It’s Time to Push the Reset Button Again

Well, it looks like a lot of us, including me, called the end of the pandemic way too soon.

Remember those blissful few months in the late Spring and early Summer when we were walking into restaurants and stores without a mask? Making plans to go back to the office in the Fall? COVID case rates were falling. Vaccination rates were rising.

And then the fun and optimism came to a screeching halt as vaccination rates plateaued, the Delta variant arrived, the masks went back on and plans for the Fall began to be cancelled. Heck, literally as I was writing these opening paragraphs, I got an email from a client cancelling the conference at which I was going to deliver my first in-person keynote speech in 18 months.

As Dean Wormer screamed in Animal House, “No more fun of any kind!”

And my cancelled speech pales in comparison to what a lot of the leaders I work with are dealing with these days. Just when we thought we were past it, we’re back in it. It’s demoralizing, maddening and enervating all at the same time.

So, once again, it’s time to pull ourselves together and push the reset button.

I’ve written a lot in the last year about leading yourself and others in this time of great stress and change we know as the global pandemic. With the events of recent weeks, I thought it could be helpful to revisit some of those posts organized into three vital categories:

• How to take care of yourself
• How to take care of your team
• How to keep it all going

How to Take Care of Yourself

You hear it a lot because it’s true – before you can take care of anyone else, you’ve got to take care of yourself. I think these three posts have been among the most popular I’ve written in the last year because they offer practical and actionable steps for addressing one of the biggest challenges of leading during the pandemic – keeping your energy up and creating the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual bandwidth to be at your best as a leader and as a human.?

• What to Do When You’re Feeling Exhausted
• Ten Ways to Beat Burnout
• Ten Things to Say Besides Yes

How to Take Care of Your Team

As the pandemic has worn on, I’ve concluded that one of the biggest things leaders need to do to take care of their teams and keep them energized and engaged is to focus on the balance between the content of the work and the connection between the people doing the work. The content is the easier part; connection is harder. In these three posts, I start with what I think great leadership looks like at any time but especially during the pandemic and then move on to specific ideas about striking the right balance between content and connection.

• What Makes a Great Leader?
• Three Easy Ways to Build Meaningful Connection
• How Executives Should Be Thinking About the Return to the Office

How to Keep It All Going

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we don’t control as much as we thought we did prior to the pandemic. As wise people have reminded us for centuries, the one thing we can control in times of great and constant change is to choose our response. That’s what I’m addressing in these last three posts – thinking frameworks that enable leaders to get off the dance floor of change and go up to the balcony, assess what’s going on and choose their response.

• Leaders Welcome to the Beginning of Phase Two
• A Framework for Leadership Action in the VUCA of the Pandemic
• Leading in the Time Frames of Mind

So, that’s my tool kit for you as you push the reset button. I’d love to hear which post resonates with you the most or offers you the most value right now. I’d also love it if you’d share your own strategies for pushing the reset button. If you’re reading this through LinkedIn, please leave a comment and if you’re reading this directly on the Eblin Group blog, please send me a note.

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