Pivoting is Essential to Leadership Through the Pandemic
Leadership Highlights from 2020
Don’t know about you, but most folks in my personal and professional orbits raised a glass on New Year’s Eve and said “good riddance” to the dumpster fire that was 2020.
As we turn the calendar, I want to salvage something positive out of 2020 by taking a moment to recapture some of the most profound thoughts of executives featured in my C-Level columns over the past year.
For Héctor Colón, president and CEO of Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, 2020 saw the publishing of his memoir, “My Journey From Boxing Ring to Boardroom - 5 Essential Virtues for Life & Leadership.”
However, Colón is pivoting to explore and develop his next crusade as a proponent of a concept he calls “The Servant-CEO.” He is working to inspire a Servant-CEO movement to revolutionize the social services sector in the following ways: position the nonprofit industry as the employer of choice, fully commit to the growth and development of all clients and their potential for greatness, and reimagine a servant-led sector that will thrive in the next century.
Similarly, Debra Wolniak, CEO and founder of DonorNurture.com LLC, an Edgerton, Wis.-based consulting firm, said nonprofit organizations need to adapt to survive.
“It’s time for a gut check for everyone. Stop everything and answer this question: Are we operating from a mindset of growth or scarcity?” Wolniak said.
For leaders looking for some good Karma in the wreckage of 2020, LaNelle Ramey, executive director of MENTOR Greater Milwaukee, said mentoring is a way of “paying it forward” for adults who received a guiding hand along the way in their own upbringing as they climbed their career ladders.
“It isn’t about developing a ‘Mini-Me.’ It’s about helping the young person find and develop their own inner greatness,” Ramey said.
Jim Bohn, an expert in change management, said flexibility and communication need to be high priorities as leaders forge their way forward in 2021.
“Leaders who demonstrate a true concern and empathy for people are going to do much better than those who simply get frustrated because people aren't coming into work. This is a time to be empathetic, but not pathetic. No need to share all your personal troubles but find a way to relate to your team,” Bohn said.
As the owner of Midwest Construction & Management Services in Milwaukee, Stephanie Deena Findley pivoted to confront the key challenge facing her firm: a shortage of competent people in the workforce pipeline.
She took action to resolve the problem by creating the Findley Foundation, a nonprofit organization that proactively helps people become employable by improving their basic reading, writing and math capabilities, as well as developing many of the “soft skills” needed in the workforce.
“We serve our community by leveling the playing field to uplift, inspire and empower individuals in need of economic opportunities in education, supportive services, workforce training, health and mental health services to ensure individuals are healthy, healed and whole,” Findley said.
For leaders resolving to make their pivots in 2021, KeleMarie Lyons offered some advice for sustainability.
Lyons, founder and president of Medicine That Heals in Milwaukee, describes herself as “a lifestyle medicine expert who inspires individuals to live healthy, happy and fulfilling lives.”
Lyons advised leaders eager to conquer the challenges in their pivots of 2021 to remember to take care of themselves so that they are able to help their teams.
“Take time to have some fun each day. It will spice up your life and reduce your chances for burning out,” Lyons said. “The level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine, and dopamine are reduced when you are laughing and having fun.”
