What leaders are made of

Hundreds of families were able to move into their new homes in the middle of the pandemic and this gave them the comfort and security we all longed for during such a tumultuous time.

Many years from now, I will look back at 2020 as the year that changed me as a leader and as a person.

Incidentally, 2020 was slated to be a historic year for Ovialand Inc. as we started the decade with ambitious and escalating growth. Our team was proud of the homes and communities we have built, and we were ready to take our organization further.

‘Iceberg of Success’

Prior to the pandemic, we carved out a set of culture and values—a result of our experiences, both of triumph and failure—that we were eager to live out as we cemented our 10-year growth plans. The culture we defined wasn’t complicated. Simply put, we all agreed on the concept of the “Iceberg of Success.”

This simple concept describes that success is the result that others see, but underneath it is a series of challenges and difficulties that we must continuously overcome. Our definition of success is this: thousands of families happily moving into their new homes (of course, within the targeted financial metrics to keep our organization ambitious and lucrative).

Ovialand has mapped out a strategic and ambitious expansion plan.

Once we all agreed on our definition of success, we faced the daunting reality of what it would entail. Willingness to sacrifice, discipline and humility were among some of the values that we knew we needed to hone within ourselves to achieve our collective goal. We were zealous and full of energy, yet we carried the wisdom we have accumulated over the years. We were a solid team, arms linked together, ready to face the enormous challenges ahead of us.

Courage

But just like that, the pandemic changed the scenario. We knew that the virus was not going to leave as abruptly as it had arrived. We all looked at each other and wondered what we were going to do.

It was in that moment that I realized there was one important value we all had tucked away, buried within us: courage. The virus started out as something uncharted and horrifying, but we knew that we could not be led by fear—not just fear of the virus, but fear of the fact that everything we knew before the pandemic might never return to the way it was.

But when we let courage lead us, we were able to see the pandemic as just another component beneath the iceberg that we had to overcome. Hundreds of worst case scenarios were playing in our heads, but in the end, it was courage that prevailed.

The author (center) said courage allowed them to move forward despite the pandemic.

When we all agreed that no pandemic was going to stop us from achieving our success, we were immediately back on track. Teams were working more fluidly than ever before and there was more effort to understand rather than to insist. Leaders continued to demand high levels of performance but it was mixed with more understanding and compassion. We gave our managers the ability to institute entirely new processes and controls as we used technology in a way unimaginable for us before the pandemic, and they worked!

While some of our partners were in a haze and couldn’t determine how to move forward, we told them that we were going to lead the way and we asked for their trust and to follow suit. Eventually, 2020 ended and we hit our target growth levels. Hundreds of families were able to move into their new homes in the middle of the pandemic and this gave them the comfort and security we all longed for during such a tumultuous time.

The pandemic made me realize what we could accomplish as a team in such extreme conditions that came with no warning. It sealed what I knew that great organizations can bridge gaps and overcome limitations. And the secret potion of all: great organizations with a clear purpose are unstoppable.

The author is the president of Ovialand Inc., a fast growing developer of affordable horizontal projects in South Luzon