12 Leadership Lessons I'm Learning In COVID-19
“From the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives. All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.”
Disclaimer: I am not in the Issachar family tree. That’s okay! I am not going to stop trying to imitate them. We are a few weeks into the COVID-19 crisis. Buckle up. This is our new reality. Every leader I know is striving to learn and leverage his or her leadership in these days. Here are 12 thoughts I am leaning into so far.
1. Step in. Lead out.
I love leading. I also love reading, reflecting, and writing on leadership. Those latter loves are mostly on hold. Ditto with time off. Shannan and I made a hard pivot when we moved to Lancaster. I finished my duties at church on Sunday. We drove to Lancaster on Monday. We started moving in on Tuesday. I was “on the job” by Saturday. We set Spring Break as a little “time off” payback, but cut that short! I’m no martyr, I’ll get that time. My point is simply what we all know—this is the time to be leading. Lead!
2. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
What are the three most important words in a crisis? Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. We identified our constituent groups: (1) COVID-19 Task Force — “Put your own oxygen mask on first,” (2) LBC|Capital employees, (3) Students across all locations, (4) Institutional Champions: Board of Trustees, Corporation Board members, and Donors (5) Broader Community including local agencies and higher education partners. We developed a communication protocol: Assess, Decide, and Communicate essential information and our actions. We utilized communication channels appropriate to groups: Text messages, web updates, e-mails, social platforms, and phone calls. We have worked diligantly to maintain immediate “live” availability with a maximum 24-hour follow-up response. We are avoiding communication white noise. Incessant and redundant communication noise is almost as bad as no communication at all.
3. Listen to Churchill and James.
Winston Churchill said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” James said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5 ESV). We are leveraging COVID-19 to honor God and enhance our mission. How? We are intentionally assessing, planning, and driving our efforts through three phases: RESPONSE — Adjusting to COVID-19 and the upheaval to our existing (comfortable) reality. MAINTENANCE — Continuously improving (KAIZEN) our efforts in the current unfolding reality. Some will stay here hoping to go back to their previous comfortable reality. We will not be among them. INNOVATION — Changing to lead in a new post-crisis reality. Leaders must grapple with RESPONSE, MAINTENANCE, and INNOVATION. These stages are sequential, but they overlap; hence we need God’s wisdom.
4. The answer is “Yes.”
Unless your economic sector is boxing with the heavyweights (Amazon’s deep pockets, Harvard’s endowment, or the Governments ability to print money), you are watching the balance sheet like a hawk. We are! Still, the switch to remote operations meant providing resources to do the job. We are trusting our team. If they tell us they “need it” to serve our students, the answer is “Yes.”
5. Take time to MAKE the coffee!
I was running out the door a couple weeks back. The moon was still on the night shift. The sun would not be rising for a couple of hours. I love a good cup of coffee (several actually). I like to grind it, brew it, and savor it. That morning I was going to by-pass my ritual. “Time is of the essence” and all that! But I stopped. The world would not come to an end in the time it takes for a pour-over. My mantra shifted that morning, from: “Take time to SMELL the coffee” to “Take time to MAKE the coffee.” For me, that ritual provides a little normalcy in the chaos.
6. Adrenaline or Jesus?
Events of the last three weeks have every leader I know hopping! These days are draining, but also so exhilarating. It is easy to rise early, work hard, and do it day after day. Like Esther, we realize “God has put us here for such a time as this.” We get to dive in and help bring stability, continuity, and hope. But lately, I have had to ask myself, “Am I running on adrenaline or Jesus? Am I leaning into “I can do all things through Christ” (Philippians 4:13) while forgetting Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
7. Maintain three looks.
When I coached basketball, I used to tell our players to see three things: Your man, the ball, and the basket. In a similar way, leaders must focus on God, the task, and the relationships that make the task possible. All of us have a focus bias. Those “biased toward God” live by, “God‘s got this. I can chill out and you should too!” Yes, God’s got this, but He almost always uses human instruments to address tasks and relationships. Those biased toward relationships can err if they place too much focus on care to the exclusion of the job that must be done. Those focused on task (that would be me) can miss the essential needs of people and be perceived as crass. We are striving to live in the tension of the three looks.
8. No time for one-up-manship
Woodrow Wilson said, “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all I can borrow.” It takes a secure leader to say, “Teach me”, “Point out the flaw in this plan!”, “What am I missing here?”, or “You are doing that much better than we are.” Our team has refused to construct some imaginary scoreboard with other higher educational institutions. We learn from other institutions big and small, applauding their efforts, and implementing lessons we are learning from them. This is no time for social media chest pumping. As the Surgeon General mentioned in a press briefing the other day (and I paraphrase), “There will be plenty of time for post-game analysis. This is a time to come together.”
9. You are as strong as your team.
I work with a group of educational rock stars! Our team is amazing. There is a spirit of collaborative comradery built upon mutual appreciation and trust. We listen to each other. That listening — and acting — has enabled us to move wisely and often . . . to be slightly ahead of the national curve with respect to some of our decisions. None of us feels the need to have the final word, make the best call, show ourselves the brightest, smartest, or most spiritual. We are “co-laborers” (1 Corinthians 3:9) who respect each other’s expertise, lean on God, and realize there has to be a “first among equals.” We know this is serious business and we are having a blast.
10. You are no one’s Savior.
I am going to make good calls and probably a few bad calls in this crisis. I am okay with that. I have a “dead mentor” by the name of Harry Truman who said making decisions was the greatest part of the President’s responsibilities. “A President has to decide. ‘That’s his job.’” I also have a living sovereign Savior whose sandals I am not worthy to hold much less untie (Luke 3:16), but who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17). He calls me his beloved and calls me to follow him (Luke 5:27). He’s the Savior in this drama, not me. Remembering that keeps my ego in check in victory and my heart at peace in defeat.
11. Don’t downplay the toilet paper.
Interestingly, toilet paper stole quite a few headlines in the early days of this crisis. “Come on, man!” But Costco and the local Walmart were fresh out of Scott and Charmin; a consequence of the early “run on the bank.” Part of me wanted to rant, “People, deal with it!” but then, my closet was amply supplied. The toilet paper famine reminds me that all of us have practical needs that must be met. Leaders must pay attention to the hurts of their people or their people won’t be able to tend to the crisis at hand.
12. You must withdraw.
This seems counter intuitive. Who has time to draw back when the world is in crisis . . . . Jesus! Jesus was always busy but never in a hurry. His secret? Time with God. Luke tells us that after a heavy season of ministry, Jesus “departed and went into a desolate place” (Luke 4:42). He also records that when great crowds sought out Jesus, after he tended to their needs, “he would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16). George Müller devoted 64 years to caring for 10,000 orphans. I don't know about you, but 10,000 mouths to feed would make me rocket out of bed every morning and get to work! Not George. He said, “The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord." Müller understood the importance of withdraw. While we have not mandated it, our team is emphasizing Sabbath blackout. We need daily and weekly times to turn off the phones, be with the Lord, find his strength, enjoy our families, and rest.
I’m sure you have your own learnings from this moment in world history and I would love to hear them. Take a moment and drop a comment below. The writer of Ecclesiastes put it so well.
“Two are better than one, for they have a good reward for their toil.”
May God give you collaborative wisdom in your toil in these days.
Notes:
“Never let a good crisis go to waste” from
“A President has to decide. ‘That’s his job’” from Truman, by David McCullough. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1992. Page 919.
“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all I can borrow.” From Woodrow Wilson in “Intelligence In Another Era: All the Brains I Can Borrow: Woodrow Wilson and Intelligence Gathering in Mexico, 1913-15” by Mark E. Benbow. www.cia.gov. Accessed October 17, 2107.
“The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend . . .” from Soul Nourishment First, A booklet by George Müller. May 9, 1841.