Somehow, the world as we knew it, at least here in the US, seemed to fall off a cliff this past week.
It’s hard to imagine it was only two months ago that we began to hear news reports about a novel type of coronavirus, now called COVID-19, emanating from Wuhan, China. Just six weeks ago, about all that most of us knew was that it was something akin to SARS, MERS, or the Hong Kong flu … or worse, like pneumonia.
We were shocked to start seeing scenes streaming over the internet and cable tv of panoramic videos captured by drones flying above the city of Wuhan, vividly showing the eeriness of empty streets and bridges, completely void of cars and people.
The exception to the emptiness was footage capturing shots of individuals being dragged from their homes by all fours and thrown into vans, to be carted off to who knows where, by officials wearing biosecurity hazmat suits. Such videos, coupled with the increasing number of reports warning us this novel coronavirus had the potential to spread very far very fast, sparked a global anxiety.
For most of us here in America, business went on as usual for a while. Those of us who observed the science fiction-like videos of the streets of Wuhan, from the relative safety and security of our office desks or living room sofas, were in stunned disbelief. We assured ourselves, “That could never happen here.”
Some felt more reassured when the US government issued a travel ban to prevent anyone from coming into the US from China or Iran. Some cried out in protest that such a travel bans were irrational overreactions, or worse yet, racist overkill.
Fast forward just a few weeks. Travel bans have now been instituted in country after country. Travel to the US, as of now, has also been banned from Europe (the 26 Schengen Area nations, Great Britain and Ireland), South Korea, Japan, and more. Italy has been devastated with the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the world, per capita.
Americans are now warned to hunker down. Thousands of schools across the country have shut down for the remainder of the month, if not the remainder of the school year. Professional sporting events, Broadway shows, amusement parks, concerts, tradeshows, business gatherings, and even some city parks, across the nation, have been closed down or cancelled. The list goes on.
As we now mentally prepare for the possibility of domestic travel restrictions, Dr. Mark and I are hearing from some of you, our Heartfelt Leadership followers, requests for words of wisdom to help us all better cope with this unexpected situation.
We are all in this together and we agree with you: sage advice from heartfelt leaders is needed now, more than ever.
Over the coming days and weeks, we will post blogs, here on the Heartfelt Leadership website, with insights from Heartfelt Leaders, some being the very same ones featured in both our recently published book, The WOW Factor Workplace: How to Create a Best Place to Work Culture and our upcoming book (coming out in April, in spite of the coronavirus) Heartfelt Leadership: How to Capture the Top Spot and Keep on Soaring.
Rest assured, we are here for you. We hope these messages will enable you to continue to lead with calm assuredness as we forge a new path together in this season of uncertainty. We hope that by sharing these insights, you will be inspired to “keep calm and carry on”, and to the best of your ability, help others do the same. God Speed.