Leading in a pandemic: Tips from Sprout Social's founder

Sprout Social

28/01/2021 05:00

By Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
    NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Like many other CEOs, Justyn
Howard, who founded Sprout Social Inc  SPT.O  in 2010, has faced
a plethora of new challenges in the past year. The Chicago-based
company, which helps more than 25,000 brands manage and optimize
their social media platforms, became a publicly traded company
in 2019 - and then COVID-19 hit.
    A big lesson learned by Howard is that "people are
extraordinary," he said. "I’m in total awe of what our people
have been able to accomplish with everything going on, and of
the will of people generally to manage a situation like this.
What I’ve seen in 2020 gives me total confidence that we’ll be
OK.”
    Howard spoke to Reuters about leading through a pandemic
while working from home. Edited excerpts are below.
  
    Q. You’ve talked about how creating and having a strong
culture at your company lays the groundwork for being able to
power through tough times. How is it working out?
    A. When things are running smoothly, culture can be a force
multiplier, but you don’t realize how powerful it really is
until things get hard. 
    Our team had every reason to be distracted and overwhelmed.
Instead, they’ve continuously showed up and delivered for our
customers and each other. 
    We’ve also been mindful about supporting what our people are
going through. Childcare is a concern, workspace is a concern,
burnout is a concern - we moved quickly to relieve the pressure
wherever we could, and we’re still actively adjusting.  
    
    Q. Everyone is communicating so much more virtually these
days. Do you have any advice on balancing all that in your work
life?
    A. The move to virtual meetings has been net-neutral. It’s
convenient to eliminate travel and downtime associated with
in-person meetings, but being in front of a camera all day has
its own challenges. The volume of meetings has also probably
increased this year. 
    The most helpful “hacks” I’ve found are to be even more
deliberate about which meetings are necessary, being really
intentional with my workspace and to use the phone to give
people breaks from the camera where possible.
    It’s also been helpful to give people options about their
preferred communication methods. We have to remember that we
work with people across the introvert/extrovert spectrum, and
some of the fatigue and communication challenges we see in this
environment are counterintuitive. Choice and flexibility are
really useful tools.
    
    Q. What is your biggest work-life challenge?
    A. It’s been hard to be in the next room from my kids, and
avoid the urge to just go do a puzzle or make a mess with them.
Pre-COVID, that struggle didn’t exist - they were at school and
we were at work. 
    I’m really grateful to be able to break and get a hug in the
middle of the day, but there’s a subtle struggle in
compartmentalizing our work and family in this environment.
    
    Q. What is your work-from-home setup?
    A. I’ve got an office set up next to the kids’ play area,
which can be a blessing and a curse. I threw away any sense of
interior design and configured it to be comfortable for hours in
virtual meetings. 
    I also made sure I have a place to sit that isn’t my desk.
Focus work for me requires a different environment, even if it’s
just a different chair. 
    The “breakthrough” upgrade I made was getting a DSLR camera
to replace my laptop’s webcam. I can plug in and go without
having to worry about the angle or lighting or all the other
things we stress over. Totally worth it. 
    
    Q. What are some new work habits?
    A. Changing my attitude toward breaks has been really
helpful. In our old routines, some change of scenery or context
was built in to our day. We’d walk across the office, go to
lunch, take a call - there was variety. 
    We don’t really have that now, and adjusting to the idea of
taking a “meaningless” break just to change things up was an
important thing for me to figure out. 


 (Reporting by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
Editing by Lauren Young and Matthew Lewis)
 ((lauren.young@thomsonreuters.com; 646-223-6166; Reuters
Messaging: lauren.young.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net (Twitter
@laurenyoung))