“I think the psychology of the leader often becomes the psychology of the organisation,” says Brian Chesky, reflecting on a year in which his company, Airbnb, was thrown into disarray by the global pandemic.
There was no panic, the chief executive and co-founder of the accommodation-booking platform says, even as bookings plummeted by more than 70 per cent and thousands of hosts protested when forced to issue refunds. Others questioned whether the travel industry would ever recover.
“The trick is to be optimistic,” he says, with the calm hindsight of someone who knows everything turned out just fine. “The optimism has to be rooted in facts that you can present as a case to people, to tell them, ‘I'm optimistic because here’s where we’re going, and here’s how we’re going to get there’.”