A tale of two viruses - the interesting times we are in

About a week back, I was fortunate to be a part of a small group invited to a discussion organized by Francine Katsoudas @ Cisco. At the discussion we got to hear from Francine, Michael Bush (CEO, Great Place to Work), Jennifer (CEO for Destination:Home) and Kevin Ryan (President, Covenant house International) about their views on the current crisis. We also got to hear about how Cisco is dealing with the situation and also supporting organizations like Destination:Home and Covenant house in their mission in these times.

As Michael Bush very aptly put, we are in interesting times and are dealing with not one but two deadly viruses - COVID-19, Racial Virus.

I have been thinking about this for some time now and this spurred me to write what has been on my mind. We are at an interesting juncture in our lives and we need to stand up for what is right.

In these times even more than ever before we need a different kind of leadership. A leadership that unites people irrespective of our political affiliation, religious and other beliefs - whether it is against the COVID-19 or against the racial evil faced by us as a society - treating different people differently based on their skin color. 

This is no different than the corporate world. Good leaders unite their teams and align everyone’s energy, aspiration to a company’s goals, giving them a rallying cry around a common purpose, huddling them to success “together” and those that are insecure, try to lead by creating factions, mistrust and ultimately disharmony, trying to use it to their individual advantage at the cost of the organization at large.

 It is time for us to face the reality and see the reality for what it is. Time for us as individuals, as corporate leaders, as citizens and most importantly as human beings, standing for what we believe in. Time for us to do our bit in all sincerity to make this world a better place for us as a society and for our generations to come - irrespective of whether we were born white, yellow, brown or black or any shade in-between.