Leadership during COVID
I found out that I would be Bits of Good’s next executive director right after being sent home from school due to COVID-19 and knew that there was a possibility that we would still be dealing with the effects of COVID in the fall. This was at the beginning of the pandemic though, and everyone thought it would be over by summer, so we made plans for an in-person fall semester as usual.
As the summer went on, we began to see that the situation was not improving and made plans to be fully remote in the fall semester. Both personally and from a leadership standpoint this was a really hard decision; I had to acknowledge that my last semester of college would be mostly online and I was suddenly left with no precedent of how to lead this group or any group for that matter, thrust into this weird situation where no one really had answers or concrete advice.
Every issue that we would have faced in a normal semester was magnified due to the pandemic going on around us. In my first 3 months as executive director of Bits of Good, I had to coordinate meetings with an exec board of 12 people in different timezones all with jobs, classes, and pandemic work-from-home struggles
While event planning is normally convoluted, we had to completely rethink every event we hold in a normal semester with little to no similar events in the past to rely on all while accounting for members in different time zones with different circumstances that may prevent them from being more involved. We had to find a balance between requiring a certain level of commitment that we as an organization need to fulfill our commitment to the nonprofits we work with without being insensitive to our members’ needs. It was difficult to try to keep people engaged and motivated to keep working without adding additional stress to an already stressful time. We also had to rethink our entire recruitment process, from marketing our applications to reviewing and accepting candidates. As an organization, we wanted to do better in making sure that people of all backgrounds were given an equal chance to become a member of Bits of Good, and that is something we have continued working on through this semester and will keep working on hopefully for semesters to come.
It has been stressful trying to navigate how to keep people motivated and committed to the work we’re doing without pushing too hard in an already stressful time. It has also been difficult to make sure, as an exec board, we’re maintaining the same culture and community that encouraged me and other leaders to stick with it and take more responsibility within the organization. More than anything else, it has personally been stressful trying to live up to what other leaders in this organization in the past have accomplished, even though just carrying out the day to day operations is so much more difficult now.
Taking a leadership role in an organization you care so much about is never easy, especially with all of the challenges of COVID, however as an organization I think we have seen a lot of good come from this experience. We now have a more concrete framework for including remote members, allowing us to continue our work into the summer when our members are off studying abroad and working incredible internships. Having fewer in-person events has also given us the bandwidth to work on making our organization better; we have been focusing on how to create a diverse and inclusive culture within our organization as well as placing more of an emphasis on social impact. This shift to online events has allowed us to bring in social impact-focused companies to talk with members, which would not be possible in person, as many of these companies are smaller and do not have the resources to come to Atlanta to interact with us.
Even though this experience has not been what I imagined or hoped for, I know that after this I, and everyone else in any kind of leadership position, will be a much better and more compassionate leader and will be able to go so much further in our careers and personal lives.
Also, if you have any tips on how to be a better leader during this crazy time or just want to talk about Bits of Good or anything else, you can email me at gt@hack4impact.org.
