I talk to business leaders each week and the one thing I’ve heard most is how they’ve leveraged all of the challenges they faced this past year to become better leaders today. None of them ever dreamed they’d have to deal with something as cataclysmic as Covid-19, and most felt they were flying blind as it (1) cascaded through their businesses and plans and (2) spawned regulatory, financial, and employee relation’s issues that were unprecedented. Had they been asked in 2019 how prepared they were for a disaster most would have felt confident: today, they’re somewhere between surprised and amazed they survived. All of them get around to talking about how much empathy was needed to keep themselves and their employees going through these tough times, an employee relation’s approach many had not used very much before. And frankly, they now realize that the employee impact was as severe as the financial impact of this pandemic. So, as their businesses slowly start to reopen, they are hyper-focused on their employees’ lingering issues and morale and how to address them. They will all use what they’ve learned about emotional intelligence this year to help them rebuild the trust and respect that is the foundation of their ability to operate. As unpleasant as this past year has been, they all learned from it how to become better. Keep learning in order to continue getting better today.
Adam Gale: Editor of Management Today, a leading UK leadership journal
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