Trail Ridge Coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) and COVID-19 Response

Leading through a pandemic is something that is likely new to all of us. We are all experiencing the stress of the situation both as individuals with our own challenges, and as leaders trying to support the people around us.

Here at Trail Ridge, we are putting in place some practices to support ourselves, each other, and our community. We offer these to you as valued members of our community. Be kind to yourself and those around you, and take care of each other.

Leader preparedness:

If you’ve taken any of our workshops, you are likely familiar with this graphic describing how threat impacts our ability to respond. There is a lot of threat in our world right now. It’s real. It’s scary. As leaders, we have an opportunity to create responses and environments that support our teams through these very difficult times.

Some strategies for response:

  • Communicate openly and listen: listen to people’s individual concerns and respond in kind.
  • Be empathetic: people will experience strong feelings of anxiety – don’t dismiss them. Listen. Ask questions. Let them know that their worries are normal.
  • Create a sense of physical and intellectual safety: Make sure your team knows where to go to get trustworthy, up-to-date, and accurate information. 

In person workshops and meetings: 

We are working with each of our clients to make spaces as safe as possible. We are converting most of our meetings and offsites to online and are developing online versions of most of our workshops and to support your needs (Please contact us if you would like more details). When in-person events are still the right choice, we are following these guidelines:

  • Allow any attendee to reschedule for a future event (no charge).
  • Allow any attendee to cancel for any reason (no charge).
    • Note that if attendance drops below a certain number, we may cancel the class as the learning environment will no longer be ideal.
  • No hugs or handshakes or other touching.
  • Personal supplies provided: stickies, pens and sharpies.
  • Hand sanitizer at tables when possible. Frequent breaks for handwashing.
  • Maintaining personal space. We will do everything possible to maintain recommended social distancing guidelines in our events.
  • Individual food servings. All meals will be individual – no shared food stations.

Thanks to Valerio Zanini for these great recommendations.

Personal preparedness:

You can’t support others if you aren’t supported yourself. Some small personal preparedness actions can go a long way in reducing stress. Here’s what we are doing:

  • Ensure you have enough key items, such as non-perishable food, medication, and pet food to be home for up to 30 days
  • A little cash in small bills is always useful, as is keeping your gas tank mostly full.
  • It is also recommended that folks get standard, over-the-counter cold and flu medicine (Tylenol, ibuprofen) and comfort items (ginger ale, Gatorade, tea with honey, etc.) that their family uses when sick.

For more on preparedness and response, consider these resources for yourself and your loved ones:

Thanks to Sarah Tuneberg and Geospiza for their recommendations here and in more detail on this blog post.

Additionally, take care of your own mental health. Whether that means shutting down news or social media for a period each day, spending time doing something you love, having a glass of wine, or talking to a therapist or other mental health provider, we all need to honor our minds and bodies during this time.

We know that now, more than ever, leaders need to have an agile leadership mindset to deal with the complexity and uncertainty in our world and work environments. How we show up as leaders is vital. Yes, business and life will be different; and being a catalyst leader prepares and empowers all of us for navigating through it.  

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
– Mother Teresa