Coronavirus: Leadership lessons from this tiny creature
Few days ago, I was in a casual discussion with my colleagues at work about how this tiny virus has moved the world upside down. It started from a small town of Wuhan in China in 2019 and since then this creature is making us dance to its tunes! March 2020 was when India entered a lockdown state because of this virus. Things changed dramatically. Life was on a standstill for a long time. Gradually people accepted the reality, started bouncing back and living with “The New Normal”!
Then comes year 2021. A year with lots of hope, positivity and resilience. Things were coming back to normalcy. Economy was going up. People started coming back to office. Travel stated as before. Things were looking ok.
But No! This smart virus had something else planned for us. And, it strikes back again!
As we enter a second wave of Covid spread, this virus has really proven its mettle again and again (Pun Intended). As of 15th April, 2021 India had witnessing around 2 lakh cases a day. Overall, there are around 13.5 crores cases and close to 30 lakh deaths across Globe till date! Yes, you read it right. Hard to believe but the number is really that high. And this number is surging everyday in a faster pace than ever before. Imagining the pain and grief the families of the deceased or COVID affected must be going through gives me goosebumps.
Though in current scenario Covid has a negative connotation but if you observe this creature closely there are many lessons to learn as well. There are plenty of articles written and discussed on learning from COVID but nobody talked about the learnings from this virus.
So, here I capture my personal 6 learnings from this Virus:
Agility: Corona has taught us the real meaning of being Agile. The way it transfers from one person to another and one place to the other, it is the epitome of speed and swift. And it is multiplying like anything in a great speed.
In our personal and professional life as well, we should adapt this behaviour. Taking immediate action and moving fast will help us achieve great results.
Resilience and strong Perseverance: Corona showcases a strong resilience behaviour. The world has been trying hard since Dec 2019 to stop this tiny creature but could not succeed yet. This guy bounces back strongly and evolves stronger in a new form. Vaccines also have not succeeded stopping him from creating the havoc.
We in our lives also should be like Corona with strong resilience and perseverance. Any setbacks, failures etc. should not stop us in achieving goals and we must bounce back stronger than ever before!
Courage: Look at the immense courage this creature has. He is fearless. He is carefree. He is insane. He is not afraid of anything which the world is doing to stop him. His courage is taking him from one level to another. And this sheer courage of his has given him all the success he wanted so far.
Let’s adapt the mindset of being courageous from this virus and take bold steps in life. Courageous decisions lead to BIG changes.
Strategic Thinking: Did we notice the strategic thinking capability of this small creature? After creating the havoc across globe and realizing that the environment is changing, it paused for some time, reflected within, and re-evaluated the strategy by changing the variant itself.
And the results are very well known to us! The second wave has hit the country harder than last time which means the change in strategy is working well. Smart move, isn’t it?
In our professional lives as well, we should take pauses in due intervals, reflect on the results & situations and then must re-evaluate strategies as per the changing needs of the customer.
“Learn, Unlearn and Relearn” is the success mantra in this VUCA world.
Ability to make transformational changes: There was a survey launched to check:
Who drove the digital transformation in your company?
- CEO
- CIO/ CDO
- COVID
99% of the people responded COVID as the reason for digital transformation in their companies. That is the power of corona. It drove transformational changes in organizations.
Be like Corona and drive transformational changes in our respective areas of work.
Global Leadership: COVID started in Dec 2019 from China. Then it gradually spread from China to other countries and by early 2020 almost the whole world was affected by this virus. It changed its shape & form from one country to another and adapted so well with the conditions of the new country. Indeed, a Global Persona!
I would like to end this article with a hope that these bad times fades away soon, and we experience happiness, prosperity and tranquillity across the world!
Stay Safe. Stay Healthy.
Disclaimer: This is to inform readers that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to my employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.