What Covid Taught Me About Navigating Uncertainty

When I accepted my first VP of Engineering position I had a lot of expectations about what it would be like transitioning from leading a handful of managers and teams to leading an entire organization. I thought I would struggle with zooming out in scope a bit. I figured I’d discover some of the executive loneliness that I’ve always noticed in my own VP’s over the years. I was certain my job was about to get a whole lot more complex. I certainly hadn’t planned for becoming a VPE in the middle of a pandemic though.

My first day as VPE of Greenlight began March 16th. The Friday before I watched with growing anxiety the news of the virus’ spread, and emailed my people ops contacts: was I still coming to the office? Yes, at least for the first half of the day. I arrived at a nearly vacant office, got my computer, received an overview of the company, and that was the first and last time that I saw the building for the remainder of the year.

Suddenly I found myself back at home, scrambling to find a spot in my house to work amongst my husband, my extremely high-strung 3 year old daughter, 2 dogs who didn’t know why I was disturbing their naps with my zoom calls, and my mother. Every strategy and method I had meticulously prepared for transitioning to VP, for learning about the people and the culture, for gaining trust and respect, was out the window.

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I found myself struggling with virtual meetings and my ability to get context quickly, be effective quickly, but also connect with my engineering teams who until this point had never had experienced this level of management. I had always enjoyed organically getting to know people, and suddenly depending on solely virtual meetings felt very stilted. Add to that, the fact my employees were all trying to deal with their transitions to working remotely with differing levels of personal chaos complicating their own lives.

In that moment, uncertainty was everywhere. I was uncertain which methods would even work in this new environment. I was uncertain what our roadmaps would look like or how they would change because of this. I was uncertain how this pandemic would change the business landscape and most importantly all of our lives. Frankly we were all uncertain if we’d even have enough toilet paper to get through this.

I found myself one evening feeling sorry for myself. Wallowing in some gratuitous feelings of being helpless, afraid I’d made a mistake, frustrated and overwhelmed. I sat down on the couch to watch Frozen II for probably the 50th time with my toddler. Now hopefully I’m not spoiling the movie for you, but if you haven’t seen it and plan to, I guess go find an article on Medium about how to lead people through crisis using sports or military analogies. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

We good? Cool.

So Anna is in this dark cave, her sister is dead, and Olaf melts away (and if you don’t cry at that part of the movie we can’t be friends). She has been charged with righting someone else’s mistake, and now is responsible for the well-being of her Kingdom. She struggles in the dark, not knowing what to do, or how to go on. The song The Next Right Thing queues up:

But a tiny voice whispers in my mind

You are lost, hope is gone

But you must go on

And do the next right thing

Suddenly it dawns on me, I don’t have a script or a toolbox for how to handle this scenario. No one does. I could sit down and bemoan the fact my carefully planned strategy for how to lead this organization was no longer viable, or I could get up and just try to do the next right thing. My tenure at Mailchimp taught me a great method for managing uncertainty, whether you’re a start-up trying to stay afloat or just a new VP trying to steer her team to safer waters, “Listen Hard, Change Fast”. I listened to my team and my leadership, let go of what I had planned, and changed course with the new circumstances I had to work with. I had to stop straining to see further in the dark than was possible, and just focus on what the next right decision in that moment was.

Right in this case was not always the most profitable decision, the most productive decision, or even what I thought was the final right decision that would set us up for lasting success, but it was the next right step in what was going to have to be a series of right steps. Timing was going to be everything.

Right more often than not in those first few weeks was about what our teammates needed, it was what our customers needed, and it turned out that aligned with what the business truly needed too. Eventually each right thing, led to more right things, and we stepped slowly out of the darkness. The uncertainty started to lift, and we could see more clear and sustainable paths ahead of us.

There will come a time in your life as a leader where the lights suddenly go out. You’re in the dark, you can’t see three feet ahead of you, and your people will grasp for your hand looking for you to help them know where to go. Don’t panic, but it’s equally as important not to freeze. Don’t try to anticipate the future in those situations where the uncertainty can paralyze you, focus on the next right thing.

With this as your north star during times of crisis and darkness, you’ll never come out the other end too far off from where you wanted to be.