Private company heads must adapt and innovate to tackle pandemic challenges

Private company heads must adapt and innovate to tackle pandemic challenges

Muscat: Heads of private companies need to learn from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and use them to minimise the impact on their employees and businesses, corporate coaches and HR advisors in Oman and the Middle East have said.Aisha Al Wardi, a leadership coach and trainer in the Sultanate, said now is when leaders need to show responsibility for the duties they are required to carry out in their positions.“Responsibility requires a readjustment and then increased clarity and purpose,” she said. “From an organisational perspective, this is exactly the time where leaders must show their people how much they value them and their contributions to the organisation. Everything has changed and yet people have stepped up.“They were forced out of their comfort zones, and managed to stay afloat despite having to go through one unpredictable change after another,” added Al Wardi. “The lockdown made things difficult, but it put things into perspective and became an opportunity for innovation and creativity.”She pointed to the manner in which entrepreneurs and SMEs in the country had adapted to the pandemic to create products and services that people require during these tough times, as well as the steps taken by educational institutions to