“Never let a good crisis go to waste”
Winston Churchill
The pandemic has created an environment of uncertainty. This uncertainty is directly linked to the manner in which people have found to survive or thrive in the turmoil.
Some people have used it as an opportunity to thrive. These people have re-evaluated life and what they need and want from it.
Others have just focused on surviving. This is noble and acceptable. You cannot thrive if you have not survived.
Truth is, some have chosen to survive while they were in a position to attempt to thrive.
This has led to an increase in the distance between people. People have always been on their own journeys. But some common path has kept them aligned. This path was washed away in a sea of hand sanitiser. This distance is not one we have seen before. It is not along cultural lines, race or gender. It is a split across life paths.
I have seen this first hand. Certain people who were on the same team, on the same page as me, no longer are. These people have drifted from me. And I have drifted from them. We have diverged in our thinking through our singular experiences of this pandemic. But we need each other to achieve our mission.
The hardest part of being a leader is keeping your emotions in check. The truth is, we are human. Balancing people and profit can be exhausting.
We feel for staff while thinking of the longevity of the company and strategically trying to maximise the benefit of that incorporeal entity.
We have sympathy, and some of our empathy, for those struggling in our companies. We see the cracks forming. We see the board’s expectations piling up. But, the ability to bind these differences (and all the other ones that seem to separate us) is the only thing that matters for leaders now. We cannot win alone.
What are you doing to show your team a singular mission? You cannot make a profit if you have no people left.
Published on Medium
