Our Reality is Virtual - Four Q's to Become the Virtual Leader Your Teams Want You to Be.

Even though I have been working from home since 1998 and I have loads of experience and tactics and tools I draw from to stay focused, stay disciplined, stay in balance and stay sane, nothing has prepared me for a pandemic. Being forced to stay at home in order to keep yourself and everyone else safe and not overload our health care facilities is new to all of us.

And, while many of the resiliency tools that have helped us get through major events in our work and lives can still work and I’ve been drawing from them myself, this is the first time we are experiencing a pandemic. It’s not like there was a Pandemic101 course we were all required to take in college.

So, first off, acknowledge that. Give yourself permission to feel the shock, feel the fear, feel the uncertainty and feel the frustration and anger and resentment. Whatever is inside of us bubbling up needs to come out in a healthy way so that it can free us up to move forward. 

But, I want to make a very important distinction about movement. Moving forward is one direction and the one that many leaders take to enable their team. But there's another form of movement that is just as important.

That is movement down, or deeper. 

This is the form of movement that often gets overlooked. Movement down is about movement that goes deeper into learning. Learning more about ourselves as a leader, as a leader to our team, our company and our communities and markets we serve.

When we as a leader learn to be more patient, curious, compassionate, understanding, caring we are still moving but in a different direction than forward. We are deepening our learning to become better. 

Moving deeper is just as important as moving forward. I would even assert that the extent with which we go deeper impacts how much we are able to move forward.

As we move into this “new normal” or “next normal” or what I like to term, “never normal” (because, what is “normal” anyways?) how could you BEcome the leader your team is inspired to work with, not because they have to but because they want to?

Notice I asked you how you could BEcome the leader, not what could you DO as a leader. See, leadership starts with BEing first. Then, DOing.

Our reality is now virtual. We have no choice but to work within the constraints we are given, so as we go into the next phase of this pandemic, how could you go deeper into BEing the leader you want to become?

Here are some questions to help you practice:

1. What is one characteristic you’ve wanted to become more of as a leader? What kind of leader does your team need you to be right now? (E.g. More curious, understanding, compassionate, caring, dependable, responsible, accountable)
2. To become more of that on a daily basis, what would you either need to give up or take on? Here are some examples: Give up making others wrong. Give up finishing other people’s sentences. Give up making assumptions or judging others. Take on smiling each morning and asking first “how are you doing?” Take on holding others accountable for what they say they will do. Take on opening your heart more and sharing more of you on the job. You get the idea?
3. Are you willing to take that on or give that up, even if just for the next week? If so, experiment in the next week with taking that on or giving that up. With an experiment there is no right or wrong. There is just a produced result. You either produced what you wanted or not. Learn from what you produce and apply that learning the next time.
4. If you are not willing to take that on or give that up, explore this inquiry: ”What is it to be a strong leader?” Write down whatever comes to mind and keep exploring that this week.

We will ALL get through this. The question is will the experience be one you choose or one you are a victim to. The ball is in your court.

You are not alone. We are all in this together.

You’ve got this. We've got this!

About the Author

Jean Marie DiGiovanna, CPCC is an international keynote speaker, corporate educator and certified executive coach who has been helping leaders and their teams think and lead differently for over 25 years. She is a master of experiential learning and speaks on leadership, employee engagement and innovation.

Her programs combine the tool of powerful questions with proven leadership strategies and techniques to create cultural transformation with her clients, who range from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses. Jean Marie's programs are highly engaging and content-rich, with tools leaders and their teams can apply immediately to succeed.

To learn more about Jean Marie's virtual training programs, visit the link in the comments.

To get more questions and tools to shift the culture of your organization, check out her Amazon Best-Seller, Stop Talking Start Asking: 27 Questions to Shift the Culture of Your Organization.