How do we become better leaders amidst the Virus?

What is my role in all of this?

As we contemplate the disruption, frustrations, and fears associated with the Virus, we must all look inside and examine our place in how we lead well.

There are tons of great practical suggestions about what to do and when to do it, but I feel I need to step up my game in one core area: Listening!

The collective human experience of this threat can create division, or it can bring us closer together. How we listen to one another and honor each other’s fears and hopes will be at the core of how we either unify or divide.

Right now, people need to be heard more than ever. People don’t need to feel right, but they do need to feel valued.

Most of us understand how listening is so essential, but it is a lost art. It is a lost art because it takes time, it takes discipline, and it takes selflessness. Time, discipline, and self-sacrifice are not valued in our world as they should be, but that is no excuse. Right now, we need to shed our image and worldly ambitions to take stock in greater truth.

In this pivotal time in American history, we must all make a choice. Do we value our neighbor enough to be still with them? Do we appreciate them enough to not sweep past them towards a task? Do we value them enough to give them a gift: a gift of our time and heart.

You do not need to have all the answers, but you do need to understand that right now, unifying looks like selflessness through action… listening well and intentionally is at the foundation of this action.

We must all ask ourselves moment by moment: “Is the person in front of us worthy of stopping and listening to?” – When we answer yes, we change the world as we enact listening as our weapon of mass construction.