There are the 6 stages of grief, and then there are the 5 stages of businesses surviving coronavirus. According to McKinsey, they are as follows:

1. Resolve. We’ve put crisis-response efforts in motion and deployed large-scale public-health interventions.

2. Resilience. McKinsey analysis suggests that the “shock to our livelihoods” of this crisis might be the biggest in nearly a century. Resilience is the next essential step.

3. Return. It’s not as simple as “back to normal” behavior. Returning to the old style, pace and scale of business will require every company to rethink strategy.

4. Reimagination. Knowing what we know now, how can we better prepare ourselves in the future? Likely this won’t be the last pandemic. Businesses need to learn from this one.

5. Reform. Company behavior, government oversight, the healthcare system, educational institutions — all of these may need scrutiny in order to move forward.

The aftermath of the pandemic will be a great opportunity for all of us to learn and innovate. I am excited about what the future holds for my clients at Newcastle Associates, and for industry in general.

We’re suddenly finding ourselves doing all video calls, all the time. And if you’re a hiring manager or candidate looking for a job, a lot of these video calls are interviews.

As a Recruiter, I’m well-versed in coaching candidates through job interviews. Video interviews are not new but getting the most out of a video interview is as important than ever. Here are some tips:

– Just like you would in an in-person interview, dress professionally. But for a video call, avoid bright colors and distracting patterns. Neutral colors against a blank wall work best; avoid a distracting background.

– Do a test run and make sure the connections and settings on your laptop or mobile device are correct.

– One of the benefits of video versus the phone is that people can read body language. Don’t forget to smile, nod and show you’re engaged. Use hand gestures when appropriate, but not so much that it’s distracting.

– Especially if you’re on a small laptop screen, print out any materials you need for reference during the call so you don’t have to flip back and forth between windows. Your resume and the job description should be printed and on your desk.

– Put your phone and other nearby devices in silent mode (and your kids too, if you can!).

You’ve probably seen the “keep calm and carry on” graphic. You may or may not know that it’s not a new meme. Lots of modern variants out there. It’s actually an old motivational poster designed by the British government’s Ministry of Information in 1939 as World War II ramped up. Nearly two and a half million posters were printed!

The message of this poster seems particularly modern today, though. There have been fewer times in modern history when it’s been this important to keep calm and carry on.

But for a lot of my clients this certainly doesn’t mean “business as usual.” In fact, things are changing wildly for many companies. They’re having to revisit live events and project deadlines, arrange for employees to work remotely whenever possible, conduct remote interviewing and scramble to realign plenty of their initiatives with the state of the world today.

While coronavirus has a lot of us thrown for a loop, I think the message in the old British poster still applies, with a slight addendum:

Keep calm and carry on… adaptably.

For some people, working from home is a dream. For others ( like maybe your family) it’s a circle of hell. For a lot of us right now, it’s a reality, whether we like it or not.

I can attest that a lot of people really fear the lack of boundaries that working from home can imply. Let’s turn to an “expert” for advice — someone who has worked at home, by choice, for years! Geoffrey James, contributing editor at Inc., has a few boundary-setting rules to share:

1. Create a dedicated work area that you don’t use for anything else. If you have an office or guest room available, great. But a lot of folks have to make due with a corner of the bedroom or kitchen. Carve out a space. Make it yours.

2. Train people to leave you alone. You have to be vigilant to do this successfully. And that will mean being consistent yourself. When you’re working, don’t seek out other members of your family for “a quick chat.” Hopefully, they’ll learn to pay you the same respect.

3. Keep a schedule. Start with the one you use in the office. The bonus is you get a little time back you used to spend commuting. How are you going to use it?

Love to hear any of your own tips.

Financial stress is a real thing right now for a lot of people. With so much uncertainty around the #coronavirus epidemic, no one is sure what’s going to happen to their investments, job or their own bank account.

But there’s one bank account we don’t have to worry about, and that’s our time account. Every day, we wake up with 1,440 minutes. It’s up to us how we use them.

Right now, a lot of people are finding themselves in a position of having to use those minutes scrambling to get work done from home while sharing space with family and possibly even homeschooling children. And that’s those of us who are lucky enough to be able to socially isolate.

Like everyone else I work with in my role as Executive Recruiter, I’m trying to spend my “time dollars” wisely too. Right now, this old aphorism by an ancient Greek philosopher has never felt more relevant:

“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” -Theophrastus

How are you spending your time right now? Love to hear your experiences so far!