Leadership, Remote Team Building, Becoming Better Allies

Welcome to this week's Retail Resources, which features a curated list of the best content and resources I've found for you over the past week. This week, I offer information and resources about leadership, remote team building tools and perks, more ways to fight racism and become better allies, and more. If there's anything you would like me to share in a future post, let me know by dropping me a line at mcampanelli@napco.com.

Leadership

• This McKinsey article was recommended to me by several contacts. It lays out seven actions to emotionally connect and demonstrate empathy for  your customers during this challenging time.
• Looking for some online training courses on anything from improving your leadership skills to diversity and inclusion best practices and strategies? Than look no further than Findcourses.com. The site offers an expansive repository of courses from leading training organizations such as the American Management Association and the Center for Creative Leadership all in one place. And, if you're not looking for a full training program, its Virtual Knowledge Section lists hard-to-find webinars to view, most of them free. 
• This is a great COVID-19 resource guide from the Board Retailers Association, a nonprofit trade association that represents board specialty retailers; that is retailers that promote surfboarding, skateboarding, snowboarding, kiteboarding and more. It's targeted to all types of retailers, and features everything from educational webinars to financial resources and government updates to COVID-related articles and websites. It's very comprehensive; check it out.

Remote Team Building Tools and Perks

• Check out this fun article that lays out 23 remote team building activities designed to boost morale and trust. Ideas include: inviting your team to take a virtual field trip using Google Earth, which has many pre-made virtual tours; starting a video book club whereby you choose a book your entire team can read in a month and then discuss the book at the end of the month via video chat; and/or starting a monthly online pub quiz, where you pick a topic, come up with questions via an online pub quiz question generator (like this one), assign a host, and have your team grab a drink to participate.
• As work-from-home continues for millions of people during the pandemic, many companies are offering new perks to their remote staffs. This Wall Street Journal article lays out some of them, including new web-based services to help employees cope with higher levels of stress, or snack boxes and virtual gym membership to make up for lost perks tied to offices such as free lunches or snacks or subsidized gyms.
• To share with furloughed workers: Codecademy, the world’s largest online coding education platform, is offering 100,000 furloughed or unemployed workers free, three-month access to its premium Pro platform (normally $20 per month) to help them grow their skill set and give them access to new opportunities.

Fighting Racism and Allyship

• Last week in this spot I offered some valuable resources to help retail business leaders fight racism and become better allies. I learned of a few more since then so I thought I would add them here. For example, this USA Today article lists 100 ways you can take action against racism right now. Importantly, it lists several vetted organizations to donate money to support the cause.
• This great list from New York Magazine features 125 black-owned businesses (headquartered all over the country and online) that you can support, in seven different categories from beauty to bookstores to gift shops, among others.
• Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson’s column on his own anger is a great read. And check out this incredibly eye-opening book, "White Fragility,"  by Robin DiAngelo. It was recently re-stocked on Amazon.com after it sold out last week.