micro level, as a leader, I had to pivot my resources and move toward a new business model for my sales team.”

“This way of work might be here longer than any of us could predict. In my organization it might even stay for good. Accept the challenge as a normal state, not an exception. I treated it as some exceptional circumstances and I just reacted. Now I know that I need to think long term.”

“You need to plan for the unexpected and try not to panic because things are going to derail. In one instance I came up with some strict guidelines for a project. The CEO said my team and I were being too strict, but I proceeded. Later, the FDA announced new guidelines which mirrored ours. As a result, my team and I were able to keep on working while other companies could not continue until they instituted the guidelines.”

“One of the things that I learned was to take a break from the hierarchy and be nimble. With over 11,000 employees, how can the organization and I be nimble like a startup vs. red tape bureaucracy?”

“When does work start and stop? There are still school logins, doctor visits, etc. and people have lives. And because lives still have to happen, you have to be clear as a leader on what that means, exactly. So, encourage vacations. Look at quarterly strategies vs 3 year strategies. Constantly check in with your team on where they are with goals and adjust.”

“Folks who have been really connected to ‘butts in seats’ and ’must be seen in person’ have learned that people can perform via remote work. There is a range of feelings such as extroverts feeling like they are missing out and introverts thriving. How can we better accommodate this shift?”

“Be aware of rules geared toward one size fits all at the expense of thinking more creatively to make things work.

“I’m a numbers guy and saw where this was going to go. I made the decision quickly to put everything on the cloud that night. We then realized people can do some of their work in other places.”

“The pandemic required us to perform different jobs. I served in the food line and helped clean. I didn’t go into it with the best attitude. Now when I make a request of staff, I think more about what it takes. I have been in their world.”

“Have each person on your team create his or her own work schedule and environment.”

“Rely on your expertise and lead your teams and expect others to do the same.”

“Trust your people. If you do the right thing for your people, they will do the right thing. For example, give your employees the ability to clock their time on their phones. Some managers were worried the employees wouldn’t do it or would falsify the time clock. No one has done that, and you don’t want to manage to fear. Trust-based policies and practices have proven to work.”

“The team leader used to rely on the office manager. The team leader used to be intimidated to communicate with the office manager. Now that everyone is on his or
her own, the team leader has become more independent in terms of managing the office staff. As a result, the team is growing. Now, there are two young stars who have emerged out of this pandemic. They are very good at technology. They see their own value. They have been positively reinforced.”

“Give people the freedom to figure out when and how they do what they need to do by the deadlines.”

“Our leadership style is a circle. No pyramid. In a circle you are looking inward. Everyone can step forth and make a contribution.”

“There was a young leader, the #2 person in his department. When this first hit, he called me a lot to seek advice and ensure their group was doing the right thing. It was our relationship that allowed him to do this. Trust is everything. His group adapted really well.”

“I can finally focus at home, in silence, in my own space, and with all family members working in their separate rooms. I can finally work. I disliked open space. I think I will never fully go back to the office (my team is mostly remote).”

“The biggest lesson is that you don’t need to be physically together to get things done. Technology has enabled us to be just as effective through Zoom vs. physically in the office. A lot of stuff was similar with my India team. People were more likely to call you randomly in the office and now they schedule time. I wonder if now we can be more productive at work and at home (e.g. take 5 minutes to throw in the laundry, help kids with homework). There are less distractions at home, (e.g. lunch and coffee with coworkers, catching up with people in the office, not commuting). That’s why people are more productive.”

“The remote work is not more distributed, so people can really work from anywhere, even if they are located in another city. I see the productivity to be the same, not worse or better.”

“Working from home was barely tolerated by senior leaders before the pandemic; now it’s embraced. We have evidence that people were just as productive, if not more productive, at home.”

“I think differently about my work time. I used to think about my work as 9 to 5. Now it is more flexible. I feel it helps me a lot. I look at it not as a balance but as harmony. My work is the goal, not time-oriented now.”

“There are multiple ways where and how work can get done and there’s no one way to do that. Being apart has improved communication and collaboration with different stakeholders. Creativity and new ways of thinking have emerged.”

“The way of doing business is going to change because now you know you can do many things virtually.”

“Many people would apologize for having their kids or dogs in the background. I would say, ’It’s okay because it allows me to see you as a whole person.’ It’s not a distraction. I see a shift—people are turning off the business person. This gives them more freedom to be who they really are.”

“There’s been a recognition and allowance that people have responsibilities at home which breaks down the barriers between work and life. There’s an openness now that the kids are home. After the pandemic I hope it’s okay to say, ‘I’m logging off early because my kid has a softball game.’”

“I’m surprised how comfortable leaders were with informality. We get on the phone with the Chief HR Officer and see her dogs and kids. At Amazon, they had a town hall with Jeff Bezos in his living room. Barriers have been broken down.”

“We can see into people’s homes. We see what’s happening in their personal lives. There’s fear around people seeing your true background.”

“Some clients are extremely stressed and that influences us. There was a moment when I noticed a few signs of burnout in leaders and their teams. This burnout was actually connected to the emotional state of our customers. Stressed people communicate with my employees in a way that drains energy. I understand now that I might unconsciously influence somebody else’s mood. It might be obvious, yet I was not aware it would have such a strong impact. My people are more stressed than before. We just mirror the stress of the world.”

“Mental health is becoming a concern across everyone. There’s a term that’s come up—toxic positivity—the feeling that you need to be positive and hold things up for those who have it worse, but everyone is really suffering.”

“Our company gave stipends for home office comfort, and set up activities that were social and inclusive. Everything from show your pet, to delivering boxes with cocktail kits to their homes. The Chief People Officer made it her mission to make the staff feel more comfortable at home. Our company even hired a coach to come and speak on how to address self-care, giving them permission to miss meetings, and to share in other conversations.”

“Because everyone was so busy for about two to three weeks, our leaders realized pretty quickly that people were burning themselves out because there was no end to the work day. Now we have Be Well, Work Well and no camera Fridays. We are no longer on camera for 13 hours per day. We were given $250 to buy a new monitor, standing desk, etc.”

“Mental health is a focus. All of our staff meet once/week with a mental health professional provided to us.”

“On a personal level, as leader, I force myself to log off most days strictly at 5:30 pm to do other things and give myself a pause to reset.”

“I do a good job of separating work and home hours. Leaders are needing to set boundaries. When it’s time to start working, my lamp turns on. When it’s time to stop working, my lamp turns off. I have a standard 45-hour week, with some flexibility. It starts with self-awareness. I need to take care of myself before I can take care of others.”

“People are unable to know when to stop working. They feel guilty saying no to meetings. Not having clear boundaries and not being able to communicate with them clearly will contribute to burnout. The ones who are winning are managing themselves really well. For instance, one young professional in the company got a home with a backyard, built a gym, and has been able to better navigate the work/life balance.”

“In terms of the management team, we put employee safety as the first priority. When there was a spike in the confirmed COVID-19 cases, we enacted work from home strategies, and enacted a Team A, B, C rotation. We also limited visitors entering the office building. We stopped customer service walk-in customers. When the situation improved in Hong Kong, we required customers to register with us before they entered the office. We tried to make our whole process more virtual. We printed much less and we sent more e-copies. We tried to minimize impact to customers and employees. We used the web for interviews to short-list those for interviews. We had 100% return to office before the recent spike. We had a staff welcoming breakfast. We prepared small gifts for our staff and we gave welcome and healthy gifts, like sanitizer, mask holder, etc. We tried not to give surgical masks for daily use and instead, we gave reusable ones using our brand.”

“I hosted many self-help and mental-health workshops. I asked my team what they wanted to hear. It wasn’t until I had a gin and tonic with someone that they shared that imposter syndrome was coming up for people. As people saw others navigate well and rise to the occasion, others felt even worse about themselves. I had an imposter syndrome workshop, which went very well for employees. By creating space to share where each needed help and share time to talk about it, the workshop really helped people open up and be real with each other.”

“I feel particularly vulnerable now (politics, my relationship, being a mom, my health) so I came back to therapy. I was amazed that my therapist offered Zoom sessions with the highest levels of adaptability. It made my day.”

“If you don’t set up parameters to take care of your own mental and physical well-being, no one else will do it for you. Ask yourself, ’What do you need to be human today?’ For me, sometimes it’s a workout. During one of our recent calls, a woman said, ’I’m going to turn off my camera and listen while I go on the treadmill. If I don’t, my workout won’t happen.’ No one was bothered by it.”

“As a leader, I had to take a really hard look at myself. I am a type-A and tend to be a workaholic. I felt there was no shortage of work. I was sending mixed messages because I didn’t stop working despite asking my team to practice self-care. So, they saw emails come from me at all hours of the night and it didn’t align to ask them to take breaks and be healthy. It wasn’t until I realized I was over stretched and exhausted that I had a wake-up call. I’m still over stretching myself and still struggling with it, and realizing even though I may be hiding bad habits in front of my team, I am still not really taking care of myself. I find myself in this mindset of being in martyr defender mode — I hold back from assigning more work to my team because I know how hard they are working.”

“Be you now. Don’t put it off.”

“Talk with leaders outside of my company. Listen and learn if it peaks your interest. One leadership consultant hosts monthly leadership discussions and asks deeper questions on how society is impacted by COVID-19. It’s been helpful to hear what the community has to say.”

“We are collaborating with competitors. We are sharing information in a way that we never did before. It’s more about humanity. It’s a surprising and refreshing byproduct. I just sent an email to a CHRO at other top competitors and asked them, “What are you doing about this issue?”

“As soon as this happened, our CEO communicated with our leaders, provided information and trusted us to make decisions, prioritizing the safety of the employees. Our leadership team came together, making decisions quickly, with everyone weighing in on their area of expertise, and engaged all levels of the organization, including the Board.”

“Our call center employees were set up to work remotely within 2 weeks. We didn’t think this was possible due to regulations. IT was able to order equipment and our regulatory folks got waivers. Everyone did his or her part to make it happen. Productivity was better than ever. Our employees were grateful to be safe at home. Our customers were happy.”

“We assembled a task force from across the organization.”

“Our operations in Asia shared lessons learned that helped us stay ahead of the curve.”

“Leaders who I cooperate with seem to be more effective if they ask for help.”

“The union and the company came together on a formal agreement very quickly. We added staff and tripled our production on an essential product.”

“There is an increase in accessibility of the leadership team. Previously we just had a divisional all-hands meeting which has shifted to a regional-level with Covid-19 to bring in people more close and localized. This brought a tighter knit community within the region.”

“I have 1-on-1 calls every week with my team. I ask them what works best for them. I ask, ’How can I show up to support you?’ rather than ’This is what I should be
doing.’ We borrowed ideas from other companies (e.g. virtual happy hours). In the meetings, we start off being human before we move to being an employee.”

“Since now we are all working from home and isolated. I believe a good leader is a connector. I plan on connecting with my teams. A chat with my people is never a waste of time. Apart from being a director of customer service, I am as well a director of connecting with each other.”

“The glue has been absent because employees are so used to being physically together. I started to make faculty pods and met with them frequently, asking them where they are growing, where they were challenged, and how they can be supported. People have experienced growth in this season and need to be reminded of that. They feel the challenge and that has been good. This is also a good way to share that growth in the wider community which gears us up towards the growth mindset, too. Also important is to create a safe space in groups with others to name the challenges. This is important for people to feel seen and heard and appreciated.”

“Getting beyond the basic ’How are you?’ and have more meaningful discussions about both workload and home. I asked, ’Is this still working for you? Do we need to make tweaks?’ I asked more pointed questions to understand what they needed.”

“I got my team of 210 people on a call. I talked about my own personal experience and how it affected me. I then opened up a forum for people to speak on what is going on for them personally.”

“I already had one-on-one-meetings with my employees. I started using more of that time to ask how they were really doing, not to evaluate but to help.”

“Our CEO contacted every person individually just to check in with them and show them that she cared about them. She had not done anything quite like that before.”

“People who are good at thinking through the problems, seeing through the barriers and innovating are the ones who are thriving more as leaders.”

“In higher education, we’ve had to reimagine what and how we do our work because we do in-person people work.”

“We started a lot of new things. We actually expanded our business by getting into new offerings and markets. We did not just hunker down.”

“We promoted a person because of his stellar performance. He took this time to shift from a tremendous backlog of work to eliminating it. He became a different person.”

“I needed to relearn how to reformulate, how to look for opportunities. So I moved from thinking ’What can’t I do because of pandemic?’ to ’What can I do with this extra time?’ I came back to my old dreams and aspirations and they became my main marketing medium. It is because of them I gained new clients this month.”

“We always had this, but it was critical now: a sense of positivity and openness to new things. We repeatedly expressed gratitude to essential workers. We have a faith-based outlook and this really helped.”

“We always talk about resilience. The mindset has evolved. Overall, they are all more open-minded and caring. The leadership team showed they cared. Before people said this can’t be done, now they see that there are different ways to do things. We used to overlook some things. Now we have more time to appreciate and explore what we really want to do and what we do better than before.”

“Our open-minded, caring and resilient mindset has helped the team survive during downturn in revenue and results. No one was laid-off because of COVID-19. We tried to transform some of the staff to build other skills, so internally we can leverage staff in another aspect. We don’t know when the business will bounce back, but we can now redeploy staff in original positions or in a more capable position for them. It’s how we want to reshape our staff. Everyone needs to equip themselves and learn new things (e.g. changing process, upgrading skills).”

“This year I focused on asking, not assuming.”

“My new mindset about people is, ‘How are they REALLY doing?’”

“It is amazing to me how much people can and will change when necessary. Most of the time people are ready and willing to be led.”

“We recognized the importance of being strategic. We shifted our attention to markets we had not capitalized on before. We looked outside our comfort zone and said let’s not discount any opportunity. The result was that we got new regional accounts.”

“Our top leadership team from week one communicated twice a week speaking about the business, being empathetic, and how to stay safe. They really stressed continuing to deliver on our mission to create breakthrough remedies for our patients. They also said, ’Imagine you have no restraints and costs are not an obstacle. How are we going to act differently to accomplish this? We lived with their challenge. This is a time for a breakthrough. Put the patients first and let the science guide us’. We lived by our core values; courage, equity and joy.”

“The Internet is a vital service. Organizationally, we rapidly adapted part of our business to respond to increased demand. For example, we implemented safety protocols for our field stores employees who were helping people to get connected on-line. We implemented customer safety protocols. We implemented curbside pickup and we marked where customers needed to stand to ensure a safe distance. We changed ventilation to comply with certain standards. For store employees whose jobs required interfacing with other people, we provided premium pay. Additional paid leave was provided for some employees with special situations. During the changes we were making, we measured employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction by using NPS (net promoter score). It skyrocketed!”

“Before the lockdown when everyone had to stay at home, I heard from the Philippines that not everyone had their own equipment to work from home (e.g. computers, Wi-Fi). The IT folks immediately shipped equipment to the staff who did not have equipment, one-by-one. They also provided their mobile Wi-Fi. They offered a hotel guest room for them to continue their work.”