As a CEO navigating a worldwide pandemic that hasn’t been seen since 1918, balancing empathy and execution has become a delicate, nearly impossible act. As the great equalizer abounds, old hard ways die fast when everyone’s performance and mental health are suffering. CEOs of sustainable brands are currently stretched to the limit with crucial pivoting decisions to make, worn-out teams to support and keep motivated, all with 24-hour-a-day responsibilities. It can be incredibly overwhelming if you have lost touch with the power of, yes, I’m going to say. Brace yourself. LOVE.
We’re living through a time of intermittent crises. Knowing where to pause and where to push requires knowing more than the data but having an emotional intelligence compass and leading with love for your brand, team, partners, planet, and yes, love for yourself.
In these times, no one is spared from the mental health toll of a worldwide pandemic, with ever-changing and confusing policies, inconsistencies, and the distance we all feel that is still so strange and new. It’s especially challenging when you’re at the helm of a company and the livelihood of others. Your leadership energy, demeanor, and importance on policies and projects are weighted much heavier now.
So while your CEO instinct may be to push harder, remember to love harder too, so you do more than survive; you thrive and inspire those around you.
Giving love to your community
Every community needs a little more good right now. People everywhere are facing hardships that they could never have imagined before. Families are going hungry; entire households are dying from COVID-19 as surges ebb and flow, essential workers and healthcare workers are being stretched to capacity. Teachers are retiring early because they can no longer handle the extreme, sometimes unrealistic, and thankless demands of their jobs. When you step back, these are all of the people in your community or related to your community somehow. As a sustainable brand CEO, seeing where your brand fits into delivering relief, silver lining, empathy, or even just a laugh, will help to uplift your community. Giving love and attention in this way matters more than you can realize for keeping mentally strong and is also healing for you and your team.
Giving love to your team
As Gary Vanderchuck often says, your team doesn’t work for you; you work for your team. And what your team needs during a fluctuating time of crisis might be a number of things, including support, humor, structure, space, and interaction. Spending some time in Mental Health Research, I’ve come to learn something acutely aware CEOs are now starting to realize they need, and that is how to be trauma-informed. With so many cross-sections of trauma, many people are experiencing right now, having the coping and comforting skills necessary means taking the time to learn and deliver them.
Even before COVID-19, roughly 70% of adults (223.4 million people) in the U.S. were estimated to have experienced at least some type of traumatic event in their lives. Making trauma-informed leadership a vital skill to take with us as we move into a universal trauma healing phase. As a starting point, if this concept is new to you, you can expand your knowledge on Trauma-informed leadership with this free, timely webinar training.
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Giving that love to your team throughout uncertainty means building a healthy support system for them. Be flexible, be reassuring, convey job security to workers and contractors alike, and communicate with empathy, above all.
Giving love to the planet
Being purpose-driven in a crisis might seem ridiculous, but in fact, it’s the mission you can most stay aligned with. COVID-19 is one symptom of an environmental problem. The encroachment on natural spaces and increased interaction with rare species, including their diseases, makes a recipe for disaster. Humans must make wiser choices, and while no product is truly green, we can all agree we must do better than fossil fuels, plastic, water pollution, and deforestation that all fuel this encroachment on natural spaces.
Sustainable brand CEOs can take this time to make an even deeper commitment to cleaning up the planet. Whether that’s diving deeper into securing a more sustainable supply chain, chipping off greenwashed areas of the brand or product, or simply committing to making a bigger impact within their space, now is the time to give even more love to our planet. Those businesses that cut deeper on sustainability commitments will not only be more resilient but be able to wear the badge of honor for their grit and taking their green claims to the next level.
Giving love to your partnerships
Partnerships are saving many businesses throughout this pandemic. CEOs are realizing they can do so much more with the right partnerships. For sustainable brands, leveraging partnerships can mean reaching out to and teaching new audiences. We’re in the age of collaborations, and we’re also in the age of education. CEOs who focus on building strong partnerships that give people love through giveaways, grants, education, and support are wishing they would have done it sooner. Collaborations that inch us closer to a cleaner planet are what the world needs right now.
Giving yourself love
According to Harvard Business Review, self-compassion makes for a better leader. And let’s be honest, you can’t give anyone or anything love until you’re giving it to yourself first. More than my gut instinct, research backs up that self-compassion leads the way to these benefits:
- Emotional intelligence
- Resilience
- A Growth Mindset
- Integrity
- Accountability
- Compassion toward others
HBR recommends that leaders spend 5-10 minutes a day meditating on self-compassion. It also helps to be open and vulnerable about your mental health through these difficult times. It not only humanizes you, but it also helps you relate to your team and is the embodiment of strength, bravery, and authenticity.
A Mantra for Sustainable Brand CEOs
The sea of crises since COVID-19 began has proven a challenge to everyone on some level or another. For CEOs of sustainable brands, it’s how to navigate the push and the pause. It’s making sure that you sharpen your purpose and double down on your mission. Your sustainable purpose elevates your brand and humanity. When you lead with love, you’re able to harness those powers for growth and for good.
My Mantra to you,
“Conflict builds character. Crisis defines it.” – Steven V. Thulon
Denise Anderson-Rivas has combined her interdisciplinary study of environmental science with her marketing experience to create the first woman-owned boutique Environmental Content Marketing firm, A.R. Environmental Content Marketing House. Denise helps businesses and organizations successfully merge the mutual needs of Content Marketing and Environmental Education. Powered by her multi-layer background in science, business, marketing, environmental justice, and natural resource conservation, she is committed to raising the level of Environmental Literacy for all, improving quality of life and decision-making on sustainability topics.