LEADERS
Course corrections Executive coaches share insights gathered from a remarkable year BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT
he coronavirus pandemic has been hard on everyone. For some, it meant facing exposure to the disease daily working in hospitals, grocery stores or in the economy’s various supply chains. For business executives, it meant figuring out how to run a company when employees could not be in the same room and numerous processes needed to be overhauled. We spoke with three Nashville-based executive coaches — Angelo Valenti, Christie Berger and Kimberly Pace — about lessons learned from COVID-19.
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Maintain hope, draw lines Valenti’s clients are mostly national, meaning he was prepared for long-distance meetings others were forced to adopt overnight. He says he has watched business leaders move through the different stages of stress. At first, organizations were faced with emergencies that had to be solved immediately: How would people keep working when they couldn’t come into the office? “You finally just learn to adapt, and that’s where people are now,” he says. Executives need to be honest with their workforce, Valenti says, while also maintaining as much optimism as possible.
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SPRING 2021 | NASHVILLEPOST.COM
“The vaccine has started to give people hope,” he says. “People will persist a lot longer if there’s hope.” Moving forward, businesses are sure to adopt some of the new tendencies forced on us by COVID-19, according to Valenti. That will mean more remote work, even if it isn’t as universal as is currently required. That said, it’s important when working from home for both leaders and their employees to draw lines between their home life and work life, even though their work takes place at home. “People are really adaptable,” he says. “People adjust. It’s heartwarming to know people can do that, but it’s also frustrating that they’ve had to.”
‘People will persist a lot longer if there’s hope.’ ANGELO VALENTI
