Be The Leader They Need Right Now – 2 Years Later

I found this written in an old notebook:

“Be the leader they need right now”

I wrote this down almost exactly 2 years ago when I was going through one of the hardest times of my career as part of a healthcare leadership team. COVID had just started and the future of everything was uncertain and health care was (and still is in many circumstances, but that’s for another post) downright scary.

At the time, nothing was a greater concern to me. Being the leader my teams needed, or worse, fear of not being able to be the leader they needed, was playing on a continuous loop in my head. Day and night. Seven days a week.

Reading it almost two years later, without context, it could be tossed aside as another bit of hollow leadership advice from people who’ve never actually been there. But for me, it punched me right in the gut (in a good way, if that’s a thing ). It’s a reminder of how hard we all worked to keep things afloat, and specifically of how much my leadership abilities matured during that time.

I was no longer the person who cheered them on when times were good (although, we did have a few very bright spots that were celebrated during that time). I was now the person who had to ask the hard questions, make the unpopular decisions, and always, no matter what, the one to deliver the tough news. And do all that while still being what they needed in a leader at the time. I remember thinking it was an impossible task. And by all accounts, it should have been. What was going on in health care during that time was wild. It still is.

I write all this to say that if you are a leader who has managed to make it this far with a team who still respects and trusts you, I see you. As hard and thankless as it is at times, trust that you’re doing it right.