COVID-19 Leadership Tips

Whether you are leading yourself, your family, or your workgroup, here are 5 Tips to improve your leadership abilities.

Remember all of the articles, posts, sermons, and presentations on Vision 20/20 we heard in the last quarter of last year, not to mentions the new year’s messages from presidents to preachers. Who would have thought we would be where we are today!

As we continue to grind through the impact of COVID-19 and begin to see a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel, I thought it would be appropriate to talk a little about mental health.

May is National Mental Health Month.   Here are my thoughts about how to be more resilient in these tough and uncertain times.

I believe these thoughts will empower you as a person, and if you are a leader, they will help you provide clear leadership in this time of crisis.

These thoughts originally came from  Dr. George Everly, I have personally found them invaluable in my own life journey. 

1. Structure is an antidote to chaos. One of the challenges I have had since becoming a “Work at Home” specialist has been in maintaining a routine. In my own life, if I fail to focus, my mind will naturally tend to drift towards patterns of worry. And, we know all that worry does is distract and wastes time.

So, what it the antipode to worry? Mindfulness. What is mindfulness? It is the essential human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

Another way of looking at is you cannot control everything in life, you can only control your response to it. That is why it is so important to build structure into your life. Structure minimizes distractions and leads to more positive outcomes.

2. People follow confident people, who display optimism, are forward-thinking and have a plan. So, whether you are leading yourself, your family, or your team, you need to show these qualities. Because the only failure in leadership is the failure to lead.

3. Information is a powerful tool. Why? Because it reduces fear and anxiety and fosters hope and resilience. As a rule, people do not want to be taken care of but want information that will allow them to become more resilient by learning to take care of themselves. If you are a leader and you are not frequent and honest communication with your team, someone else might be. Don’t lose your leadership to someone with faster thumbs and a broader social media outlet.

4. Give and receive support. Dr. George Bonano’s book, The Other Side of Sadness, the most incredible boost to the recovery, and the reinforcement for resilience is feeling supported by family, friends, coworkers, and supervisors. Many researchers have shown the single best predictor of human resilience is to feel supported. Whether it is in your family, a network of friends, or your work team, support is the key ingredient to recovery.  Knowing people have your back and that you have theirs has been proven time and time again to be the single most positive influential factor in overcoming adversity.

5. Maintain and expand your spiritual practices, which may include reading scriptures, meditating, prayer, and worship.

In closing, control what you can, accept, and cope with what you can’t.

The ancient stoic philosopher Epictetus put it this way:

Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can’t control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible.

Have you ever read the entire Serenity Prayer, I think it is very appropriate as we gradually begin to move into a new normal. Though attributed to Reinhold Neibuhr, some have traced it back to 500 AD.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

May you rise to the challenges that you are facing, and in doing so, leave a legacy.

Hey, would love to hear from you, feel free to leave a comment!

John

PVB356