Embracing Digital Leadership

After a turbulent two weeks, everything changed for me, again, last Monday, March 23.

For 20 years, I’ve been performing at live events around the world. In the course of a week, all of my business was put on hold. And I was perfectly fine with that. On March 15, the day after my last live show, I decided to close down my business for the foreseeable future. I embraced the pause on life as we know it and decided to take the following months to focus on my family, writing a blog post about it and posting it a few days later.

Embracing my wife and 1-year old daughter, we hunkered down for a new winter. Then, that same day, just a few hours later, I read an essay by General McChrystal, imploring leaders: “first, don’t hunker down.” 

I was stirred. I was challenged. And before I had much more time to process how I would act, on that same day, Monday, March 23, just a few more hours later, I received an e-mail request from a new client.

“In response to the covid-19 crisis, my colleagues and I are trying to put together fun virtual events for our customers and prospects and we would like one of the events to feature your magic.”

Two days later, I gave their staff a demonstration, we booked the virtual meeting, and in a few days I will be presenting to their clients, virtually entertaining their group instead of doing it at a cocktail reception in a hotel banquet room.

All of this together pushed me into action and reminded me that what I do best is bring happiness to the world. And not only does that not need to stop, because of the new position we are in — all of us, human beings, around the world — now is the time to use the virtual medium to bring more joy and more happiness to more people. 

In his essay, General McChrystal describes four things that leaders should do at this very moment: 

1. don’t hunker down

2. demonstrate candor

3. give up more authority than feels natural

4. be more compassionate

Focusing on the last step, I know through my teaching of communication and perception skills at conferences and meetings around the world that I can help people become more compassionate and understanding of each other. Through clear communication, we are able to see, hear and perceive one another. Through clear communication, we develop empathy. 

I’ve always believed in the need for better communication. And now we need it more than ever.

General McChrystal writes:

“As your organization disperses to remote-work status, the loss of personal interactions will quickly sink in. It will be easy for leaders to overlook or undervalue the fear and stress their people are feeling because of this isolation. All of us learn by watching our teammates, and we gain confidence through informal feedback from our colleagues or bosses. Your organization has lost that person-to-person contact. You must immediately take your culture online, and learn to reinforce camaraderie, esteem, and compassion, via digital platforms.”

This essay really moved me. It moved me to rethink and to react. It moved me to act in a way I wasn’t planning to. 

I was really fine with hunkering down. And as this beautiful essay discusses, doing that is perfectly fine. If you’re thinking about what to do, you should know it’s completely OK to not act, to not hustle, to not feel pressured.

In fact, I had already gone through the major stages of change that the author in the article above describes. With the start of the pandemic in the US, I focused first on the security of my family and home. Second, I made the mental shift to releasing my need to be “hyper-productive” and took the third step of embracing a new normal. Because I took those series of steps over the course of two weeks, I released all tension, mental and physical. I became grounded, calm and connected. Sure, I was feeling a bit of “fomo” that I wasn’t being productive but that faded away soon too.

And so it was, with a clear head and a calm heart, that I read General McChrystal’s words. “Don’t hunker down.” I didn’t feel pressure, I didn’t feel tension, I didn’t feel urgency. Instead I felt a rush of potential and positivity. And I’ve decided — at least for this week — to heed his words.

As a facilitator of live events, I’ve never embraced the digital world. Now, having the choice to do that or do nothing, I’ve decided to pivot to virtual magic shows and virtual motivational speaker presentations.

So the exploration and transformation begin. In this time of “physical distancing,” it’s time for “digital socialization” and a new era of “digital leadership.” 

In the words of one of my magician mentors, Jon Racherbaumer, “Onward.”