In response to the question “In no more than three sentences, what have been the three greatest challenges to your Leadership?” one respondent who did not want their comments attributed to them said “Being overwhelmed, other people being overwhelmed, ability to reach people with the right message at the right time”
This is just one of many fascinating and candid insights that have been recently gathered.
Lockdown during the Covid 19 Crisis has created many challenges. For some, chaos reigned. For others opportunity knocked.
My own business is built on having a strong pipeline fed by meeting people, predominantly at networking events. Clearly when Lockdown happened, my business activity was abruptly halted.
Thankfully, I was able to continue small amounts of work on a one to one basis via Zoom and other Internet based applications.
As part of my coping mechanism, I wondered how others were dealing with it all and so I attempted, and in some cases succeeded, in keeping conversations going with business Leaders in my network.
I was inspired, surprised, amazed, and heartened by the responses.
Globally businesses are at different stages of the crisis. In England, many people are returning, often tentatively, to work whilst in other parts of the UK, different messages are being delivered, and many frontline workers continue to go into workplaces to provide vital services, manage teams and complex situations.
In this chaos I saw opportunity that was around the chance to capture some wonderful examples of Leadership in Tough Times from business Leaders.
I contacted them to see if they agree to take part in the short (10 minutes max) survey, as experientially I know how powerful and inspiring sharing their stories of how they are leading their organisation through these tough times could be.
Whilst most respondents agreed to an online chat, others didn’t, but nevertheless provided some rich data and very honest replies provide they remained unattributable, as the quote in the first paragraph shows.
In this interview with Alex Wright the MD & Founder of Knapton Wright Creative Media Agency, Alex candidly reflects on some of the challenges he faced as the leader of a small thriving business.
