The pandemic has been challenging and disruptive, but I have also viewed this time as an opportunity for new learning. Every time I realize I don’t have the skills required, I say to myself “time to learn a new COVID skill!” What new COVID skills did you develop over the last seven months?
When lockdown first began, I had never used Zoom. In the beginning, I remember struggling to even schedule a call. Six months later, I have presented 24 Well-Being trainings over Zoom. I still remember feeling a lot of anxiety the first time I had to conduct a virtual training. I even had my 18-year-old son Jake stand next to me in case something went wrong. He tutored me through two test runs before the day of the actual training. Since then he’s been on a 2-hour a week retainer as my in-house (no pun intended) tech expert to make sure I am getting the most out of the technology. Now I am able to incorporate cool features like breakout sessions and polling into our training sessions.
I spoke to a CMO last week who told me how her Partners are asking her to take on new projects for clients that are actually billable. She said she was initially uncomfortable because she had never done that kind of work before, but was now feeling really good about it. I said, “A new COVID skill!” We both laughed.
In early September, what normally symbolizes the beginning of school, I decided I needed to learn Google Docs. Please don’t laugh, but I didn’t even have a Gmail account. You see, when I started working in law firms in 1989, we didn’t have desktop computers. My first computer had an MS-DOS operating system with a floppy drive and dot matrix printer. I think you can find one in a museum now. So, I mustered up some courage and went out a bought a Chrome book. We’re working on a major new initiative (which I am excited to share with you next month) and now create all the documents in Google Drive so we can easily collaborate with the consultants who are helping us from all over the country. Google Docs has now been added to my COVID skillset.
Although I have interviewed 12,000 candidates, prior to pandemic they were all either in person or over the phone. Now I use Zoom daily to interview candidates. Virtual interviewing is different and something I really want to become an expert in. If you have either conducted virtual interviews or been interviewed over the computer, can you please complete this short survey? I am excited to learn from your experiences and appreciate your helping to bolster this new COVID skill!
Here’s the insight: You can either see moments where you realize you are missing skills as opportunities to grow and learn, or you can become a dinosaur.