The first night of Passover is now in the past. For others, Easter is approaching. Whatever your religion, corona does not discriminate. Businesses around the globe are in a mess.

Large or small, high-tech or retail, established or new – what can owners and senior management do?

For no obvious reason, yesterday, I found myslf reaching out for a book I had long forgotten about: “Success under stress” by Sharon Melnick. I challenged myself. What can a seasoned business coach and mentor can find that will have additional value for his readers?

Melnick wrote her bestseller back in 2013. That said, she makes several key points that are essential to our lives today. You get the point when tackling one of her first sentences in the introduction.

71% of senior executives around the globe reported that resilience to turn obstacles into opportunities is “very” to “extremely” important in determining whom to retain.

Makes you think – both as employer and employee. 20 pages later and we discover anotehr line that takes on added importance in the corona era.

Stress occurs when the demands of a situation exceed you r perceived ability to control them. The key is that the more you perceive you can control, the lower your stress, and vice versa.

(and then…….) Stress is not external. It’s internal.

Guys – reread that and internalize that message.

Melnick goes on to discuss subjects such as prioritising, basic muscle relaxing exercises, and self worth, amongst much more. And in an age when corona is making many of us question our values and capabilities, she reminds us that:

The stress of self-doubt is essentially a gap between how you evaluate yourself now and how you want to view yourself and experience your life.

I do appreciate that each enterprise has its own unique issues. And I am sure that we have yet to see the full global economic fall out from this crisis.

However, as I was going through the book, I found the Melnick had enabled me to rethink how corona impacts on business. If we ignore the panic, it allows us to focus on what our core skills are. More and more of enterprise owners are telling me that they now have an opportunity to try to establish what they really want to do.

In other words, they are onboarding Melnick’s key concept of “changing your perspective”. These people are saying that if the road to commercial success is very bumpy just now, they  are realising that it was never smooth. So let’s get on with it.

So let me leave you with this question. In order to benfit from the havoc casued by corona, how can you alter your own perspective?