Laura's Story about "Leading by Kindness" When Facing Adversity

My friend Laura believes in “lead by kindness”. Contrary to many people, she is not an overly assertive and confrontational type when facing adversity. Let’s see how she experienced and overcome adversity in her role as the Senior Editor and Senior Executive Board Member of Spark Magazine!

Facing Covid

As the senior editor of Spark magazine, Laura oversees a team of writers and manages line edits. One of the difficult decisions she had to make since March was deciding how to approach the Covid pandemic. Especially for a fashion magazine, photoshoots are a vital part of expressing creativity. With the number of uncertainties, it was difficult to know how to manage in-person contacts with safety measures. After all, she is only a college student with no medical background, but the people on the team and those around them’s safety could be compromised if her plan is not well-formulated. Just like Peter Parker’s principle, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Finding a solution to make people feel safe and comfortable was not easy. Laura felt stressed and incompetent at times, even though most people if put in the position would also don’t know what to do! But being the sweet and considerate person she is, she was determined to let everyone feel safe and comfortable. She empathizes with everyone and understands where people’s opinions are coming from. Eventually, she decided to allow people to choose Facetime photoshoots or in-person shoots with clear guidelines in place. She did it! This solution allowed her to mitigate the risk of Covid while having quality control of the photoshoots. Getting frequent touchpoints from the team and talking with an agenda allows the process to be smooth and transparent.

Managing Projects

As you could imagine, quarantine does not make magazine editing easier. Laura faced another adversity while trying to think of a new way, video monologue, to express a piece of a meaningful story. Miscommunications between the writer, editor, and editor in chief posed more time constraints. Communicating back and forth and laying everything out to different people can easily create misunderstanding. But having a team that was there to support her and people to reach out to help her allowed her to stay calm and be empathetic to others’ needs. When facing adversity, she learned to be careful with her words, and be cautious about what she says. In addition, transparency and openness are key - most conflicts can be resolved if you approach it at the right time and angle. Put yourself in other people's shoes. No one wants a conflict, and having the thought that everyone has good intentions and wants to solve it with you shaped her way of leading.

Laura loves her role. The adversities made her grow, and her leadership style has changed over the years. She still treats people with love and her role with passion. She learns to step up in a role that she is passionate about, be confident in words and actions, and take everything in a holistic approach. “Be patient, kind, passionate, nice, and empathetic.” This is how she becomes the leader that everyone loves and could open up to!

What do you think a good leader should be? Do you agree with “lead by example, do what you preach”?