A friend recently told me a story about his adult son who was hiking this summer with a couple of buddies in Yosemite National Park. The first day on the trail was nice and uneventful, but on the second day, my friend’s son was leading the hike when a snake darted out of the bushes and bit him on the knee.
Being Millennials, they did what most Millennials do and Googled, “What do you do for a rattlesnake bite?” The answer is: “Call 911 immediately.” They did, and two helicopter rides later, my friend’s son finally made it to a hospital ER.
The son phoned his dad and said, “This is not going to be a good call” and then handed the phone to the nurse. She said, “This is the worst snake bite I’ve ever seen. If it doesn’t get better, we’ll have to amputate his leg.”
The young man spent 10 days in the hospital before returning home, and a month later he was fully recovered. (On a humorous note, my friend shared this: “As (my son) was fighting to recover from the rattlesnake bite, I kept sharing with him the thoughts, prayers and encouragement of many friends and prayer warriors—so many that he half-complained that I might be violating his privacy by sharing his story and condition with people he didn’t even know. I told him, ‘I didn’t give a darn about your HIPAA rights; I was trading info for prayers, and those many, many prayers were answered. Thank you, Lord!’”)
So why am I writing about a snake bite incident in this business blog? Well, I think this story is a great analogy for businesses and the pandemic economy we have experienced in 2020. COVID hitting the U.S. earlier this year did not mean the automatic demise of many businesses in 2020. It’s what business leaders did or did not do in reaction to the pandemic that determined if their businesses would fail; be on life support; or, in some cases, thrive in 2020.
Quick, decisive action is key to handling any dire situation.
When the pandemic hit, not everyone reacted quickly. It was novel and complicated, and so many aspects of our daily lives changed almost overnight. Also, I think many people went through the Five Stages of Grief when faced with a sudden and hard-hitting recession that brought many businesses to a screeching halt in just a matter of days.
The Five Stages of Grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance—often come after people experience the death of a loved one, a divorce or a job loss.
But I watched business leaders go through much the same thing earlier this year when the pandemic began.
Denial. COVID-19 cannot be for real, some said, and if it is, it will end soon. This surely isn’t an actual pandemic! Business will be back to normal before we know it.
Anger. We were having our best year ever—and then this happens. After all I have done to grow this business, and it’s all just falling apart. It’s not fair! Why me? I’m at the breaking point; I just blew up at two of my employees over something that, in normal times, I would have just let go.
Bargaining. I have been practicing “knee mail” lately; I find myself praying more and more. “Please, God, make this pandemic end so my business will return to normal—and I promise I’ll be a better person, a better leader, a better Christian.”
Depression. Business will never get better. We will never get out of this mess. If only I had saved cash, we would not have to have layoffs and pay cuts. No matter what I do, things are not turning around. What’s the use?
Acceptance. We are going to get through this. Things are not the same as they were; it’s definitely a new normal now. But what does not kill you, makes you stronger—well, it did not kill my business, it just changed the business. Some things are better, some are worse; but we are still standing, and it’s time for me to lead.
The people who led well and are doing better now were the ones who went through the Five Stages of Grief in a short period of time. I personally watched as some of my clients seemed to only take one, two or three days before they accepted that they might be in for a long, slow recovery and that they had to take decisive action NOW. They were the ones who cut costs, halted capital expenditures, figured out the work-from-home situation and locked everything down until they could see what was next.
Unfortunately, I saw other business leaders who hesitated to act. They spent months in each stage of grief, and they paid the price with increased stress and mental health concerns, cash-flow problems, decreased profitability and a noticeable deterioration in the overall health of their businesses.
Remember, it’s not usually the snake bite that kills you. It’s what you do or don’t do next (and how quickly you act) that determines your outcome.
In our blog next time, we will focus on how to prepare for leading in 2021.
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