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By Ann Beck – What a difference a year makes! Last year at this time, we had no real idea of the impact the virus would make upon us personally and professionally. The dramatic change was quick and then ongoing. Clearly the disruption was more volatile for some. It was also an opportunity for others to reimagine their lives and businesses. As I have shared in my messages over the past year, our confectionary and restaurant business had to pivot in response to shutdowns, fewer staff, less income, and very different plans for the future.

We not only survived, but thrived. Not to suggest it was an easy transition by any means. Along the way I discovered a great book, a manual you could say, that informed my response as a leader. “Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age” by Bruce Feiler, assisted my approach as we responded to the challenges of being in business during the virus. While simplistic in his approach, it made sense. Feiler contends that, for most of us, we imagine our lives along a horizontal line of progressions from birth to death—finish school, get a great job, maybe get married, have children, earn higher positions and money, retire and die. In our time, we have not had many disruptions to that progression, until last year when the virus sent us a heavy hit to life. Suddenly, we were at home, we may have been laid off from work, we were home schooling our children and scrambling to find child care, we could not make choices about what we imagined life was supposed to be unfolding.

So, what to do? It is all in the response. Instead of feeling constantly overwhelmed, I started asking some questions all predicated on the fact that business was NOT going to be the same. Initially I kept going back to the last year’s income and thinking, “Okay, it was like this last April, so surely we’ll get x amount of income,” and that was not happening. I stopped looking at comparisons and started fresh. The first question was: So how can we make this work within this environment? Then, what is the game plan, how does everyone fit in, and what if changes every week? (which sometimes it did?). How could I keep spirits positive? How could I assist others to be flexible and feel included? How would we measure success?

Trust me, there were low moments. But understanding that the transition would NOT be a linear and progressive one, that helped. We basically let go and celebrated what was there to celebrate. Over time we gained new customers and lost some, but we did not assume anything. We did more work with fewer employees due to cross functioning and focusing on the good things happening. Formal staff meetings and almost daily informal conferencing allowed us to share frustrations as well as the small victories. Discussion on integrating the personal life challenges of our staff allowed the mental flexibility for all of us to respond in empowering ways.

One year later, our business has changed for the better. We have more candy accounts than ever before. We still focus on the positive and pivot when necessary to get the work done. Knowing that the response has been to not allow the external impacts dictate how we can move forward has made all of the difference. Sometimes it has been exhausting and overwhelming, but we did survive and thrive. And in the food business world, that is pretty amazing.