BEST PRACTICE
Romaine Seguin
is president of UPS Global Freight Forwarding, where she oversees air, ocean and rail freight forwarding, as well as brokerage and supplier management, for the 220 countries and territories UPS serves around the world. She can be reached at rseguin@ups.com.
Leadership GUIDING OUR TEAMS THIS YEAR WITH CARE
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Now it’s 2021, and we are starting to see a bit of glimmer at the end of the tunnel. But we still need to ensure our families, communities and employees are in a safe and healthy environment. — Romaine Seguin
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hat a topic to discuss from a leadership perspective for the theme of this month’s magazine: health. It’s a topic we all dealt with throughout 2020, when we started battling the COVID-19 pandemic while still leading families and employees. We helped children with schoolwork, took on new projects at home and kept businesses going. Going into 2020, I had really thought it was going to be a roaring year for prosperity — very similar to the Roaring ’20s in the 1900s. Who would have thought the world would come to a halt and we’d still be coping with the COVID-19 virus almost a year later. Now it’s 2021, and we are starting to see a bit of glimmer at the end of the tunnel. But we still need to ensure our families, communities and employees are in a safe and healthy environment. Yes, the vaccine has arrived in the U.S. But it will take time for enough of us to get the vaccine to be able to develop a “herd immunity” in our society so we can feel comfortable going back to our normal lives. Now more than ever, we have to lead our families, communities and employees with care and knowledge. We cannot deviate from the best practices and communications that have gotten us this far in battling COVID-19.
JANUARY | FEBRUARY | i4Biz.com
In my opinion, this will be tougher than what we went through in 2020. That means we all need to be on our A game. I have some recommendations to help us get through this as leaders:
CONTINUE TO LEAD BY EXAMPLE. There is no rush to bring employees together in person. Continue to work remotely unless you have to be with the general public to do your job. There are many front-line workers who still have to report to workplaces, including medical professionals, grocery store employees and delivery drivers. They have to follow mask requirements and other safety measures. They are all protecting us while they’re serving us. If your employees are working remotely, stay in touch with them from all aspects, personally and professionally. As a leader, you must be known as the one who constantly follows the protocols of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
