Onboarding a new employee is an important first impression. It sets the tone for how quickly a team member can start contributing, and how invested they feel in business. The same goes for assimilating a virtual team. Integrating virtual employees into an otherwise office-based group is critical for creating a cohesive work environment and effective team. There are two main areas to focus on when adding a remote staff: creating a sound digital framework and cultivating a virtual work culture.

I've dealt with anxiety for just about as long as I can remember.

But only in the last half of this decade have I really begun to know the words I need to describe it to other people. You see up until recently, people didn't even talk about anxiety much less describe what it felt like for them.

For me anxiety varies from day to day, sometimes it's something I feel in my chest. Other days, it’s a pounding of my heart or an aching of my head. Other times it's a shortness of breath and this unsettling feeling that I'm not going to get everything I need to get done, done.

An incredibly full email inbox (or six incredibly full email inboxes if you are anything like me) is stressful on a good day and now, with COVID-19, people are sending and receiving more emails than ever.

Between employees, co-workers, and clients emailing you about work, and every corporation you’ve ever done business with sending updates on their current COVID-19 strategies, emails begin to stack up fast and feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed increase too.

Here’s the other silver lining I’ve found etched along with the clouds that brought us this shit storm. While I might not be built to be home with an 8-year-old and 2 year old for endless days on end, my brain was built to solve tricky situations and see strategies that I can bring to life to make things better, even if only by a little bit. I’m also in the incredible position to be able to pass these strategies on to other people, in hopes that they might give them a little light, hope, and levity in these darker days.

COVID19 has officially thrown all of our worlds off-kilter. Whether you’ve got kids at home for the foreseeable future, whether your income has been affected, or whether you’re unable to get basic supplies you need (ahem, toilet paper), we’re all facing a new normal and feeling its impacts.

As we ride out the news cycle and shift towards accepting this new normal, how can we cope in the days, weeks and maybe even months ahead?

In light of all the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses and organizations are scrambling to keep up with local mandates while also trying to keep business going.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by moving away from the in-person meetings and create a virtual experience for your team.

Why is this a great idea? It keeps your team members safe (#1 priority), but the hidden silver lining might be that it saves you more time. Which, let’s be honest, is equally important. Heck yes, especially when you’re in the middle of dealing with a crisis.

Here are some key things to think about when deciding to host a virtual meeting.

I often see a disconnect between the lights that we carry and the ways in which we share stories with other people about what those lights are.

One of the most common places I see this disconnect is on people's websites. The worst is when I know the person behind the site personally. I'll know their story and everything that they're passionate about, and then I end up going to their website and immediately my heart sinks.

While surrounded by bubbles in a bathtub in Toronto, I had a real moment of clarity.

This is my life.

Let me back up.

I had just spent a long day collaborating with clients. It was the type of day that gets me excited about the future of the technology industry. And as I was in a faraway city, for the first time in a long time, the only thing I could do at the end of the day was sit there and soak it up.

The challenge for us as CEOs is that, in essence, we are the creators of our companies. We're responsible for guiding them and for shaping them into their next era of evolution. For me, the biggest challenge of being a CEO is not the creation part. I live for that part of the work. I love making new things that didn't exist before. I love bringing them to light and life in the world. The challenge for me sometimes is carrying that vision, holding true and fast to it, even as the company evolves, as things grow, as people join the organization or leave it. That vision needs to stay true, regardless. It's my responsibility as CEO to be the keeper of that vision and to make sure that my team understands it, owns it, and can be accountable for bringing it to life in everything that we do.