05/08/2020

A Survey of CEOs: Navigating the Pandemic

The three biggest take-aways from the pandemic

I reached out to several CEOs around the world that I’ve been working with and coaching to ask them two key questions about how they are dealing with the pandemic. I looked across all the answers and grouped them under a few main topics. I left the answers word-for-word and removed only a few that were highly industry-specific. You’ll see that there is a significant amount of redundancy. This is excellent as it shows a very clear pattern of what these highly talented business leaders are focused on to keep their companies strong and set themselves up for success as we move through these challenging times. 

What are your three biggest learnings from the pandemic so far?

People 

• Empathy and compassion are potentially the most important traits of a leader. 
• Every minute you spend putting your team first will pay off in years of loyalty and engagement from the team. 
• People are good and want to do the right thing for their families, their friends, and their employer. 
• Our people really rose to the occasion – the culture gas tank was full and it shows. 
• Employees will follow you and help push you through bad times if they feel you are in it with them, take in the good every day. 
• Collaboration is powerful and critical to navigating the crisis. 
• The current situation has blown our cohesive office environment to bits, and we now have 200+ employees working in 200+ individual offices – each likely full of distractions and other challenges.  To survive this, both mentally and literally, we need to trust one another. 

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from John Spence.