The Silver Linings of the Covid Cloud

By Michael J Griffin

5 Minute Read

The clouds of Covid began to darken last March and many of us underestimated the duration of Covid and the impact it was going to have on our lives. Rather than focus on the consequences of Covid, I want you to review with me the positive changes Covid brought into my life for the better. Read and be blessed.

My Team Gets More of My Time. I realized early on, my team wanted clear direction and confident leadership to shepherd them through Covid. I made it a regular goal to lead a virtual daily Kick Off Meeting with my core Asian team that reviewed previous day successes and obstacles/failures, a short learning time, and review of their to do list for the current day. This led to greater team spirit and collaboration, more efficient problem solving, and individual accountability to the team while working from home. Actually, I enjoy this daily meeting and only miss it if I have a client call or am in the training room.

Up My Empathy. I am naturally a results driven and impatient guy. This approach doesn’t work very well in times of employee personal stress and their ability to adjust to changes through Covid. With empathy came a real desire to listen more carefully to employee concerns, problems, and attitudes to support their day to day job and life while working from home. Stress related illness increased, staff family members caught or died from Covid, client relationships needed more care, and my team needed to truly see I cared for them. Empathy and sometimes sympathy by listening and responding was the best way to maintain trusting relationships.

Up my VQ. Let’s face it, virtual communication is normally more demanding and stressful than face to face. I had to “Up my Virtual Quotient” or VQ. I really did not like moving to virtual meetings, virtual B2B selling, and virtual training. It required me to change but it got me out of my comfort zone. Besides learning new technologies, I learned the skills and processes to build relationships across MS Teams and Zoom! This led me to design a very helpful and extremely successful virtual communication workshop for people to boost their VQ or ability to communicate and connect virtually.

Improve My Health. With lockdowns, I was doing less socializing, sales calls and training. This meant I was in bed and asleep by 8:30-9:00 pm most nights. With a solid 8 hours of sleep, I am able to rise and shine at 4:30-5:00 am and exercise. For me this is road biking where I am able to burn off my stress, think and reflect, and get an early morning “win” to start my day. In 2020 I cycled 9,300 km with a BP of 110/68 at the age of +60! Being healthy and fit reduces my stress and gives me a more positive outlook for life.

Increase my Mindfulness and Meditation. Working from home saves me time as there was no need to run from the apartment every morning to start my day. My daily practice of purposeful mediation and mindfulness by reading daily devotionals and select blogs allowed me to start each day as a confident, grateful person who can lead others and give them hope through their personal Covid crises. This daily ritual also helped to avoid and sift through all the negative daily news and focus on what is going well or what changes do I need to make to improve my relationships of those in my sphere of influence.

Less is More. For over 20 years, I set myself about 45 goals across the different aspects of my life and usually achieved about 65% of them. I did this goal setting in January 2020, but found by May, I had to do a reset as many of my  goals will unrealistic because of Covid. This reduction in goals and a more laser focus on “less goals” gave me a year end success rate of 85%. The lesson learned is to weed out those peripheral goals. And focus on those that are most important to lead a life of “significance” rather than a life of simple success.

The Joy of a Grandfather. By March 16th, I made the flight from Jakarta to Singapore to beat the quarantine. Both my daughters are living in Singapore with my granddaughter Lara Mei Griffin. April I made a decision to live again in Singapore and what a good decision. This move allowed me to love and care for Lara who is now 2 ½ years old. You may know Lara is being raised by Jade as a single mom – tough in Singapore. I have been able to support Jade by taking care of Lara about two days a week. It dawned on me being Lara’s grandfather fulfills my life calling of raising leaders that make a difference in this world. It dawned on me that I may have 20 -25 years to love Lara before I die. It dawned on me that Lara may only be truly successful or make a difference in this world long after I am dead and gone. I have learned to slow down, be patient, and walk with her allowing her to explore and learn about the goodness of life. May I truly leave a legacy in Lara.

Learned Gratitude. Covid lessons for many of us have been stressful and even painful. I keep a “daily blessings” list. This daily reflection of the good stuff and good people in my life keeps up my faith, hope and resilience to get through Covid a better person. It keeps me ( maybe not some days!) from having my “pity party.” It has focused me to appreciate those people around me that make my life a blessing and put healthy boundaries around those that don’t.

May you be inspired by my journey through the Clouds of Covid and truly find the silver linings that give you joy, hope and resilience to come out of 2021 a better more influential person to make the world a better place.

Michael J Griffin

ELAvate Founder

John Maxwell Team Founder