The 3 Phases to rebounding successfully after COVID-19.

Over the past couple of weeks I have gone through a myriad of emotions and thoughts. If you are like a number of people I have spoken to, you will agree it’s surreal to think about what is happening to all of us globally. As I took my last flight—before borders were closed and events cancelled—I flew to Cairns to present at a conference and had a chance to put my plan together on the flight.

It was my way of getting my head around how I handle it and control what I can control. The way I see it, we will need to go through 3 Phases to come out the other side of this situation in a position to rebound successfully. As you know the journey is predicted to be long, so here is the roadmap I believe we need to follow in order to give us something to control and focus on right now.

PHASE 1: RESPOND + REVIEW

With so much confusion, chaos and speculation around, what you and I need to do now is RESPOND and REVIEW. We need to respond to what we can control in our life, role, team and business. In other words, control the controllables! All we can control now is how we think and what we do now. Some of my clients are thriving and some are just surviving.

So what can you do NOW and what do you need to do NEXT to ensure you thrive after it has passed?

For me right now, I have two focuses, one is to connect with all of my clients and make sure they are ok. I have made more than 200 personal phone calls and sent more than 150 text messages, just to check in with people. I am not selling anything, I just want to be a calm voice and be of service to the clients who have been so great to me over the past 24 years of being in business. Both you and your team must reach out to your key customers, suppliers and colleagues to check in on them. It is so easy to become reactive as we go through this situation. Now is the time not to be REACTIVE, but to be ADAPTIVE as we work on becoming PROACTIVE.

My second focus is all about being proactive. I have been identifying everything I need to fix, improve, transition and create in my business while I have the time. How have you responded? Many clients have everyone set up to work remotely now, and some have been checking in regularly with their team to see how they are dealing with working from home with their partner and kids around. This may be the only time in your working life you have time to achieve everything on your to do list! Then you can accomplish everything on your project list and then complete every proactive task you need to make your rebound faster, stronger and better than before!

PHASE 2: RESET + REFOCUS

Whatever goals you had set for 2020 or this current financial year, they are going to have to change. So you will need to RESET your goals and each one of your team members will need to do the same. They will need to establish their own new normal. It would be easy to just keep putting out the fires, but you need to reset the goals, but not for the rest of the year, just for the next 30 days.

For me, I have a vision for the next 90 days, which I am totally happy to throw out and start again if circumstances and situations change around me. So once you have the vision for the next 90 days, then you define your #1 Goal for the next 30 days.

Take a moment to do that now.

The next step is to REFOCUS yourself and your team members on four key areas: projects, people, priorities and personal. To clarify your thinking, answer the questions below and ask your team members to do the same …

• PROJECTS: What projects do you need to be working on that will create momentum once the crisis is over?
• PEOPLE: What additional skills, knowledge and talents do you and your people need in the way business will be done moving forward with your clients?
• PRIORITIES: What objectives do each of your team members need to complete this week and what is their number one focus for the week ahead?
• PERSONAL: This is all about you. What not negotiable daily habits are you completing consistently to ensure you have the energy and mental muscle to rebound successfully?

PHASE 3: RECALIBRATE + REBOUND

There will be a new normal. I am not sure what that looks like at the moment and it is difficult to predict, but how we went about our business in January 2020 is going to be very different by the time we get to December 2020. So we need to RECALIBRATE our mindset first and be agile enough to cope with vastly different and rapid change.

My suggestion is to pick three sets of skills you and your team members need to become masterful at in the next 30 days. For me it is becoming masterful at presenting on Zoom, discovering apps and software to better connect with clients online in order to deliver a unique compelling presentation experience and finally creating a virtual offering to connect with anyone at anytime, anywhere in the world. What is it for you?

One of my concerns for the Leaders I work with is that they are exerting a great deal of energy, effort and emotional capital at the moment. Answering more emails than ever before as their team demonstrate they are working and communicating with everyone as much as they can. Checking in on people more than before, not just to see if they are doing their role, but making sure their team member’s mental health and wellbeing is ok. My fear is that they will become fatigued mentally, emotional and physically as they hold their business and team together. So my question to you is when COVID-19 passes, will you have enough energy and enthusiasm to take your business on the next journey so it can REBOUND in a tough economic marketplace? What are you going to do personally to ensure you are ready to rebound?

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO PERSONALLY TO ENSURE YOU ARE READY TO REBOUND?

If I can be of any assistance during this time, please feel free to contact me [email protected] and we can discuss what’s next for you.