The Muse: Kate Grass, the Founder at FemFront and Co-founder at IMG Visuals Inc.
Meet my next muse!
I worked on this story using Olympia. Olympia provides AI-powered virtual teams to help you streamline operations, enhance productivity, and drive success. Amplify your business growth with a winning AI team! I met Kate Grass at a co-working meetup for female creators in Mexico City. Her cheerful and vibrant personality immediately put me at ease. To my surprise and delight, I discovered that she is also Ukrainian, just like me. After hearing her story, I was in awe. It is a tale of resilience, bravery, and deep compassion for others. I knew I had to invite her to share it on The Nine Muses. Here it is.
I had just turned 23 and was the youngest psychologist among more experienced colleagues who trusted me to coordinate our work. We built a team of more than 150 volunteers.
I wouldn’t call myself a wartime CEO, but our company faced the Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022, and I took the CEO position to lead my team through the crisis, overcoming threats to our physical and business survival. However, my mindset and skillset to navigate this crisis were built years earlier.
In 2013-2014, there was the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. Resistance to the police force and pro-Russian government resulted in more than 100 deaths. Our strong community of psychologists and psychiatrists wanted to help victims of police forces, so we launched our volunteer organization during the Revolution. I had just turned 23 and was the youngest psychologist among more experienced colleagues who trusted me to coordinate our work. We built a team of more than 150 volunteers.
In February 2014, I stepped into my next responsibility—leading a group of psychologists who worked with the families of the deceased. We created a support group called Family Circle and managed to bring families together from all over Ukraine to support them in their loss and grief process.
Later that year, when war action started in the East of Ukraine, I was leading a group of psychologists to work in a war zone with the Ukrainian military. Our goal was to help them regulate stress and trauma experiences. I worked on the frontlines under artillery fire from our enemy, risking my own life and facing the deaths and injuries of our soldiers. Still, I stayed focused on my goal, leading my team and helping soldiers and commanders through the hell of war.
A significant part of the work also involved coordination with NGOs, the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Defence, the National Guard, and others to build a system of psychological training and support.
I worked in this field for four years, navigating teams through the revolution and the war. Then, I decided to try another life and shifted my career to the digital business space.
In 2018, I joined my friend’s remote team as a product manager, becoming an operational director a year later. I became the CEO in 2022 when the full-scale war with Russia affected the whole team. I did everything possible to ensure our employees and business survived.
The reason I’m sharing my experience is that the world is on fire. I believe that strong female leadership in crisis, conflicts, and natural disasters is something we need today to survive threats tomorrow. That’s why I want to contribute my knowledge to female business and social sector leaders so they can confidently navigate any crisis.
So, if you are in Mexico City on June 1, I invite you to join The Nine Muses’ lunch with other female leaders, where I will speak on female leadership in extreme situations and crises.
Follow Kate on Instagram @kate_grass
The Musements by Kate Grass
Musement means a state of thinking. It is proactive, not passive. It requires intentional effort on the part of the person being "mused." It is much more satisfying and fulfilling than mere amusement. It’s stimulating, too, but in this case, in order to get the input, the participant needs to be actively engaged.
Responsibility: You are never 100% ready for what’s coming, but you have everything to survive and overcome all challenges. Step into responsibility and lead people. Take initiative even if you don’t know yet what to do. Set survival goals according to the crisis you face.
Safety First: A good leader is an alive leader. If you are physically located in a risk zone, you must get out to the safe zone first. The same goes for psychological safety—you need to regain a sense of control.
Knowledge: If possible, get to know about what you’re facing before it happens. You will likely have to learn a lot and very quickly. Knowing how a crisis affects your business operations allows you to predict situations, avoid unnecessary risks, and lead your team safely to stability.
Actions: Learn what to do—get as much info as possible. Turn the chaos of information and events into structure and bring it to your team. There’s no book about the specific crisis you face. Similar experiences of others are important, but the most important is your understanding of what’s going on.
Information: Stick to trusted information channels. Learn from the experiences of others in similar conditions and bring structure to your team. The structure reduces the feeling of chaos created by the crisis.
Team: Your team is the main force of change in a crisis. Fight for each of them and use their potential to the maximum. Know your team—how the crisis affects them and their families—and you will know how to support them. Identify your team's main needs and cover them with available resources. After doing this, you can expect them to follow your lead.
Don’t keep your team members in a dependent child position; once they reach stability, they are capable of operating in a crisis. Decentralize leadership and involve team members actively in helping each other.
Resistance: Initially, you own more information as a leader who sets a survival goal. You can see more connections and facts on which you base your decisions. Your decisions may face resistance from your team.
That’s why it’s important to communicate with people or find someone who can communicate better than you. This will help keep your team on track to the goal.
Be clear in your decisions—explain the WHY and use open discussions with all team members to decrease tension and resolve resistance.
Reality Check: Talk to trusted people around you for a reality check. You’re not God, just a human being and a crisis affects our ability to evaluate threats and available solutions. It can lead to impulsive decisions. Talking to someone you trust can bring a new perspective to consider in actions and ease your inner tension due to the responsibility you carry.
While leading through the crisis, you can experience a variety of emotions—fear, anger, frustration, and helplessness. It’s okay to feel all of them. The main thing is to remember how they can change your reality perception and to have ways to vent your emotions so you can think straight.
Expectations: Trauma slows progress and the ability to grow for people. Everyone has their coping mechanisms for trauma and requires different times to process it. That’s why it’s important to adapt your expectations to the changing dynamics of your team and make changes in their responsibilities so they can handle it. This brings a sense of control back.
Be patient with your team's trauma dynamics. Collaborate with people outside your organization to help achieve trauma growth.
Self-Care: A crisis is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. You risk burning out your resources quickly. As a leader, you need endurance and strength to manage it effectively and safely. That’s why it’s important to take care of yourself on time and know the best ways to restore your inner powers.
I have many more lessons to share with you to help you develop a mindset and skillset for navigating crises and extreme events. My goal is to share real stories, strategies, and tools from my military and business experience to build a strong female community of leaders. So, if we don’t meet at The Nine Muses lunch in CDMX, I hope fate will connect us at some point.
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