I thought I was training for the race of a lifetime. In reality, I was training for 2020.
My training as a lifeguard has given me a unique perspective on how businesses need to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. As a certified lifesaver, you train to be able to respond to disaster with courage, perseverance, and a clear focus on the real things that matter: sustaining human life. These skills come in handy for those trying to lead a path through this pandemic. They come together to build one crucial skill that is also necessary when facing this unprecedented pandemic -- resilience.
You must be resilient in the face of setbacks to be a great business leader. Those leaders who practice and build resilience as a crucial skill for the continuing success of their company can remain calm under pressure, adapt to changes rapidly, and guide others in doing the same. This applied to everyday life before the pandemic, but with our work routines disrupted and work models irrevocably changed since March 2020, the issue of both organizational and individual resilience has been put in the spotlight.
Going back to the lifeguard training and the lifeguard’s purpose of sustaining human life, resilience helps do just that. By thinking like a lifeguard, accepting the reality of your situation and assessing options for action, business leaders can build resilience in the face of unprecedented, rapidly changing, and often frightening changes.
Keep Calm in the Face of Fear
Imagine what it must be like, stranded at sea when your boat starts sinking. Are you going to accept it, resign yourself to death, and sink quietly under the waves? Or are you going to fight with everything you have to survive this moment and see another day? Somehow, you must keep your wits about you long enough to understand the current situation and make a plan to survive. This is where preparation pays off.
Prepare for a Pandemic
“No one could have seen this pandemic coming and prepared adequately for it.” That’s a false statement. The world has had many pandemics, and has recently had many trials at containing outbreaks of Ebola, SARS and N1H1. Microsoft founder Bill Gates saw it coming, most likely tipped off by artificially intelligent super computers programmed to assess risks.
Lifeguards, astronauts, and CEOs prepare by putting themselves into simulated crisis situations that require calm nerves and quick thinking. One of the ways lifesavers prepare is the annual Molokai 2 Oahu Paddleboard World Championships, a 33-mile paddleboard race across the Molokai strait in Hawaii.
Due to the pandemic the race was held locally this year, so teams could race anytime, anywhere, so long as they made the minimum 16-mile trek. I took up the challenge with two of my fellow lifeguards at Nags Head Ocean Rescue, Bryce Green and Payton Savage. Our route was the 17-mile stretch from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore to the Avalon Pier. We met at the pier at 3 in the morning, with no stars showing through thick clouds, lightning flickering on a black horizon.
Show Resilience
It’s hard to imagine what goes on in the mind when one finds oneself in the dark of night, in the belly of the ocean. The mind plays games with you. Your fears, for at least a moment, crystallize into something nefariously tangible: If you give in, there is no way back, and if you go off course -- which would be inadvisable -- you may face a road much more treacherous. Despite preparing for the adventure of a lifetime, as I descended into the dark demise, my gut was twisted in knots.
Through training, and, I mean, hours of grueling sweat-drenched, leg-buckling, back-breaking sessions: falling off your board, paddling up a current fighting both ways in all directions, exhaustion sets in, pain radiates in parts of the body I had not yet discovered, and all the while, the drive has to be met -- one has to push on.
Taking these lifeguarding lessons into consideration, business leaders can find resilience by maintaining operational flexibility, which will allow them to adapt to changes quickly, and acting decisively when making any operational changes. They should also prepare to be quick thinkers and build on learning from any mistakes and disruptions in order to evolve. We might be in this situation for a while longer, so taking this approach will build long-term resilience into how your company approaches survival and continuing success.
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Surrender to Reality
I was once safe ashore; suddenly, that’s no more. An hour into our race, a sizable bull shark breached only two feet from our boards. Later on, we encountered two more blacktips, thankfully smaller in size. I wanted to end it there, throw in the towel and head home, but we kept going, we just paddled a little harder and a little faster.
The fact is that what was once won’t come back. Time moves in one direction. Living in the past does not beget success in the future. As strategists, we too have to realize that we must accept the new normal, stare it down, and challenge it. Guinness’ ad for Saint Patrick’s Day 2020 -- “we’re all Irish” evolved into “we’re all human” -- exemplified this stonewalling against uncertain times. In this vast world, this feeling of powerlessness can almost be exalting -- embrace what you cannot control, and focus on what you can do here and now.
The pandemic forced Walmart to finally surrender to the reality that the future of sales is online, and Amazon has a better formula. So Walmart started its own membership program, Walmart+, offering one better than Amazon’s free shipping: Walmart leveraged its retail footprint to offer free same day shipping, something Amazon will struggle to replicate.
Adapt to Survive
As a lifeguard, you know that sh*t happens. It did during the race, too: the winds shifted to the North, and caused the current to fight against us for the last seven miles. The outer eddies we had followed reversed course, and we had to paddle closer to shore to avoid stronger currents.
As strategists, we embrace unexpected circumstances. This fact is almost stoic in nature. The dynamics have changed, the board has been reset, new rules are written, and we must, if we wish to survive this impasse, adapt. So, it’s time to go back to the drawing boards.
I think a great example could be seen from the quintessential logos of VW and Audi, the two companies that aptly changed their design to reflect social-distancing measures.
Focus on Life
What we do know for sure is our humanity, and doing things for the greater good ultimately has won the hearts and minds of society in troubled times. Just as I had my two best mates with me out at sea, we have our teams, our friends and families to remind us what we must do so that we may persevere.
As you assess your response to the pandemic, you might find that you need some new or different skills on your team to get you through this challenge. Brand Federation is able to provide exactly the team members you need, for however long you need them, to navigate a way out of this crisis and into a better future.
Once the storm has passed, and what we consider a semblance of normalcy returns, I hope this account could still resound in the mind of those of us, professionals and individuals alike, who want to see these crazy times through.
