Like many of you, we started 2020 at WCG celebrating our successes from the previous year. At our annual company retreat, we celebrated another year of client successes and double-digit growth in 2019. We felt proud, encouraged, and emboldened by the fruits of our labor, and we were ready to work even harder and cultivate even greater successes in 2020.

And then the pandemic hit. Suddenly, there seemed to be no such thing as certainty for anyone in the world, as we all pushed through unpredictable economic downswings and medical tragedies. A general loss of optimism seemed to sweep over every country deeply affected by COVID-19, punctuated by spikes in anxiety over how to protect our health, our businesses, and all the foundations of our daily lives.

During our company retreat, which occurred before COVID-19 had impacted every aspect of our lives, we unveiled a new company philosophy called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a South African philosophy rooted in one profound and unifying concept: “I am what I am because of who we all are.” We could not have known at the time when we adopted this concept how prophetic and significant it would become for our agency.

Through the tenets of Ubuntu, as well as the tenacity of our team, we have weathered the obstacles and unknowns of the pandemic as a unified entity andhave become stronger team than ever as a result. Our mornings start with company-wide check-ins featuring engaging,personal questions. Our weeks end with virtual happy hours and team building games. Every workday is peppered with collaborative meetings, brainstorms, project reviews, and one-on-ones that help us stay connected to each other and to our professional goals.

By investing time and care into each other both professionally and personally, we invest in the company as a whole. Self-care is incredibly important, especially in times like this, but we believe taking care of each other is an equally vital and perhaps less advertised piece of the puzzle. Ubuntu will continue to carry us through the pandemic and into the future successes on the other side of COVID-19.