VP of Marketing at Go Nimbly, the first Revenue Operations Consultancy.
After several months of staying home, I keep thinking about the human race and our ability to be rational. But what exactly does that mean, to be rational? Based on my own perspective, it means the ability to use our brains in different decision-making processes with consciousness. The acknowledgment that every action has a reaction. The possibility to evaluate any given scenario.
As I mentioned before, I am lucky enough to be under the best possible circumstances, and that has allowed me to gain new understandings of gratitude. This is not the same gratitude I experience every time that I am being supported by family or friends; it’s rawer and deeper than that, and therefore, it has started to form some sort of imprint on my soul. The fact that I am healthy, thanks in part to the ability to make the right decisions for my physical and mental self through all of this, is a great example. I choose every single day what to think, what to express, how to use my voice both professionally and personally, which meditation session I’ll take, and what to feed my body with.
I’ve also had the opportunity to meet people who don’t have those choices. Those decisions are made for them, and some of them are currently struggling more than they ever could have imagined. Our society has changed forever, and it’s still uncertain what consequences we will have to deal with when we emerge from this crisis — and if there will be new opportunities to execute rationality.
I get asked the same question I’ve been asked since day one of moving to the U.S. Only now, it’s more frequent than ever, and sometimes it comes from people I don’t expect. That question is: “How are you?”
Usually, the answer has just two variations: “I’m OK,” or “I know I’ll be OK” (because I do — I am sure that, eventually, everything will work out for my loved ones and me).
I believe in a higher power and that what is meant for me will happen, one way or another. But sometimes, the truth is that I need a minute (more like hours or even a day) to pull myself together and absorb the events around me. Sometimes life can get heavy.
What if we could come up with better and more suitable questions for this moment and time, instead of “How are you”? Questions such as:
• “What has been going through your mind this week?”
• “Have you been sleeping deeply and constantly?”
• “What do you feel you are sacrificing at this moment?”
• “Are you doing anything only for you?”
• “Have you explored your mind and found something scary?”
It sounds a little basic, as a piece of advice, but it’s really not, especially because we don’t see many leaders asking these questions to their direct team members or, even worse, their employees. Right now, we need to take care of each other, and it simply won’t happen if we keep moving just by protocol or by what we think has worked before. This is a new era, and we should start treating it as such.
What this looks like in practice on the leadership level doesn’t have to do with the number of times you meet with your team. I think it is more about quality. This is a moment for creating and maintaining closeness. For example, don’t be the person who doesn’t bother to shut off notifications while in a meeting. That shows you are not fully present. Make the lens of your camera your best friend during videoconferences. Your team can and will look at how you are listening to them, and eye contact is still possible in a digital meeting space.
Being in a leadership position means that I have to talk the talk and walk the walk. In our small team, we have made sure that meetings are slightly different from what they were before. Today, I take extra time at the beginning of every meeting to answer an ice-breaker question and then go deeper into the stories shared.
We might not always go through our entire agenda in-depth, but as the leader, I make sure to tackle the urgent and important items first. Hearing my team making jokes with each other and sharing sides of us that we didn’t know existed has become my first priority in meetings. Because of this meaningful connection, I believe we have become more accountable to each other than ever before.
Especially right now, let’s make decisions with consciousness on how we lead our teams. It’s time to think before you talk and internalize before you think.
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