With the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, businesses had got a hard hit. No industry has been able to keep itself safe from the sudden outburst. In the midst of world health crises, leadership plays an important role. 

As it spreads globally, the coronavirus is creating unique, if not unprecedented, pressures. In business terms, it is highly important how the leadership of an organization reacts to the situation. When the operations and working are affected so much, decisionmaking becomes tough and true leadership can be witnessed.

While all this going on all over the world, we find it important to discuss leadership in our organization. In order to know more, we had a conversation with the founders of Programming Hub to understand more about the operation in the midst of this time. While having a conversation with our founder Tito we asked him about the biggest challenges that new-age leaders have to face in this outbreak, how did Programming Hub deal with it. Tito, while emphasizing on leadership qualities said, 

“These are truly testing times for leaders and every individual in an organization. For a leader, it is a crucial time where he should empathize with the people and instill confidence among their staff and team. Any organization that successfully handles through this phase and is able to support its people will instill lifelong confidence among all the people involved. Leaders must see this as an opportunity to build long-lasting relationships and a strong foundation within the organization.”     

  
While adding to this, he stated how Programming Hub is handling the situation, he said,

“For PH, we were among the first organizations to start 100% work from home (as early as February end). We cared about the health and wellbeing of our team and ensured everyone was well equipped with all necessities while at home. We actively encouraged discussing problems within teammates(mental/emotional) & participating in helping the needy by giving food and necessities. This helped bring the team together as one and build a sense of confidence by making them realize how they are not alone and can rely on each other to survive this phase.”

While putting light on the change in leadership and operational functioning of Programming Hub, Tito says

“ At Programming Hub, we believe everyone is a leader and key decisions are taken with consensus from the entire team. For us at Programming Hub, the most important stakeholder, are and will always be, our users. We consistently learn from them and strive to offer more.

In terms of operations, we have now adopted a few more digital means of communication & planning. The rest of the processes remain unchanged.”

The impacts of the pandemic have various implications on the business. Especially for EdTech industry, this phase has brought a varied wave, in terms of business. Conventional methods of learning, per say, schools, and colleges are shut down, and people are opting for online studies and skills development. This has a major impact on the business in Edtech. While talking about business, Nigel said,

“We are working hard towards offering the best value to users despite the scenario. Providing them affordable options and keeping 12+ top tech courses free was another initiative towards helping everyone learn at home. We are fortunate to have grown and received tremendous positive support from our users. We have seen a very significate increase in terms of MoA and the number of downloads as well. This sure is a time for us to grow all together and learn from the crisis situation.”

Getting out of this and resuming to normal is going to be another set of challenges and this has become the new normal. The future is unpredictable and so setting up plans for the future for secure growth is must for any business. Whilst talking about the key takeaway from this for future, Nigel said,

“Key takeaway for the future is being grateful and gratitude towards every small experience we have in our lives and careers. Never take anything for granted and enjoy everything you do to the fullest. The future can be uncertain at times, but remember there will be brighter sunshine tomorrow. It is important to be happy and keep people around you happy both in your lives and at work.”