Now is The Time To Think

Now is The Time To Think

As I type this article, the world is in the middle of a pandemic. All over the globe, families huddle together, waiting for the stay at home orders to cease. Single people are feeling more single than ever. Workers who feel unsafe, cannot take off work. Many more workers would gamble their health to be working to be able to buy more food. "Covid-19 divorce" is a trending phrase on Google. Domestic abuse rates are reportedly skyrocketing. Experts believe unemployment rates are somewhere in the range of 12-15 percent, (the worst on record since the Great Depression when unemployment reached 24 percent). A lot is going on but, but most of us have more free time than usual to think. Now is a time to think. Not to worry, but to think.

As a voice for the conscious business model, I urge you to think. Now is the time to think about how things are going to be post-Covid. Between contemplating how you are going to save your business, or keep food on the table, or save your retirement funds or even understand what your business is going to look like post-Covid, I urge you to think about some other things also.

Experts are suggesting things are not going to be back to normal anytime soon, if ever. Now is the time many of us are going to start over. So start to think, how is it you want your business to look? If you are not the owner where you work, how do you want to lead your people? How are you going to relate to your employees, staff, neighbors, purveyors, or community? How can we use this global disaster to spur us to run businesses that are not only profitable, but that is good for all the people associated with them, and the planet we all call home? And how can we do all this while running a financial profit? Who are you going to show up as post-Covid?

Do we want to (metaphorically speaking) continue this path of hoarding toilet paper or selling $15 hand sanitizers we bought from the dollar store? Do we want to keep relating to others in a fearful or adversarial way? Can we think win-win or only win-lose?

This post is a call to business leaders, business owners and those that run them. Think. In between fighting for bandwidth from the kids and the spouse, take some time to plan how you can make the world a better place through work. By the time you read this, you probably know someone who is fighting Covid-19 in a hospital, or maybe we know someone who has died, or a family who now has no employed breadwinner anymore. Impoverishment, sickness, or death may have affected your family or a family around the corner. If these times are not turning you closer to your God or to that idealistic young child you once were, what will?

As a father of a grown child now, I can remember looking back and thinking I had all the time in the world to get close to her. I was busy, I was important, I did not have time then. The truth is, I did. I had the time to do the right thing with my family, but I hid behind my position and my role as a provider. I let others tell me how a real corporate soldier should behave. I was not a leader.

As a boss, I hid behind rules and tried to fit the paradigm of the sharp businessman. I was not going to let a purveyor rip me off, so I had to make those delivery drivers respect me, even if it disrespected them in the process. Collaboration? Who needed "kids" to help me make decisions, even if they were in the front line with the guests. Recycle? What?! It's not against the law to throw things away. I was the boss, I was a businessman, but I was not a leader.

As a leader, things have changed. I have realized that great leaders throughout history keep in mind all stakeholders. A leader does not wait for the government to tell you whether it's legal or illegal; a leader does what is right. As a coach, I know my clients know what is right. I knew what was right before. I just was not prepared to lead.

So as the world starts to open up again, what's your new normal? Are you going to mindfully-listen to your staff so they feel heard, or are you going to "put them in their place"? Are you going to promote the recycling program finally, or is that still for those other people? Are you going to be the man or woman your kids and grandkids would be proud, or are you going to hoard the toilet paper?

Now is the time to be the leader you wanted to be. It is up to each one of us to make the world better. But it is us, the business leaders who have the power to do the most.

Now is the time to think about how you are going to do it.

Thank you for reading. Let me know your thoughts.

www.MNDFLLDR.com