Leadeship Lessons from a Pandemic: Lesson 2

Edmund Burke once wrote, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it." 

 As a leader, there will always be a crisis.  It may not be a pandemic, but there will always be a crisis.  And failing to learn from that crisis does nothing to prepare yourself, your team or your organization for the next crisis.  Every crisis provides an opportunity to learn and to grow and to improve if we take a step back and ask, "what did I learn from this." 

I have our employees telling me (email or text or a note under my door) "what they have learned from this pandemic".  And we are taking pictures; lots of pictures: of employees wearing their masks and gloves; social distancing; wiping down their forklift; lining up where we have our social distancing markings; having their temperature taken.  

From all of this, I am going to create a "book" for all of them. Not a fancy hard sided book, but a small journal that they can read; reflect; and remember how WE got through this together as a team; how WE looked out for each other; and how WE became stronger and more resilient as a result. 

I highly recommend you consider doing something like this.  It provides focus and clarity and takes their mind off worry and panic to seeing that this crisis; although different; is still a crisis and still one that can be over come and will eventually be over. 

So leadership lesson 2: When you face a crisis (and you will) learn from it. Document; journal; take pictures. Push your employees to do the same.  You grow; they grow; your organization will grow.