COVID, Leadership, and Reducing Stigma: an interview with Arwen-Widmer-Bobyk
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Arwen Widmer-Bobyk
Today, I talk about leadership and COVID with Arwen Widmer-Bobyk: how the virus gives us a chance to model a different openness and acceptance-without-judgment and how throw-away comments can trigger cycles of shame and judgment.
Her story is one of poor responses, missing email links, uncertainty, and ill-considered comfort. Yet, through it all, Arwen has seen the diagnosis as a tremendous leadership opportunity, to model a different way of engaging the virus. Her perspective has take-aways for leaders everywhere.
Here's a teaser: when someone tells you that they just tested positive for COVID, make sure that your first question isn’t, “Where did you get it?”
You can find the Handle with Care: Empathy at Work podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Spotify. And you can listen to the episode here:
Here are three key take-aways from my conversation with Arwen…
Leaders, consider the unintended consequences of your policy about confidentiality in COVID cases. There can be many good and important reasons to protect privacy, but what are you inadvertently communicating with the shroud of secrecy? What are ways that you as a leader can be proactive in dismantling stigma around COVID? For Arwen, this was sharing the news of her own diagnosis. What steps will you take?
Go gently with people who have gotten sick. Remember that you always know only a portion of someone’s story. Arwen was coping with concerns about having to leave the country, worries about her daughter’s health conditions, and a number of large projects that needed her attention…all of this on top of her COVID diagnosis. The moms who sent frantic, shaming emails had no idea of this cascade of pressures.
When you hear that someone has gotten COVID, do not let your first response be “Where did you get it?” Most of the time, people do not know. But on a deeper level, this shows a self-interested posture that fails to truly pay attention to the person who is sick. Instead, try something like, “I am so sorry. Can I send you a DoorDash or GrubHub gift certificate?
Arwen and family