Extreme circumstances can be revealing times. As you likely have been focused the last few weeks on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, I propose that you carve out 15 minutes to consider the series of questions below to bring to light your key learnings and insights about your own leadership, your team’s effectiveness and your business’ resilience.

Your Leadership

• What has tested you the most about leading through this crisis?
• What insights are you gaining about your resilience, adaptability and response to stress?
• What has come more naturally to you than expected?
• What values are driving your decisions?
• How aligned are those values to the ones you had hoped would show up when tested?
• Have you had the right network/contacts and access to the right information when needed?
• Have you acted quickly enough? Where should you have slowed down?

Team Effectiveness

• Which leaders have stepped up? What hidden strengths are being revealed?
• Which leaders have struggled or been less effective in leading their teams? In helping to lead the overall organization?
• What capabilities do you wish you already had in place or in greater supply?
• Where has the team come together? What new fissures are emerging?
• Where are the best sources of innovation coming from?

Business Resilience

• What insights have you gained about your business model?
• What previous or current decisions have hurt the ability to respond quickly and effectively?
• What differences are you seeing in your customer’s behavior through all this?
• Which customer changes do you think will be enduring?
• Which competitor moves have surprised you the most? Which moves do you wish you had made—or at least acted sooner?
• What are you learning about your suppliers and partners? Who has been there the most when needed?

So what now?

Hopefully, these reflections are helpful and reveal actionable insights or adjustments that will enhance performance and help you be better prepared for the next crisis.  Before you take action, however, consider doing a quick sort into three categories first:

1. Adjustments that make sense right now (e.g., will increase effectiveness immediately)
2. Changes or actions that require more thought, planning or are better addressed when the stakes are lower
3. Interesting but not a priority or impactful enough to address

If I can be helpful to you as a thought partner in prioritizing what actions to take or how to lead differently in this new environment, email me.