3 Tips to Own Your Leadership During COVID

How are we supposed to lead when we're wearing the professional outwear equivalent of a mullet (business in front & party in the back)?

You best get on it 'cause at some point, there's going to be a review or interview. You'll need to be vetted before you're invested in and that gatekeeper is going to want to know:

"what did you do to lead during COVID-19?"

It's a reasonable question... the Coronavirus pandemic is not only the biggest public health crisis in our lifetime, it also threatens to be the biggest economic downturn of the last century. Every business on the planet is scrambling to understand what to do.

Paralysis. Survival mode. Fear.

This is where most of us have landed over a month into quarantine. Unfortunately, this is not what's gets businesses out of a slump.

Change does. Agility. Shifting quickly to current conditions. And that requires someone with a plan & a way forward.
This is a bona fide crisis. If ever there was a time for leadership, COVID is the time to prove it.

Never has the need been greater. Never has there been more confusion and disruption, a need for direction. Never before are we taking pitches from unexpected places.

This vacuum is where you step in.

Now that we're out of the initial shock phase, it's time for action. Once COVID passes -- and it will -- there will be a reckoning. Who stepped up and who did not.

What story will you tell at your next review? Job interview? Board meeting?

Here are a few elements it should have:

1. Be The BossLady

A compelling story demands and active heroine. Stop waiting for permission, for your manager to give the okay or to see what others think and be her now. 

It's fine to take a beat and assess, chart a path, but when you're clear on what has to happen -- step up and make the call. 

Pitch your idea for better workflow, set your boundaries so you can make the time to focus on bigger picture problems. The step (after clarity) is using your voice.  

2. Transform Your Org In the Way Only You Know How

Every story is a transformation story. As in, something began in one place and then, through the heroine's actions, changed (for the better, we hope).

Maybe you're not able to overhaul your organization's entire structure. Fine. You'll get there.

The point is to find the thing you want to be known for. Setting a vision and executing, driving millions in sales, rallying teams. And find some way, some thing that is breaking down because of COVID and find a way to elevate it. Then...

3. Take Credit For It

What's the difference between boasting and pride? Intention. When you make clear the steps you took to improve your org or fix a problem with clear positive results, is that you intending to make others smaller? Or are you just stating facts? Do not waste your time hiding your light under a bushel. No one's got time (even in COVID) to go looking for it, to give it a name, to sing your praises. You're a grown woman now. That's on you, babe.

How This Looks In Practice

I have a client at a massive lifestyle retailer realize her personal mission was adapting analogue systems to online. Though she knows due to hiring freezes, she won't be getting promoted anytime soon, we recognized this moment as one where retailers need to pivot to online services. This is her moment.

So she donned her superwoman cape and reached out and offered her expertise to colleagues struggling to bring revenue back by. She's helping her company weather this storm, save jobs and down the line, when it comes time to talk about her relevant experiences, she has a cadre of advocates who directly benefited and can speak to her initiative and leadership.

How can you make a difference where you are today?

If this struck a nerve, I'd love it if you shared it with another smart, ambitious, mid-career boss lady who needs to hear it. We're here to lead. Send me an email and let's show the world we can do it even behind a zoom screen. ❤️