I’m not saying that there is ever a good time to get sick, or to get Covid-19, for example. As someone who should have invested in stocks of companies producing facial masks and hand sanitizers given the amount of those products that I have used for the past 30 months, I found my game of Russian Roulette with the virus come to an end late last week. After a few days of trying to talk myself into some late-season allergies and consecutive days of negative testing, I finally hit the “jackpot” with two lines appearing on my at-home test kit. It brought back memories of pregnancy testing when we were trying to start our family over 30 years ago, but without any fun or anticipation.
Needless to say, my first reaction was, “I simply don’t have time for this.” With a busy week ahead, I was forced to change course quickly. During that time, though, I came to a few revelations: (1) my team is terrific and can manage pivoting quickly when needed, (2) technology has made blips like this something we simply incorporate where possible and move on, and (3) I am so glad that my mother drilled into me the art of making chicken soup, the Jewish penicillin, years ago. That has been a survival technique on many occasions in this household.
First on the agenda for the week was a day-long leadership workshop for the NTCA executive team with one of my favorite leadership coaches, Meredith Elliott Powell, author of Thrive and a longtime advisor to the NTCA team. Meredith sees the positive in the negative and has been working with us on how to see disruption as a catalyst for opportunity, truly a way to make lemonade out of lemons. Our intent this week was to work with the team on what leadership for organizations looked like pre-pandemic and how that has changed since. We also were to define what we need to do as a team to ensure we adapt to that change. I had been working with Meredith for months on this session and what I had hoped we could achieve.
And then? Quarantine.
There was a silver lining though. When we had restructured our NTCA space just prior to the pandemic, one major area of investment had been the enhancement of technology in our conference rooms. Who could have guessed how prophetic that investing in big screens, stereo-quality speakers, and microphones would be? Thanks to that, I was able to join for the day and, while I missed out on the mingling and lunch discussions in person, I was not only able to participate but also could more actively listen to my team because I had the luxury of having access to microphones placed across the room. This enabled me to hear each breakout group as they worked through the different exercises. I felt a little bit like a voyeur but loved how, regardless of the composition of the small groups, the discussions around our values and culture differed little. The thing about leadership teams is that they need to be nurtured just like anything else of value and can’t be taken for granted. There is certainly more work to do, but I consider the time from that session to be a big investment in the future. We’re on the right track.
Next up on things I hated to miss was our annual Women in Telecom (WIT) fly in. NTCA has hosted this event for a number of years as a way to bring women leaders in our rural broadband industry to Washington, D.C., to spend time with other key women leaders and host a few political fundraisers to boot.
This year, we lined up a fabulous day of visiting with RUS leadership, Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s team at the FCC, and a broadband group at NTIA about BEAD and workforce challenges. We’d also organized a pair of fundraisers for Senator Capito from West Virginia and Senator Stabenow from Michigan. In all, over 25 women leaders were in town to spend this time together and share their perspective on leadership and engage on the issues key to NTCA membership. In what was the biggest surprise of the day, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo joined our group for a conversation about their successes and needs. What a great opportunity! Despite all this, there was no way that technology could allow me to beam in to share the day. The good news was that the group was in the very capable hands of our team to make the day a success. I will simply have to live vicariously through the stories of the day over a glass of wine with our WIT who made the effort to take that extra step on behalf of our membership.
What else have I learned this week? That I am glad I am vaccinated and boosted. I have also appreciated all of the good care our GHP has provided to cover all of my costs for testing, care, and more at-home tests! It’s been a ballet on the home front given that, while my husband has all of my symptoms, he has yet to test positive, so we stay in different parts of the house, wear masks around each other, and eat meals “together,” one at the dining room table and one at the kitchen counter. I have become reacquainted with my stockpile of Clorox wipes to use after every touch with appreciation for bleach never evaporating, apparently. I have also learned that trying to stay focused working 24/7 at home with a puppy is learning to let go. That certainly was made abundantly clear during an important meeting this week, when I had to pretend there wasn't chaos occurring in the background as my 19-week-old puppy chewed on my calendar.