6 Covid Leadership Lessons I’ll Share With My Young Children Someday

One year ago in a New York boardroom, Connect and BizBash shook hands and signed the agreement to go on a journey together. Two months later we began to feel the impact of COVID-19 on the global events industry. While I was beyond grateful at the opportunity to manage and lead an acquisition, I had no idea that I would be forced to burn the playbook and buckle up for a crash course in crisis management. Here are six lessons I learned while leading at the highest level.

In December of last year, we popped the cork to celebrate our acquisition of BizBash, the leading media property for the events industry. Our excitement about connecting two iconic brands in the event industry to create a behemoth was our aspiration. The event industry was on fire and we were poised to have the best year in the history of the company. Then we all know what happened.

We took a few months to get our hands around the business and then March 14 changed everything. The biggest event of our lifetime shook the foundation of the world… and my confidence. It was in my competitive nature to stand up, shake off the fear and get to work. Someone told me that sailing in calm waters does not help you become a better sailor. I hope to pass on the lessons in leadership I learned someday to my 6-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son. I’ll want to give them a sense of what we went through and how we started to fight back. 

Here is what I learned not only about leadership, but about how it translates in event leadership as well.

1. Let Your Vulnerability Show.

When your team sees you as just another human being, they feel closer to you. They may be prompted to share advice, and while at times this may feel uncomfortable because you’re supposed to be in charge, the benefits are worth it. I’ve discovered that true servant leadership yields more positive and constructive behavior in employees along with greater feelings of hope and trust in both a leader and organization. 

Event pros- Everyone craves intimacy and vulnerability, great events make you feel like you belong.                

2. Make Everyone Feel Important.

I learned from an event attendee that one of the principals at Mary Kay Cosmetics is to pretend that everyone wears a sign that says, “Make me feel important.” Rather than feeling like another peg in the system, your team will feel respected and honored for their opinion and consequently become more loyal. The research shows that the personal connection and happiness employees derive from their work fosters greater loyalty than the amount on their paycheck.    

  Event pros- All your guests want to feel important too. If you make them feel important, they will be loyal to your events and your brand even when you make mistakes.                

3. Build Trust, Be an Open Book.

The single biggest problem in building trust is poor communication that leads to low morale and missed performance goals. Effective communication enables trust that impacts the bottom line. A shared vision empowers employees and successfully navigates organizational change. Show that you care by asking for employees’ opinions, ideas and feedback. And when they do share, actively engage in the conversation—pose questions, invite them to elaborate, and take notes.

Event pros- Building trust creates lifetime friends, attendees and customers. Use these same tactics of communication before, during and after an event

4. Listen To Your Customers and Recalibrate.

Effective leaders know when they need to talk and, more importantly, when they need to listen. Listening to customer feedback is increasingly critical to the bottom line.” It is the fuel for customer retention, employee fulfillment and the growth of a company. Listening gets you data. Listening makes people feel important, trust you and know that you care. While not every customer is indicative of an issue, when you hear it over and over, it’s time to recalibrate your original thinking and be open to change.   

Event pros- Interview your guests in real time, don’t just depend on surveys. Look for common threads or hearing something more than once. That’s where the truth lies.

5. Reach out and Ask for a Mentor.

Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. Find someone who you can absolutely trust, be vulnerable with, who will listen to you, makes you feel important and someone who you can feel comfortable bouncing ideas off of without fear of embarrassment. Building that intimate relationship will help you in all aspects of your career and more importantly improve the quality of your life. I am amazed at how generous people are and are just waiting to be asked for help.

Event pros- Don’t be afraid to talk to someone who has created a similar event to the one that you are planning to understand the pitfalls and opportunities. 

6. It Isn’t Always Fair, Do the Right Thing.

Leaders have an obligation to do the right thing, regardless of whether or not it’s perceived as the fair thing. Making hard decisions is a lonely game and they impact the lives of everyone involved. Sometimes being fair to everyone imposes mediocrity. Even laying off employees, the hardest thing to do in my book, sometimes must be done for the survival of the organization. 

Event pros- Make your events mean something and don’t accept mediocrity

Just like the sailor in rough seas, a leader needs to navigate the challenges of doing business in the era of COVID. Being vulnerable, making people feel important, building trust, listening, asking for help, and doing the right thing are not just the building blocks for leadership, but really for life. I have learned more from this last year than the sum of the last 38 years of my life. I can’t wait to share these thoughts with my children when they are ready to understand what we went through in 2020.