Don't waste the good moments. Covid and beyond.

Radha Ruparell is a global cross-sector leader with expertise in leadership development and personal transformation. She has worked with CEOs, Fortune 500 senior executives, social entrepreneurs, and grassroots leaders around the world and heads the Collective Leadership Accelerator at Teach For All, a global network of independent organisations in 60 countries committed to developing leadership in classrooms and communities to ensure all children fulfill their potential.

The last year has been a difficult, traumatic one for Radha. She fell ill with Covid at the height of the pandemic and had to use all her leadership experience to navigate through the uncertainty and change it brought. It was April 2020 in New York and the first Covid wave was raging through the city.  Radha was on a conference call and started feeling breathless. Two days later she realised she had Covid. She was bedridden and because many of the hospitals were overrun and lacked PPE, she was told to stay at home. She did however end up in hospital and a year on she is still dealing with the symptoms that haven’t disappeared. These include mental and physical fatigue. Before Covid she surfed, ran and played tennis none of which she can now do. She tries to live a regular life but has to make constant adjustments.

Radha had to fall back on her reserves of mental toughness and needed to utilise all her leadership experience - how we manage ourselves, how we manage uncertainty and how we relate to one another. She needed to have  a strong support network and reach out for help. In the early days she couldn't speak without getting short of breath and was too tired to ask for help. Only a couple of people were aware she was ill and then a work colleague reached out. Radha had grown up thinking she shouldn’t share her personal troubles. She always toughed it out, but when she was ill she realised that being strong is the opposite – its about being able to share things, about what you’re feeling and your fears and vulnerabilities. It was a lifeline having a couple of consistent people in her life. She doesn’t think she would have been able to get through it otherwise.  

Radha also realised the importance of slowing down and asking what is going on within us, of taking a moment to check in with yourself so you’re not defining yourself by a situation and can rationilise it. Part of this is to understand the power of language and what we tell ourselves. The way we frame language can be destructive and we need to change it. Instead of having a bad day we have an off moment then every moment after that we have a choice.

Radha started writing her book when she was ill. Initially she wrote a two page article for her family and friends which reveled some of the things she had learned during Covid  - applying life and leadership lessons, how to be resilient , and how to slow down, discover inner strength and be vulnerable. Within two weeks 20,000 people had read it!

One of the takeaways from the book is how we deal with uncertainty. One of our biggest mistakes is that we resist uncertainty.  When she was ill Radha  had brain fog and couldn't read words on a page. She kept trying until she realised resisting was not helping – she couldn't do the things she usually did so needed to accept this was the current situation. She needed to be more creative and operate in a different way and realise that you can hold two conflicting ideas. You can accept what is happening and still be curious for what might be possible.

Sometimes it takes a catastrophic event to wake us up. These turning points can be terrifying but we all encounter them in our lives. The real question is: how will we face them? Despite our knee-jerk reaction to hang on to what’s “normal,” disruptive moments are exactly what’s needed to transform ourselves and the world around us.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information about Radha here. Our previous podcasts, upcoming guest list and previous blogs are also available.

You can find out more about Radha and her book at Brave Now: Rise Through Struggle and Unlock Your Greatest Self