5 lessons the Coronavirus Pandemic has taught me as a (sales) leader

1) You cannot communicate too much

We all know from personal experience that communicating well is vital to keeping relationships healthy. Even without The Coronavirus Pandemic communication (in a business context) was and still is a very challenging task. But facing this major crisis I had to step up my game in (less than) no time.

What helped me to navigate through were three guiding principles:

1.1 Be real and vulnerable

To balance out giving a clear direction but also showing empathy to every single individual was quite a challenge. It took me a fair amount of courage to approach my sales team and leaders in a "human way" - not entirely sure if this common sense or just me?! Nevertheless, for me it would have been so much easier to focus "on the business stuff" only. But the appreciation I got back and the quality of our internal discussion paid out very much. 

1.2. Be transparent and trustworthy

Once decisions are made they have to be communicated and to be acted on consistently. Of course, plans changed in some parts over time but transparency and trustworthiness were key and fueled the positive momentum.

1.3. Repeat key messages via different media channels

Bearing in mind that so many information were and are still flying around and so many things change over time we experimented a lot with various media channels to share key messages again and again - newsletters, update mails, personal videos and anonymous Q&A surveys followed by a bi-weekly "ask us anything" hangout session

2. You cannot tackle the new normal with old tools

For us at Urban Sports Club everything changed over night. The service we are offering very successful was locked down to 100%. How shocking! It affected everyone - our entire sales and customer success team but also companies and their employees. Of course, we focused to control the damage as fast as possible but being just reactive is not a sustainable strategy. Luckily, we also saw some great opportunities "not to waste" this great crisis. We shifted perspectives and became bolder and bolder during the last few weeks. We accepted the new normal and stopped doing things just because of legacy. We became more confident to think out of the box and to question existing ways, processes and approaches. I truly believe this is the only way to tackle the new normal and it will boost my team a lot during the upcoming weeks.

3) Back to startup mode

Internally we discussed a lot of scenarios: V, U or L? Giving the fact that we accepted that we had very limited data points we agreed to "better safe than sorry". We decided to continue with a small, open-minded and very agile core team while keeping the rest of the team on the bench in waiting position. We assumed the worst but kept the optimism that we will find new opportunities on the way as fast as possible. Immediately, we stressed the "back to startup mode" mindset in our team. This created some initial momentum supported by lean reportings, weekly sprints, a very high degree of transparency and a relentless focus on execution.

4) Nice-to-have is over

The last few years were amazing for us: perfect product-market fit, hyper growth, the sky was the limit. With success (often) comes sloppiness. Also within our team. Within our sales organisation and our processes. The good thing of a proper crisis: it creates a strong urgency to act. Now. One of my personal favourite topics of all times is an in-depth analysis of current customers pains and challenges. This analysis is the basis for providing outstanding value for our customers. The more we understand present pains and challenges we can truly serve our customers and create long-lasting (and profitable) relationships. 

5) Still underestimated: strong human connections 

In addition to my first lessons "You cannot communicate too much." I learnt the most about building and improving strong, reliable human connections within in my team - especially under these extremely demanding circumstances during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Over the last years I invested heavily in leadership, communication and coaching trainings. But there is still a lot of untapped potential.

Before the coronavirus, the heart was one of the most ignored elements of leadership. BCG | Boston Consulting Group | Publications 2020 

Already in 2012 Google embarked on an initiative — code-named Project Aristotle — to study hundreds of Google's teams and figure out why some stumbled while others soared. They researched new ways to outstrip their competitors and found out that it is not just how people work but also how they work together. Google spent two years studying its teams and identified five traits that successful teams shared – dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, impact, and psychological safety.

But how do I apply these learnings (and a lot of other concepts and ideas) to my current sales team and how do I boost sales results at the very end? That is why I teamed up with fibonacci & friends to further explore how strong human connections can be improved continuously and how this will affect our (business) performance. I am very excited about our progress over the upcoming weeks and will be more than happy to share my learnings afterwards - or on the way if others did or will also invest in similar initiatives of team development and performance management.