What impact has the pandemic had on you personally and professionally?
Personally it has meant that I have missed my team and spent more time at home and have worked probably harder than I have worked for a long time! With the economy under such pressure the Chambers of Commerce have really stepped up and provided a service of information, advice and help to thousands of businesses in Staffordshire. Professionally, the greatest challenge has been moving from place based to digital, supporting my excellent teams in delivering help to businesses and people who are struggling and ensuring that everyone’s mental health is looked after.
How has Covid-19 changed your way of management?
I think I have got much closer to my teams, we instigated daily meetings at the start of the first lockdown and currently have twice-weekly meetings which everyone appreciates and enjoys. Zoom and Teams has meant that it is easier to have all staff meetings on a monthly basis and also that we can quickly get the right people together to deal with an issue. Unfortunately, it seems that there are even more emails than ever! I have found that I can now attend more meetings online but I miss the downtime to consider what I have learned.
Going forward, is there anything that you will be doing differently?
We will be working in a much more agile way and will be in the office some but not all of the time. We are going to use our building differently to encourage more businesses to drop in and share our space. We are investing in new digital platforms and a new website and hope that this will encourage businesses to work with us in different ways. We want to be really responsive, customer focused and supportive. I think we always have been but we are now really putting that at the heart of our operations.
What has kept you hopeful during this time?
It’s a bit corny but the thing that has kept me hopeful is seeing how adaptable people are and what a great service we can offer to businesses and seeing how businesses have turned to the Chamber in a time of crisis. Also to see how businesses are changing and adapting themselves. Business owners and entrepreneurs are by their very nature optimists, and this has kept us all looking forward and believing that we will come out of this together.
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