This month, rather than the traditional gratitude posts, we’re thinking specifically about the Covid-19 pandemic. While there are seemingly unending negatives to this pandemic, there are also silver linings to be found if you look for them.
Many businesses have gone under during this pandemic. According to this article in Fortune, nearly 100,000. As that was written in September, I’m sure there are more by now. We were fortunate enough to keep going here at LeadQuine, but not without a lot of changes, cuts, and adjustments. We lost 70% of the projected revenue and contracts for the year. We cut staff. We refunded everyone who couldn’t do their workshop online, or just asked to be refunded. We made difficult decisions for our family in order to stay afloat. We held our breath to see if we would make it. And so far, we have.
Since this is a blog about the silver linings we are paying attention to about this otherwise very challenging and difficult time, I’ll focus on those. And there are actually a few of them regarding the business.
No travel and no gatherings has meant getting creative about how to work with clients. Several workshops suddenly became irrelevant or even prohibited. As humans, we are meant to live in community. We are meant to have interaction face-to-face, to touch, to physically engage. But now is not the time for us to do that while doing our small part to get this global pandemic under control. As a result, we removed several workshops and experiences from our offerings.
Thanks to the many innovative virtual tools out there, we’ve been able to work with clients online. Taking small teams who would have previously spent one to three days in sessions together and inviting them to spread that learning out over a period of weeks has proven highly effective. The lack of travel has meant much more consistent work with our coaching clients.
The work has changed, but it feels even more meaningful.
I was always too busy before to spend enough time on my own professional development. As a coach, this is pretty important. Being grounded has allowed me more time to connect with a community of coaches who have provided me with support, accountability partnerships, and an infusion of new ideas. We brainstorm together, push each other, and hold space for the ways we’re struggling without judgement.
The biggest silver lining regarding my work has been gaining a renewed sense of clarity of purpose. I had become a little disconnected from my “why”. I was so busy running around that I lacked focus. Through the dark period of a few months ago, I was able to become clear again. I’m more excited than ever about my work. Yes, it will look different in its practice for the foreseeable future, but it has meaning, and hopefully, it has impact.
