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Alumni in Action

Alumni Webinar Series: Courageous Leadership Through Disruption

By Alumni Relations

April 28, 2020

Now more than ever, teams are looking for ways to work through disruption. Cindy Solomon, Founder of The Courageous Leadership Institute, works with Fortune 500 companies to better enable their teams to be successful despite disruption or competition. Solomon suggests 7 tips to improve productivity, relationships and sanity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  1. Reassure yourself and your team
    Hit the pause button and reassure yourself, your team, and your family that we can get through this time. We need to view this as a marathon and enable ourselves to get more resilient and adaptable. Unless we pause, we can’t focus on priorities that are important.
  2. Be realistic with your time
    It’s important to get a hold on your calendar and create a routine. Try blocking out work time on your calendar and adding your usual work times to your email signature if you see you’re not working the typical 9-5.
  3. Share the pain, the worry, and the laughter
    Be willing to share the pain and worry you might feel with others. We’re all going through this together, and all need human connection. Also share the laughter. Funny stories or a good laugh can allow us to take a breath before going back to the stress of reality.
  4. Establish a routine as a leader
    Try to keep a solid routine for how your day works. Find a way to establish a communication routine with your team. Set times to check in with team members more than you normally would.
  5. Rethink assumptions about yourself, your team, your company, and world
    This time can be viewed as a global reset and we have the opportunity to take advantage of it. When we all go back to our old normal, it won’t be the same, so think about who you want to be when we come out of this.
  6. Build, maintain, and deepened relationships
    Customers, employees, and colleagues will remember who communicated with them during this crisis. In order to deepen these relationships, we need to step away from the technology. Pick up the phone or schedule a video call to make communication more personal.
  7. Productivity in this new world will take practice
    We must create new habits during a time when everyone’s life is in flux. Everyone has a different circumstance, so pay attention and be forgiving. Help build the productivity of your team by asking them to share their expectations of you and your communication.

Cindy Solomon delivered these insights as part of the WSB Alumni Webinar Series. Cindy and her team of worldwide Institute facilitators deliver cutting-edge, blended learning programs that marry live training, interactive webinars, and on-demand microlearning courses that enable exceptional customer and employee engagement, to generate impactful bottom-line results when you need them.


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