Ask yourself, are you surviving or thriving? During a crisis many people try to figure out how to hold on to what they have. They try to maintain the current status, and avoid all risk.  This seems to make sense when you fear you may be risking great loss.  And there are times when we do need to protect our teams and our organizations.

However, if we stay in that protection mode, we will miss out on some of the greatest opportunities available to us.  During crisis there is risk, but there are also windows of opportunity, if you look for them.  Successful leaders may assess risk quickly and work to overcome obstacles.  However, they also move quickly to ask “Where are the new opportunities?  How could we approach our clients with new options and new services that will assist them in navigating through this crisis?”

Thriving during a crisis requires that leaders are willing to be proactive and to look for opportunities that did not exist before.  They also must be willing to pivot and adapt existing products or services and deliver them in new ways.   Thriving in a crisis also means re-aligning your team to these new opportunities and assisting them in being proactive versus reactive.

A crisis can be good for our organizations if we are open to new ideas, new processes, and new opportunities.  Crisis can stretch us and challenge us to grow in ways we would not otherwise consider. 

The work you do now will position you to outpace your competition when the crisis is over.   Do not wait – act now to thrive!