Presence over perfection.

The Gulf region/Lebanon/Iraq has been living through an extraordinary period of uncertainty over the past month. Since late February, many colleagues across our region have been managing disrupted routines, restricted travel, and a low-level hum of insecurity that follows you from the office into your home and back again.

What strikes me most is not the scale of it. It’s how different people are carrying it.

Some are parents trying to shield their children from fear. Some are separated from partners who’ve relocated. Some are sitting alone in affected areas, riding it out. Others have left their countries altogether. Each of those realities has its own burden and none of it is easy to rank.

What I’m learning about connection

We introduced something called Connect Circles. Spaces where colleagues could sit with each other and talk honestly, whether as parents, as single employees, as remote workers, or simply as people trying to hold things together. No business agenda or action items.

What stayed with me was an Emirati colleague describing how both the company and the wider community had made him feel genuinely looked after. We talked about stepping back from the news. About how children who’ve spent the morning on iPads need the afternoon to just uncouple and play. In our home, my daughter decided that cleaning the house was her way of coping. Honestly, I’ll take it!

What I’m learning about empathy

This is uncomfortable for me to admit, but my empathy has been stretched in ways I didn’t expect. People react differently to uncertainty I guess, and finding the right response for each person, while still keeping the organisation moving, is not a problem you solve once. You feel your way through it, hour by hour and call by call.

I admit I’ve gotten it wrong sometimes. That’s because there’s a lot of moving parts and I’m having to find solutions to never seen before situations. I’m a part of it too.

What I’m learning about support

None of us gets through periods like this alone. My daughter’s nanny has been extraordinary, stepping in with schoolwork when I couldn’t. My husband Forster recently permanently hired three people because shuttering his business and leaving them behind simply wasn’t an option for him. And I feel genuine appreciation for how the UAE has continued to hold its residents through something genuinely complex.

There are moments when I feel like I’m living in a bubble and the news cycle is something happening out there. And right now, I’m okay with that.

I reached out to my former colleague and friend Helena. We set ourselves a small challenge: exploring UAE staycations over the Eid holidays. Nothing extravagant or earth shattering, just somewhere to put our attention that wasn’t the never-ending news headlines. And it really helped, much more than I expected.

I’m working on a new habit. I’m doing my best to check in with one person every single day. Again with zero agenda and not with the intention to solve anything. Just to show up and let that person know that they are not in this alone.

Belonging isn’t built by following words on a policy document. Belonging is built incrementally, in the small moments, when someone turns to another person and says: I see you, and I’m here and damn but aren’t we all going through a big thing together?