That’s how the light gets in
(photo credit: Lily W, one of our newest, youngest WFH egglets)
I’m not tending to legions of sick people in an Emergency Room today, nor am I keeping the country fed by stocking the shelves of our local grocery stores or any and all of the incredibly important jobs that are keeping our country together and functioning right now.
These are the heroes of our days, not agency CEOs.
But I am an agency CEO. And like many of us mere mortals, I’m just trying to figure out what I can do in the parts of the universe that I have some semblance of control over.
I’ve been at the helm of Omelet for nearly nine months. It’s been a hard, but deeply rewarding role for me. I love the work and being in service to our clients. But what I really love — what drives me — is serving our people. That is my job. And during a time like this, one that seems to carry much different weight and meaning.
One of the first things I told myself when I took this job is to be comfortable with not knowing all the answers. But throw in a global pandemic, and you find yourself in a whole new world of incredibly imperfect answers without guaranteed outcomes, timelines, and headlines.
My imperfect self worries about over-doing or not doing enough every single day. Knowing that carrying on with things “business as usual” — when in fact the world is quite unusual — can be read as insensitive; but also knowing that carrying on is also key to survival.
But what I’ve realized over these past few weeks is that the people you’re leading don’t expect, or even need, perfection. They need your optimism. Your resilience. Your humanity. They need to see your face and each others’ faces regularly. They need to share stories and find points of connection.
The first few days were a bit surreal, but within hours of going to WFH, our folks self-organized a WFH Slack channel that was filled with convos and the banter I was used to hearing walking down the halls. It was comforting.
A few days later, we started a daily sketch challenge where we could take the focus off of the world around us and the work that was before us, and draw to our hearts’ content. It was healing. It was calming.
Dogs and babies starting popping up in video conference windows. We shared our WFH set-ups, the views from our windows, the weird items in their cupboards, the WFH tips keeping us sane.
And yes, we kept working. Diving into pitches and problem-solving. “Making things,” but rejiggering what that means in this new era. Approaching it all with a new level of gratitude and purpose, as we know it can change on a dime. But again, I’m choosing optimism: our teams are there for one another, supporting each other and our clients, pushing the work, leading with empathy.
We always go back to the Leonard Cohen quote, “there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” What we all need on a deeply human level right now is community and connection, and what our little Omelet has found over the past few weeks is just that. I’ve always felt we were special, but I know that to be true in a very real way these days.
Everyone’s got a role in this new time, and I’m learning mine, as well. To keep us headed towards the cracks of light, the slivers of optimism and joy - one day at a time, one foot in front of the other.
My best advice today: be kind. To yourself, to your peers, to your cohabitants. To the world. Stay apart, but connected.
And a little something we made last week, an ode to our favorite littlest egglets:
