Reflecting On Leadership: Eight Months Ago

Eight months into this pandemic, this week, we reflect on the Building Circles topic from eight months ago.   How has your leadership style and priorities changed during this time?  What is your biggest challenge today?

Reactive or Proactive

Some leaders are reactive and jump at changing direction immediately, while others take in as much information and decipher it quickly to put together a proactive plan.   Which leader are you?  We have seen some of our political leaders criticized for not reacting fast enough and then criticized for changing their plans shortly after.   Information is fluid and these leaders implement a different plan based on new information.

Our executive team continues to watch all the information; locally, regionally, provincially, nationally, and worldwide to ensure we have qualified and updated information.  We have taken precautionary measures, instituted several new policies, and have updated these as required over the last eight months.

Health & Safety #1 Priority

We have always placed the AlphaKORians', our families, and clients as top priorities when it comes to health and safety.   Those who have not felt well have gone home.   Those who have returned from traveling outside of Canada have gone home.   Practicing social distance, all face-to-face meetings and non-critical onsite technical services were rescheduled.   Many were changed to phone calls, video conference calls, or remote technical services.

Today we have about half the team in the office and the other half still working remotely.  There are few face-to-face client meetings with most being online meetings and service is mainly remotely with on-site at client locations as required.

Health guidelines have been shared with the team and kept updated.   More hand sanitization and anti-bacterial wipes have been added throughout the office.   Any concerns have been addressed immediately.  We have updated our contingency plan for half the team working at the office while the rest are working remotely.   We also have a full business continuity plan for "lights out" operations for the business to run with the entire team working remotely and glad we have not had to execute this plan to date.

Business As Usual

For our clients, we are providing solutions, support, and helping them keep it business as usual.   Many organizations continue to ask about how to ensure data is secured and backed up properly for their remote workforce.  We have provided secured solutions to enable their teams to work from home and from the office.   This is part of our core competencies with years of experience in providing these types of solutions.  Business must continue; however, it must not continue at all costs.   Leaders take the initiative to make the necessary changes to balance business as usual while ensuring everyone remains safe and healthy.  Leaders continue seeking updated information and expert opinions on how to keep moving in the right direction.

Cybersecurity and business continuity have been the hottest topics during these last eight months.  We are working together to help everyone build their strategies to keep it business as usual.   As we head into the holiday season, many businesses will have increased demand for their products and services, and glad to see so many with a plan to keep it business as usual with proper planning.

We Care

At AlphaKOR, we care about everyone.  We are here to help in any way we can.  Working together to help each other will get us through this.  What are your priorities and biggest challenge during this time?

 (Originally published on 11.11.20)