12 Weeks In

How long have we been living like this? I think it’s 12 weeks or so but it seems much longer somehow. When is it all going to end? How do we get back to something that approaches normality?

the powers that be

Of course, it’s easy to criticise, but the truth is I don’t envy anyone having to make decisions about how we safely get our economies opened up again.  Across the world, leaders have already made mistakes which have cost lives and knowing that the decisions you make today could lead to more deaths is a massive burden for anyone to bear.  In many ways, going into lockdown was the easy part.  It seems coming out of it is going to prove far more difficult.

why me?

Many employees that have gone back already in the first wave are just plain miserable. And it shows. The staff are often the ambassadors of a business. Our perception of a business comes from our contact with its staff, however for many of them, their work colleagues and loved ones are still at home getting paid at least 80% of their former weekly wages. For doing nothing! Why should they work a forty hour week for just 20% more? It’s no wonder consumers derive little pleasure from any form of physical shopping. Make the customers angry and they will go elsewhere.

the lucky ones

I feel incredibly fortunate to work in a profession where working from home for me and my team is not just an option, but for some of us has become our current default work mode. For the safety of our little team, I will ensure that we can carry on doing this for as long as we need to.  Our company has been paperless (less paper really) and cloud-based for over 10 years.  Thankfully I don’t have any worries about the nuts and bolts of how the business operates on a day to day basis.

So, on the one hand, there is the comfort of knowing that – unless things get considerably worse than at present – we will not need to make anyone redundant or furlough anyone.  But on the other hand, the responsibility of determining when it’s going to be safe to let our team go back to our office feels like a massive weight at times.

time to step up

It has been pleasing to see how all the members of our team have stepped up to embrace the challenge of their new normal. Moving out of the office took no more than 10 minutes each to achieve. We took home our iMacs, plugged them in and continued to work as normal. We have taken the opportunity to re-organise this 33 year old business. Every process is being scrutinised and hopefully improved upon. Keeping busy has kept us sane and connected. Almost every day has kicked off with a five way FaceTime call. In many ways we have collaborated better – because we had to. No more shouting across the office to get the answer.

the burden

As employers and business owners, Lesley & I could never have imagined having to deal with a situation quite like this.  I’ve certainly never received any training for it.  I’ve read hundreds of books, but none of the books I’ve read on leadership has prepared me for dealing with a pandemic.  It’s hard sometimes not to feel out of my depth.

I do sometimes find myself wondering if I’m doing a good enough job trying to lead my little gang through this.  I wrestle with trying to determine if there’s more I could be doing or stuff I could be doing better.

Leadership in any form always has, and always will, present challenges.  Most people in leadership roles relish a challenge, and I think that applies to me too.  I may not have asked for this particular challenge; it may take some time before it feels as though life is approaching something near ‘normal’ again, but I hold hard to the belief that we will get there.  Until it does, I’ll carry on doing the best I can and taking it one step – and one day – at a time.

Stay safe.