The lessons we have learned from COVID-19 have shaped our leadership, and the lives of everyone involved in camp. Like everyone on the planet, a few months ago we had no idea what our future would hold. Will camp run? How will it look? Is it even worth the risk? When we finally decided to run, we felt both the burden of keeping everyone safe, and the opportunity to be leaders in our industry.
Leadership Lessons From a Global Pandemic
- GROW – Embrace a Learner’s Mindset.
- ALIGN – Do what you say you are going to do and over communicate.
- COLLABORATE – Empower teams to think.
GROW - Embrace a Learner's Mindset
It should be easy to be humble when we’re going through something for the first time, yet many of us think we need to know what to do. For most of us this is our first global pandemic. We remember words like H1N1, Swine Flu, SARS and MERS, but naively it didn’t really slow us down right?
Why should we expect to know everything have all the answers?
This simple question challenges the notion that a leader needs to have command and control. It’s not true. We are all on a learning journey. When we can let go of our ego and insecurities, and start relying on the expertise of all the amazing people within our team and our community, the answers to our biggest challenges present themselves. When we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, we learn and grow together.
We’ve witnessed over 400 young athletes over the past 4 weeks demonstrate the incredible ability to flex, adapt, learn, and accept new realities. A child is born with a Learner’s Mindset. It’s our job to nurture and encourage it to grow.
ALIGN - Do what you say you are going to do and over communicate
Before we can have expectations of our team, we need clarity. Clarity of purpose, role, and intention. Throughout COVID-19 people have made incredible sacrifices and committed willingly to recommendations and protocols set forth by our provincial health authority and Dr Bonnie Henry. We’ve been challenged to live up to the high expectations our Safety Plan has placed on all of us.
The weight of human nature pulls us toward old behaviours and habits. Leading by example and communication of expectations has not been as important in recent human history as it is today. The right decisions are often the hardest. Teams need to see their leadership living the values and principles of the organization. ‘Most of the time’, or just ‘when others are watching’ is not enough. The leadership values and principles we establish must part of who we are, our ethos, our daily habits, and our rituals. In this case, doing the right thing most of the time can result in a viral outbreak. The stakes are high. As leaders we need to accept and embrace it.
COLLABORATE - Empower Teams to Think
By letting go of having all the answers, we’ve seen incredible cross functional collaboration within our team. When encouraged to think, rather than told to listen, people draw on their own experience, personality style, and areas of expertise. Our players, families, and local community are safer and having a richer experience because of the creative and dedicated thinking so many of our team members have been encouraged to exploit. Our greatest thrill this summer has been witnessing the commitment our team has made to think critically to find solutions to the challenges COVID-19 has presented.
by Camp Director Nate Leslie. Nate is a Certified Executive Coach. Align, Collaborate, & Grow are fundamental Leadership Effectiveness Principles of the SupportingLines Institute. Are you a Leader with a Learner’s Mindset? Take the High Performance Index Leader Assessment here.
