Recently, a work Zoom call went viral when a participant (unaware she could be seen) walked into the bathroom, dropped her pants, and had a pee — on camera, leaving her co-workers stunned. 

As a branding strategist and media coach, I regularly work with CEOs on how to conduct themselves on TV interviews. But the dramatic rise in the use of video requires all leaders to learn new media skills for a new world.  

Background is the new body language.  

In the 1960s, Professor Albert Mehrabian conducted a study on the way communication is received. He professed that 7 percent of the message could be attributed to the words, 38 percent to the tone of voice, and 55 percent to body language. 

But with the proliferation of video conferencing, there’s a new body language in town: It’s what’s going on behind you in both look and action. In short, your background has become part of your personal leadership brand. 

For example, a few weeks ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was in the middle of a live TV interview from his home. Suddenly, the bathroom door opened behind him, and what appeared to be his house cleaner came out holding an armful of cleaning supplies. She was not wearing a mask, and neither was he. Not exactly a positive brand-building moment.  

To avoid embarrassment and enhance your leadership brand, take the time to curate your video environment. 

Use a virtual background. Zoom and Canva both offer pre-made backgrounds. Alternatively, create a custom one. For more formal business calls, I had my graphics person take a photograph of a conference room and place my logo on the projection screen in the image. 

Have a custom backdrop created. If you do media interviews or high-end meetings with clients, you can have a custom background designed. Companies such as Anyvoo.com create simple, easy-to-assemble backdrops featuring your logo.  

Go with a natural background. There’s nothing wrong with showing your home or home office in the background of a videoconferencing call. Just be aware of what’s going on behind you and how the background is impacting your brand.  

For example, A recent guest expert on a top national news show had a carefully curated background featuring a shelf of specific books and particular art objects. His environment shouted well-read, intelligent, and thoughtful.  

By contrast, I saw another guest expert later that day whose office background featured a messy pile of paperwork, a stack of cardboard boxes, and some odd wooden clown toys.  

No judgment on this person’s style of decor, but from a branding point of view, they gave a message of being chaotic, unfocused, and unaware.  

Frame up the camera correctly.  

Positioning your camera too low creates a distraction for others and is universally unflattering to you. Always place the camera slightly higher than the top of your head. Then point it down into your eyes, so you are looking slightly up. To get your computer (or tablet) in the right spot, try placing it on a stack of books. 

Once you have the camera adequately positioned, train yourself to look at the camera — not the screen or your image. It might feel unnatural at first, but looking directly at the camera dramatically increases your executive presence on video, since it translates as paying attention to the other participants. 

Light your way to success. 

One survey by Highfive reported that 59 percent of adults are more self-conscious on camera than in real life. Most CEOs understand that looking their best on a video conference is an essential part of their brand — but few know how to get there.  

One trick is the O ring light professional video bloggers use to create a diffused light on their faces. You can buy one on Amazon for about $50 to $100, and they come with a variety of settings so you can find the specific level of light that is the most flattering for you. 

Other lighting tricks include putting the source of light (a window, a lamp) in front of you rather than behind you and adjusting the brightness on your screen for optimal results. Remember, bad lighting can make you look tired and irritated. Taking these easy steps will uplift your CEO brand by showing you in the best light possible. 

Dress for purpose, not for mood. 

One of the most impactful, yet least attended to, areas of CEO branding on video is clothing. Just last week, an executive said to me, “I’m at home, and everyone knows it. I don’t wear a button-down shirt at home; I wear a T-shirt.” 

 Regardless, the way leaders dress on video conferencing has an impact on how others view them — and even on their productivity. Dr. Adam Galinsky, a professor who has studied the effect of clothing on the cognitive process, said, “Clothes invade the body and brain, putting the wearer into a different psychological state.” 

While every video meeting may not require a jacket and tie, your choice of clothing should be based on purpose, not a mood. In other words, consider what you would do if the meeting were face to face and dress appropriately. As the CEO, would you show up to a weekly sales meeting in a T-shirt? Highly doubtful. 

All your leadership messages — from taking a stand for decent work and economic growth to the need for digital transformation in your organization — depend partly on the strength of your executive presence and CEO brand. 

The bottom line is that you are either amplifying those messages or detracting from them by the way you come across on video. 

On a final note, sometimes the best videoconference practice is to go voice only. As it’s popularly known, Zoom Fatigue has become a very real problem. Consider this. The more fatigued you are by video conferencing, the more likely you will slip into an action that damages your personal and CEO brand — and that would be a shame. 

“The Most important Thing About Crisis Management is to Prepare for the Next Crisis.”

At this point, some businesses are reopening. Limitations on in-person meetings will be lifted. Some, but not all, employees will be happy and anxious to get back to the workplace and leave the stress of 24/7 home life behind. However, the positive influence leader will want to take a moment to ask, “how did we do, and what did we learn, and how will we specifically apply what we learned to both our departments and our firm?”  

This is a critical moment because:

• There will be another crisis in the future. 
• It may not be health-related, and it may not be of the same scale, but we will need to be ready, and it will need to be addressed.
• The organization may have been permanently changed by the crisis, and a simple return to “business as usual” is not possible. There will be a new normal for many industries and businesses.
• The organization may have adopted some new practices during the crisis that were beneficial. For example, new techniques for customer acquisitions, interactions, team meetings, and time management may have been effective and easily integrated into the post-crisis workplace.

As your organization and departments return to work, you must review and assess what happened during the crisis. As someone said, “the most important thing about crisis management is to prepare for the next crisis.”

Take the case of the island country of Taiwan because it provides a dramatic example of post-crisis analysis. This country of some 23 million is just 81 miles from mainland China with frequent flights back and forth between the two countries. And yet, as of late May, there about 500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and just nine deaths. How did they do it?

Planning for this crisis effectively began after the SARS epidemic in 2004. The resulting plan included a 24/7 national command center that integrated the work of a variety of agencies under one roof. The result was a plan that included specific sections that were implemented during the current crisis. 

Crisis Review
Some people call it an evaluation or an after-crisis action review, but we can go with crisis review. The objective is to find out what worked, what didn’t work, what we learned, and how we will correctly apply what we learned when and if there is a next time. We’ll need a methodology and some key questions to guide the process.

Methodology 
Here are some process elements to consider:

Should we break these sessions down by department, e.g., Executive, Technology, HR, Marketing, Sales, Service, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Finance, Accounting? If so, how should we customize this process for each?

• Who should be invited?
• How many meetings should we have?
• How much time should we allocate to the meeting?
• What topics should we cover?
• What questions should be asked?
• Should we use a professional meeting facilitator?
• How will we take notes and capture the ideas generated?
• What will we do with the notes taken and the recommended action items?
• Do we send the questions to the participants in advance of the meeting?
• What criteria should we use to assess the success of the meeting?

Review Questions
Some possible questions to guide the discussion include:

• What did we stop doing during the crisis?
• What did we start doing?
• What did we continue doing?
• What changed over time?
• What worked well that we stopped doing? Started doing? What didn’t work well that we stopped and started doing? What could have been better?
• What should we do differently during our next crisis?
• What are some lessons learned that we can immediately implement in our current workplace?

What are the key lessons learned that could be applied in future crises?
As this crisis comes to an end, the decisive influence leader can help their organization learn from the experience and develop a plan for managing similar challenges in the future as well as identifying learnings from the current crisis that can be implemented in the near-term workplace.

Scarcity is a feeling of fragility and uncertainty. Leaders cannot let fear determine their decisions, which is why cultivating an abundance mindset is critical to long-term leadership amidst the current coronavirus pandemic.

Of all the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus, one crisis has been largely overlooked: our psychological response. A scarcity mindset is induced by a fearful prediction about the availability of future resources. Leaders and companies are directly affected by a threat to their finances or the health risks for employees. Responding appropriately to current events is critical, but there’s a difference between strategizing and having a scarcity mindset.

Scarcity is a feeling of fragility and uncertainty. COVID-19 created environmental conditions that often produce a scarcity mindset: an economic downturn, a pandemic, and an abrupt shift to a new way of living. If you succumb to this mindset, it will stick with you even if the economy turns around tomorrow. Why?

Your brain identifies stressful events unconsciously. It remembers them for a long time with greater clarity and amplification. Our experience with physical distancing, for instance, will make us warier of shaking hands in the future.

Scarcity, whether real or perceived, impairs your thinking. It can make us reluctant to hire even after an economic upturn or lead us to be overly conservative with the company budget. Holding on to a fearful emotional response can ultimately result in poor long-term decisions.

Taking Control: Overcoming a Scarcity Mindset

In the short term, scarcity can produce increased engagement — at a cost. You might overemphasize immediate needs and think tactically rather than strategically. You’re likely focusing on survival and asking, “What do we need to do?” instead of considering opportunities and asking, “What could we do?” You’re probably getting things done, but they likely won’t benefit you as much as you think.

Additionally, relationships become more and more transactional with a scarcity mindset. You may place a greater focus on your own needs and become less willing to invest time and energy into relationships that don’t immediately fulfill them. However, managing employee unrest — or employee anxieties — is the most significant challenge facing most business leaders right now. Because negative memories stick in our brains longer than positive ones, what leaders do in 2020 will significantly impact their legacies.

The long-term consequences of leading tactically and prioritizing your survival are a shallow vision and weak culture. If you want to emerge as a stronger leader and company in light of this novel coronavirus, understand that financial conservatism is not the same as scarcity mindset. Being shrewd about budget and layoffs does not require you to consider the availability of resources. A scarcity mindset is an emotional response when you’re allowing fears to determine your decisions. Budgeting is top-down.

1. Before the moment, be proactive.

Organizations that prioritize productivity at all costs schedule work with no margins. This practice is rooted in scarcity, and it starts at the top. If your days are filled with more work, than you can feasibly accomplish and little time to think, try adding buffers.

For instance, I experimented with scheduling meetings for abnormal lengths (e.g., 52 minutes or 26 minutes). I found that this extra time helped me feel mentally prepared and present for each session because I built in a few minutes to collect my thoughts. As a bonus, I found it led others to respect my availability and make the most of the time we had.

2. Train yourself to identify your mindset at the moment.

As often as possible, ask yourself whether your mindset is suitable for your current environment. There may be times when a scarcity mindset is needed. For instance, if the government mandated that your organization work from home tomorrow, a short-term engagement to solve the issue at hand becomes critical. We all need to do what’s required in a crisis, but don’t let a scarcity mindset become the default. Be mindful of how you’re approaching the moment and change your thinking, if necessary.

3. Reverse engineer.

Try thinking “by design” rather than “by default.” Connect the dots between your mindset, emotions, actions, and outcomes because they’re inextricably linked. To change an issue, think about what action is required. What emotion triggers that action? What mindset cultivates that emotion? In the same way that reverse engineering your goals can help you identify first steps, reverse engineering outcomes can help you identify the necessary mindset.

4. Invite others into this process.

The reality is that bottom-up processing is unconscious. It’s therefore difficult to identify in the moment. We can be blind to our own blindness. If you’re serious about changing your mindset, consider inviting colleagues into the conversations. Feedback is a gift, and when you initiate a feedback loop, your brain is more likely to receive it, according to Kerry Goyette, author of “The Non-Obvious Guide to Emotional Intelligence.” Transparent conversations can lead to personal growth and build a culture of trust within your organization.

Cultivating an abundance mindset is critical in the long term. Anyone who hopes to lead a successful business must learn to balance the need to survive with the need to innovate. By reserving a scarcity mindset for situations that require it, you can guide your company through the coronavirus pandemic and to the other side.

“If you want to learn to sail, you need to go into high winds,” says John Replogle, a partner at One Better Ventures. “Equally, If you want to lead, go into a crisis.” Replogle has learned much about leadership from the current crisis. Here, he shares some of the critical qualities a leader must consider.

During the Vietnam War, Air Force researchers sought to determine what separated outstanding pilots from the field. Through eye motion tracking, they concluded that the top guns moved through the decision-making cycle, what they coined the OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) with alacrity.

In early March, the world changed so abruptly; it challenged leaders’ ability to demonstrate their OODA loop skills. The crisis delivered a decision point that few were prepared for. Leaders across the spectrum were forced to assess their business model and redefine their approach to leadership rapidly. The old playbook was not going to work, and a new playbook needed to be rewritten quickly. 

Fortunately, for leaders of purpose-driven companies, this was a much smoother transition. During the “great recession,” purpose-led companies, or B Corps, accelerated through the challenge and were 65% more successful than non-purpose led companies. How did they do it? My partners at One Better Ventures believe that the essential ingredients centered around four P’s: People; Purpose; Pivot; Profit. These tenets are even more applicable today, and, like the OODA loop, they should be pursued in this order.

People

With the pandemic, employees became highly concerned as both their home and business environment was disrupted. Challenging new questions arose — Would I still have a job? How will I work remotely? How will I home school my children? Am I safe? CEOs who recognized this need from their employees, who tuned in, and who provided trust and reassurance during these first weeks, excelled. Listening, flexing to meet the needs of the individual, understanding the unique demands on working parents, forging strong personal connections, and building a new routine were a few of the employee-first responses that trusted leaders embraced.

Lean-in leaders think of people as valuable assets on the balance sheet rather than a cost on the P&L. They seek not to cut, furlough, or minimize cost; instead, they lead by protecting, engaging, and embracing their most valued asset – their people. The corresponding response is trust, engagement, commitment, and loyalty. Besides, the strongest leaders realize that they, too, are an essential part of the workforce and practice self-care through sleep, diet, exercise, faith, and love. Leaders must put on their oxygen mask first, and be fit and ready to lead for the long-haul.

Purpose

After caring for their people, a leader needs to care for the company by creating a powerful alignment in a tumultuous market. Purpose is the most powerful force within any business and provides a north star in times of uncertainty. Purpose guides all decision-making and aligns and connects all employees in a time when connection is challenged. One CEO described purpose as “the invisible force that guides our business 24/7”. Purpose-driven leaders embrace this power to summons the better spirits in their company, creating a collective ethos that overrides challenges and keeps the company steady in heavy winds. They lean heavily on the mission, vision, and values of their company to create an esprit de corps and an owners’ mindset.

Pivot

With people cared for and the purpose flag hoisted, the organization is now effectively more resilient and agile to weather a crisis. It’s now ready to pivot. 

The root word in Greek for crisis is decision point; strong leaders embrace decision points to pivot their organization to the new context. Visionary leaders ask: “what is the unmet need” and move their organization to leverage their unique capabilities to meet that need. 

In this pandemic, numerous companies have done just that, viewing necessity as the mother of invention. Murphy’s Naturals, a maker of bug repellent, realized it faced a crisis with 80% of its retail business closed going into peak season. The CEO, Philip Freeman, understood that his team was uniquely qualified to make natural personal care products and easily converted his mosquito repellent manufacturing to the production of hand sanitizer. The company delivered the first 5,000 cases to the Navy and had more demand than it could supply. The company is thriving.  

Leesa Sleep, a mattress company where I am CEO, and in which One Better Ventures owns a significant stake, similarly suffered the loss of retail sales. However, their President identified that there was a need for over 250,000 emergency hospital beds. Within ten days, the team had designed a turnkey hospital bed kit and delivered over 4,000 beds to hospitals in need. In every great challenge, there is an equally great opportunity. Wise leaders guided by purpose, lean into the challenge with courage, and view it as a chance to learn, innovate, and recreate. In the process, they develop new competencies and grow as a learning organization.  

Profit

Once a leader has navigated through the response to the crisis, focusing on people, purpose, and pivot, they can begin plotting a course to a longer-term vision. They must continue to embrace the duality of conserving cash while investing for the future. This gentle balance between investment and securing the bottom line while building a stronger future is the final hallmark of a crisis leader. Too many leaders focus too early and with too much energy on protecting profitability.

When profits are put first, as a Harvard Business School study shows, organizations are more likely to perish. One must first secure the team, reassert the purpose, and pivot the organization before focusing on sustainable profitability. The great leaders through this crisis care for their team, communicate openly and transparently, call on higher spirit and purpose, shift the framing to meet unmet needs, and reinforce that this is a journey and not just an event. In short, they master the new OODA loop focused on the 4Ps.

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This is the third in a series of articles about developing strategy in a post-coronavirus world. The four scenarios for a post-coronavirus and an open-source strategy toolkit can be downloaded here.

What do courageous leaders do in times of jaw-dropping uncertainty? They set a vision, make strategic decisions, align teams, and communicate. Our responsibilities didn’t change when the global pandemic hit — when we began to realize just how unpredictable the world is.

Decision Making with Conviction
Despite all the tantalizing forces pushing toward states of paralysis and denial, an increasing number of leaders are settling into this time by embracing a new reality. They recognize that the present and the short, medium, and long-term futures are highly uncertain. They are making decisions with conviction – and finding the areas where bold action is warranted.

Now that employees are working from home, cash runways are managed as much as possible, and businesses are tuned to this fits-and-starts moment, where are the most advanced leaders focused? On no-regrets moves – actions that make sense in any future – as well as on bigger bets that are tied to clear signals from the world they don’t control.

Here is a set of no-regrets moves we see companies take across industries. While you are likely to have some that are highly specific to your situation, these eight moves tend to be applicable across the board. Of course, all of these moves have a cost associated with them. The question for leaders is, will they provide a disproportionate advantage for your business?

1. Go direct to customers

With the retail shutdown, businesses gained permission to connect with their customers more directly. PepsiCo’s new site, Snacks.com, is an example of a large company circumnavigating traditional supermarket channels to sell their product directly to consumers. Over the long-term, this reduces costs and allows Pepsi significantly more customer data and intimacy, a goal that was in place long before coronavirus. How might you get closer to your customers during this time?

2. Focus marketing on stability, care, and resilience

The tenor of marketing has changed, and it’s essential to stay attuned. Companies that remain tone-deaf by continuing to deliver messaging that is too self-serving will drive customers away. A movie studio promoting darker themes re-calibrated its marketing at the outset of the pandemic to bring hope and inspiration to American movie audiences. A B2B software company that focused its messaging on growth and technology innovation during the bull market has re-tooled its selling points around stability, resiliency, and cost savings. Is your positioning well aligned with the needs and sentiment of today’s marketplace and robust enough to evolve as times change?

3. Invest in landing new customers

While some businesses are targeting incremental revenue from existing customers as they reduce customer acquisition spend, several enterprise software companies are taking the opposite stance. By offering solutions to problems consumers are facing – in the form of extended payment terms, price reductions, and other arrangements – these companies are taking business from less-resourced competitors. They will ultimately emerge from this crisis in a stronger market position. This strategy’s second punch will be an M&A spree of those companies who retrenched. How can you best ensure that you are seeding the future growth of your business and positioning your organization to end up on the right side of the buying spree that will emerge?

4. Accelerate business model transformation

Where there’s an impending need, organizations that have been contemplating a business model shift are using this moment to accelerate the change, and frequently leveraging technology and the cloud to help them. One example is Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). As pressure has mounted on private universities over the past decade due to increased tuition costs, inequitable access, and a wholesale questioning of the value of four-year degrees, SNHU announced it would no longer accept students to its traditional campus programs. They are offering 100% tuition scholarship for online degrees, thus making themselves more affordable than many public four year colleges. This bold move accelerates a migration plan they had in place by several years. In a poignant note, SNHU President Paul LeBlanc called this a “burn the boats” moment. We see similar shifts in the technology sector, where these companies are taking this moment to accelerate their shift to the cloud, moving from selling products to services, and benefiting from the recurring revenue models to go with that shift. Are there opportunities to advance your technological journey to support future growth while meeting the cost containment demands of today?

5. Follow the money

For the most part, sales teams are targeting industries expected to emerge from the crisis as winners, such as technology, pharma, and government and moving away from (or betting on the most prominent consolidators/premium players in) travel, education, and real estate. They’re focusing more on big, stable, and resourced companies and less on small and medium-sized businesses. And, they’re shifting geographically too, to diversify their risks as the pandemic continues its varied path of impact around the globe. Are you able to effectively capture the growing white space in the SMB segment or positioned to win with the largest companies who matter most?

6. Build supply chains that are resilient to disruption

Efficiency often comes at the cost of resiliency. In a volatile environment, with a significant risk of delays, tariffs, and potential trade wars, businesses are building more redundancy and flexibility into their supply chains. A food importer who sells branded products in supermarkets is shoring up supplies from multiple countries, ramping production, and building inventory to keep their products moving. Sales are up 300%. Other large organizations are turning to automation to address the risks of having humans onsite and the potential supply chain shutdowns that can incur if teams get sick or are locked down again. How effectively can your company deliver if the pandemic sustains well into 2021?

7. Decentralize spans of control

As Mayors have usurped political capital, there’s a similar shift toward localization in corporate decision making. One global retailer is empowering its store managers to work directly with local governments, shopping malls, and nearby communities to meet needs and develop creative solutions for re-engaging in commerce. This move will undoubtedly lead to new products, services, and opportunities for this progressive retailer. How will you leverage decentralization to improve your agility and optimize your business to local conditions given the pandemic?

8. Optimize your virtualized business

Just as companies are getting accustomed to collaborating remotely, sales teams are figuring out new virtual sales motions, educators are creating long-term learning modalities, and restaurateurs are developing new safe-haven concepts. A global commercial real estate company is launching a new hybrid e-commerce/virtual shopping experience that was in the works long before coronavirus. The winners in the virtual world are rethinking “how” they do what they do. Moving traditional business approaches into video calls is a short term bandaid. How are you rethinking the virtual world to your advantage versus being held back by its constraints?

Companies that emerge more strongly will have thoughtfully approached scenario planning. Indeed, in these most uncertain days, the only thing that can be counted on is that nothing is guaranteed. But employing a scenario planning strategy will help companies prepare for any number of possible futures.

An Enterprise Software Company’s Approach
Puppet, an industry-leading software automation company, used scenario planning to develop a robust coronavirus response strategy, including a set of customized no-regrets moves. As soon as the pandemic hit, Puppet’s CEO Yvonne Wassenaar challenged her executive team:

“We need to understand what this means for our customers – what will technology leaders such as VPs of Infrastructure and Automation, CTOs, engineering leaders, and CIOs need to enable their companies to survive these uncertain times and be positioned as leaders in their industries regardless of what emerges from this crisis?”

After defining four potential future scenarios and what they would mean for Puppet’s customers and their operations, the leadership team designed a bold strategy. According to Wassenaar, they immediately refined their product roadmap to support their large enterprise customers’ most advanced security and remote network needs.

They shifted their marketing investments and tailored their messages to best resonate with relevant current day customer challenges. Puppet shifted its go-to-market model and prepared its workforce for a long-term virtual reality, including accelerating the build-out of remote services and investing in employee home offices. In recognition that some of their strategic choices are dependent on which future they’ll face, Wassenaar created a set of external triggers that will evoke strategies as they evolve. For example, if the economy grows by a certain percent, they anticipate an uptick in business digitalization and the mass adoption of DevOps, which will trigger an increased investment in their cloud-native efforts.

Wassenaar and her team found so much value in the scenario planning process they now provide a technology-centric version of the open-source toolkit for their customers. They’re helping Puppet customers identify no-regret moves that enable action today and set the foundation for future success as any number of potential futures emerge.

Bold Action
Many of these no-regrets moves and strategies were imagined well before the pandemic and are universally good ones to consider. Their boldness comes from a conviction to act – to respond proactively to the market, business models, and related pressures that may have already been there. As humanity, we may lack clarity for what is on the horizon, but as business leaders, we can – and must – make plans with confidence that we have considered a broad range of possible futures. Perhaps leaders are merely following the sage advice of Winston Churchill, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

Capitalism has gotten a bad rap, bearing the blame for corporate greed and income inequality. However, no other market system has the ability to create opportunities and benefit society. The real culprit is how capitalism has been corrupted, associated with crushing competitors and world dominance. Learn how business leaders can move away from competitive advantage and instead pursue their calling as capitalists — and realize their organizational and human potential. 

Capitalism or a market-based system is the most significant man-made tool in history. Go back through history and look at how little human life advanced prior to the introduction of a market-based system around 200 years ago.

Since the market system took hold, we have seen:

• A reduction in the percentage of the world’s population living in extreme poverty from 85% to 36%
• Average income per capita globally increase by nearly 1,000%
• Infant mortality rate worldwide (deaths by the first year per 1,000 births) drop from 216.8 in 1850 to 28.9 in 2018
• Average life expectancy worldwide double from 35 to about 80 years

While capitalism has been criticized by some recently, you cannot argue with its impact on the society and the world. There is no other system that creates opportunities, individual freedom, and a corresponding, widespread positive impact. Of course, there are unintended consequences related to capitalism, but the negative impacts come from an abuse of the system. As many have observed, it is not capitalism that is bad, it is capitalists that are bad (some of them). There are people who misuse capitalism, but that happens in any system. Power tends to corrupt people. Fortunately, markets can sniff out corruption and many times hold corrupt companies accountable. There are obviously examples, many well publicized, of corruption in business. However, the stories of millions of businesses and leaders that are doing tremendous work in helping their employees, customers, and communities grow and excel are not typically shared.

To be fair, pure socialism and communism can be considered altruistic systems since every citizen is theoretically tasked with helping everyone else equally. However, in these systems, the government becomes the “gatekeeper” or “clearing house” responsible for making major decisions that impact the masses. The problem with the execution of socialism and communism is that the decision-making is concentrated in the hands of the few, lacking market-based forces to provide accountability and guardrails. Essentially, when decision-making and power become concentrated, there is a greater risk of corruption compared to spreading out the power through market-based forces. Once again, as long as people (including me) are flawed, we need to have something that keeps us from abusing the power. That, of course, is a market-based system–until something better is created. 

Unfortunately, the desire to win at all costs and an obsession with beating the competition has tarnished the reputation of capitalism. At the core of capitalism is the desire to help others and create a better world. Basically, the capitalistic system uses a free market to engage people in developing solutions to problems that consumers and the world are facing, benefiting society and communities. The motivation or purpose of capitalism is not to maximize profit (although profit is necessary to create a long-term sustainable impact) or beat competitors, but to improve society.

Why do some business leaders pursue competitive advantage and world dominance at all costs? Here are reasons why some businesses focus on crushing their competition and everything in their path:

• Business strategy evolved from military strategy, which historically has focused on annihilating competition.  In war, that is good; in business, it is not good.
• Universities and business schools adopted a focus on competitive advantage and have been teaching this since the 80s with little advancement and innovation.
• Global consulting companies have built significant practices conducting competitive analysis, delivering qualitative and quantitative reports on competition to their clients.
• Focusing on competition is easy, since there is always a villain in every story. Business leaders incorporate this thinking by aligning employee focus on beating competitors and making them out to be the villain in the story of business.

As capitalists and human beings, we can do much better. Capitalism exists for the purpose of building a better society, and business is a microcosm of the market system. Your business plays a significant role in providing for your employees, customers, and communities.

At the core of human beings is a desire to connect, belong, contribute, and make a difference. Companies become the avenue for individuals and groups to fulfill all these core desires. Today, workplace organizations are the platform for people to learn, grow, and pursue their human potential. 

As work and life become blended (this was accelerated with the COVID-19 outbreak), it is critical that businesses take responsibility for their role in creating better communities and shift their obsession away from annihilating the competition. While focusing on competition creates alignment, it does not fulfill the human need to make a difference and leaves us falling short of our potential in life. Focusing on competition leads to incremental growth as companies become preoccupied with winning a game between a few players and lose sight of the many opportunities that are presented. Leaders should look at competitors for inspiration rather than seek to annihilate them.

Here are some steps to help your organization move away from focusing on competitive advantage to fulfilling your potential:

1. Define what really excites you and your team about the impact your company and product are having on the world. What is your organizational potential?
2. Translate that into a tangible cause that creates your cultural foundation.
3. Develop a strategic platform that connects to your culture and provides tangible business-related outcomes that tie to your cause.
4. Integrate a comprehensive model for execution that enables your employees to pursue their potential through the work they do.

By following these steps, your organization will effectively blend culture, strategy, and execution (as demonstrated in The Blendification® System), thereby putting you and your team on the path to realizing their potential. By doing this, focus will shift away from annihilating competition to pursuing a common cause. Employees will be engaged in growth and development and have a passion to help their fellow employees and customers succeed, resulting in a positive impact on their communities. This is the business model that enables your company to play its part in fulfilling the purpose of capitalism.

An adventure can be something you actively prepare for and intentionally seek out, but it can also be an experience that hits you broadside with no prior warning and leaves you scrambling for what to do next. The current COVID-19 crisis falls squarely into the latter category, and navigating through it is an adventure in every sense of the word. 

The word adventure is defined as “an unusual undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks,” and what we’re all facing at the moment fits that definition exactly. How do you deal with moments like this? How do you navigate through the inevitable fear associated with the unknown? Here are our top three tips for surviving a crisis, as seen through the eyes of professional adventurers.

1. Expect the unexpected. The great Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen once said, “Adventure is just bad planning.” This sentiment expresses what all successful adventurers know: you need to be prepared for whatever may arise, no matter how unlikely. In our book Wild Success, we profiled the irrepressible open ocean sailor, Lisa Blair, preparing to set off on her perilous solo journey around the Southern Ocean. Before setting sail, Lisa built her emotional skills by mentally preparing for her journey by visualizing a myriad of scenarios that could go wrong and preparing for them with “if-then” plans before setting sail. This allowed her to practice and better understand how she would emotionally respond when something bad did happen. 

Often the fear of the unknown is more difficult than actually dealing with a problem you’ve already prepared for mentally. By practicing her skills and building her toolkit over time, Lisa was able to develop her capacity for resilience and be at her best when things were at their worst.

In our current climate of uncertainty, what do you do to better prepare? We suggest doing exactly as Lisa did. Try to anticipate what might play out in weeks and months ahead and make contingency plans for it. Rather than deny the unimaginable prospect, expect it, make plans to deal with it, and then put it away, hoping never to use it. The unthinkable will likely never happen, but if it does, you’re ready to meet it head-on.

2. Find a role model. Who is a role model you can look to in moments like this? How would the great adventurers such as Ernest Shackleton or Sir Ranulph Fiennes act during this crisis? I suspect with focus, determination, and grace. Having a robust role model during difficult times can help you navigate the uncertainty. Being able to imagine how your role model would handle a crisis will help you manage it better. 

A close friend of ours, Chris, is a firefighter. He told us a story about one of his first responses to an accident situation and the importance of finding a role model in moments of uncertainty. “It was a Saturday evening when we got the call,” he said. “It was a head-on collision on the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler BC, and we feared the worst. When we arrived, we could see the wrecked cars on the road ahead of us. I was pumped full of adrenaline. It was my first situation like this. I was terrified. My partner, John, was a captain at the fire hall. The moment we stopped our truck, I grabbed my stuff and started running to the scene. After about 30 yards, I realized John wasn’t with me, and I stopped. I looked around and saw him still carefully packing his gear, after which he began to stride calmly towards me. Later he explained how important it was to prepare for moments like that mentally. ‘You need to be as calm and clear in your actions as you can be,’ he said. ‘No rash actions. No panic. The victims expect it of you.’ He’s been my role model ever since.”

Who is your role model? 

3. Stay positive. We recently had the opportunity to speak with the Chief Legal Officer of an important client of ours, a large American multinational enterprise information technology company based in California, who shared with us how important positivity is for him. He explained that his company was facing an existential restructuring to transform it into what it has become today, but they couldn’t see how effectively to do it. The CEO convened an all-hands-on-deck C-suite crisis meeting to navigate a path forward, and it wasn’t pretty.

“The meeting was brutal,” he said, “By the end of it, we were all overwhelmed by the predicament, and we were desperate.” 

“As we were leaving the meeting, our CEO stopped us and gave us a real pep talk. It stuck with me ever since. ‘I want to see smiles on those faces!!’ she said. ‘You can’t go out to your teams looking dejected. You may feel bad, but you can’t show it. Put a smile on your face even if you don’t feel it. It’s your obligation as a leader.’ So, we did it. We moved forward, we stayed positive, and we got the job done. You have to stay positive, no matter what!”

Adventurers understand this well. Positivity is critical to our success. As I skied to the South Pole in 2008 (Kevin), my two teammates and I made a pact to say nothing negative in the tent each night. Negativity had no place on our mission. We knew full well that most extreme expeditions like the one we were on devolved into team members hating one another by the end. We weren’t going to allow this to happen. We’re still friends to this day, and we succeeded in our mission. We broke the world-record in doing so.

Adventurers know what it takes to perform at the highest level in an ever-changing environment of uncertainty and stress. You, too, can survive a crisis like an adventurer by expecting the unexpected, seeking out a role model, and staying positive. 

Emotional IQ counts for twice as much as IQ and technical skills combined in determining who will be successful, according to a report from Harvard Business School.

This surprising finding indicates that emotional intelligence isn’t just a nice-to-have, but a required characteristic to forming successful relationships. It’s arguably one of the essential leadership skills of the 21st century, and the good news is that it can be learned.

 So, what is emotional intelligence? In short, it’s the ability to be aware of, understand, manage, and express your emotions, and handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. A renowned expert on the topic is the author and psychologist Daniel Goleman, who with his partner, Richard Boyatzis, came out with the now-mainstream concept of the Emotional Competency Framework. This idea is comprised of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skills. 

Conscious leaders need to stay relevant to the times. As work tasks are increasingly moved to robots, AI, and automation, it’s more critical than ever for leaders to be in touch with emotions and feelings. Life takes on a different and higher meaning when you experience the thrill of accessing your humanity. Here’s why a conscious leader in the 21st century places so much value on emotional intelligence and how you can embody it, too.

1. CONSCIOUS LEADERS ADAPT TO EVOLUTION AND EXPAND THEIR MINDSET

Evolution is pushing forward with or without us. As a result, the world is furiously changing and calling for bold social reform and environmental solutions to address growing challenges. Politicians and leaders of industry have to expand their mindsets and take the words of Albert Einstein seriously when he said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” 

 Many organizational change initiatives fail; in fact, only around 30 percent are said to succeed. The reason? Change experts suggest new structures and new systems, but leaders and people within these systems don’t change. You can’t change the world, change an organization or system, unless the people operating these systems change first. 

2. CONSCIOUS LEADERs USE ALL THREE HUMAN INTELLIGENCE CENTERS 

As a child, our cognitive intelligence is promoted above everything else. We enter an educational system that values logical thinking, knowledge, and linguistics, and prepares us through technical skills to function in a society that values the same. The creative arts are down-played and are usually the first to be cut when budgets are tight. It’s no wonder that leaders who come from traditional schooling systems, traditional MBA programs, and Ivy League institutions are programmed to use only one of the three intelligence centers (head, heart, and body). We are trained in making decisions and communicating from our rational, objective head-center while bypassing the tender wisdom of the heart and the experienced intuition of our gut.

3. CONSCIOUS LEADERS REPLACE COMPETITION WITH RELATIONSHIPS

As we gradually leave behind the systems, traditions, and machine mentality of the Industrial Age and open our hearts and minds to the emerging human-centric organization, the focus shifts to building relationships. Authentic connections are formed through clear and effective communication, integrity, trust, inclusion, and diversity. It’s what the workplace and the world are desperate for right now. Simple acts of kindness, respect, and empathy can determine the level of your employees’ engagement and loyalty.

4. CONSCIOUS LEADERS TRUST RESEARCH AROUND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Over the past few decades, mounting evidence has suggested that the potential for a leaders greatness is directly linked to high emotional intelligence. The University of Maryland found that 71 percent of hiring managers found EQ to be more important than IQ. Some of the attributes of high EQ leaders include being able to build solid relationships and inspire others, an ability to handle high stress levels, and those of others, someone better-equipped to manage and resolve conflicts, and a person more likely to lead by example.

 In the start-up world, this trend is becoming increasingly evident. Investors aren’t just looking for the next big idea; they’re also greatly concerned about the team. If they think the founder and the team won’t have the leadership potential to weather the rough-and-tumble of entrepreneurship, they might pass on investing. They are seeking mature leaders with people skills. 

5. CONSCIOUS LEADERS CREATE AND INNOVATE 

Artists aren’t the only creatives. Leaders must also allow creativity to flow freely to create the change needed to bring the world to wholeness. These are leaders who understand the power of the journey — through experimentation, questioning, listening, exploring, reflection, transformation, collaboration, and co-creation. Implementing these changes requires a “beginner’s mind” and a willingness to keep the channels of innovation open at all times. As a colleague of mine likes to say, “Innovation is not something we do; it’s something we are.”

6. CONSCIOUS LEADERs HEAL AND UNITE — NOT DIVIDE

Violent acts are no longer happening in far-off places. They’re happening in schools, churches, and workplaces all around us. 

Leaders of companies have an additional role to play: that of the healer. As they deal with the horrific aftermaths of shootings, opioid epidemics, health pandemics, political turmoil, and terror threats, they will need a plan in place to support employees, families, and the broader community. In times such as these, people look to leaders for strength, heart-centered action, and words of solace. This requires an empathetic and compassionate leader who is conscious of broader issues beyond the business they lead.