Now that 2021 has begun, I hope many of you are proud of what you accomplished in getting here, safely surviving 2020. All of us have faced unique challenges and loss — both personal and professional — due to the global pandemic and financial crisis.
This is the first in a series of short stories — a culmination of experiences, leadership lessons and learnings that helped me lead myself, family and manufacturers’ rep agency through not only the first year of this pandemic and one of the most challenging periods of all our lives, but also throughout my years in business around the globe. Some of these learnings are built on education from mentors, workshops and conferences, such as many of mine from Harvard Business School’s Nancy Koehn. My hope is this serves not only as a lens through which to view ordinary people doing extraordinary things at a time of crisis, but a call to action for those who want to become better and more effective leaders.