Conversation on the Future of Leadership

This article was written based on a conversation I had on May 22, 2020 with Minerva Capital Group’s Managing Partner Jocelyn Cortez Young. She interviewed me for her podcast and we shared insights on the Future of Leadership. Here are the questions and answers with a fresher touch for print. 

Jocelyn: The humanitarian toll by COVID-19 creates fear amongst employees and other stakeholders and lots of uncertainty. So how do you see these changes impacting leaders and how do you think leadership will be redefined post-COVID? 

Adriana : This is a great question, I truly believe that this is an opportunity, a learning opportunity for leaders. Because the pandemic is a systemic challenge, it is an opportunity for us to apply systems thinking, to apply a systemic approach; and leaders are now realizing that this is the way to go. 

If you look at the basic principles for systems and if you apply systemic thinking for better decision-making, there are many lines of thought today that bring this subject to the table in the corporate world and there is some common ground, there is convergence in terms of a couple of things. First, there is understanding that the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. So, when you have that understanding of the synergistic effects of working together you will for sure prioritize that approach. 

The other important notion is that every system is part of a larger system, so having this understanding may explain different situations that unfold. Equally important is to be aware that every part of a system is a member of many systems and this fact alone will enable you to see the influence that goes on in the smaller systems. 

I believe that the most important attitude for leaders, specially in times of crisis such as the one driven by COVID-19, is to start by acknowledging change as it is, with no judgment, and this is how we are able to deal with fear. Fear is a basic emotion and it is natural for people to feel fearful in situations like the one we are facing, but leaders can hold the space for the understanding that change is ok and allow alternatives to emerge, look at the problems as solutions as we say it in systemic work. 

By applying systemic principles, leaders are able to balance the “zooming in” and the “zooming out”. We may choose to be analytical and see the details by zooming in, and that is what most leaders tend to do when pressured to make decisions fast, but in systemic challenges like the pandemic we have to zoom out and see what emerges. We may benefit more from having a broader scope and looking beyond the straight focus that we keep on a daily basis. This is an exercise that leaders must do to reach better decision-making. 

At Briyah Institute, this is what we are trying to help leaders see and apply. We intend to share more on this topic. Leadership is a journey, a very important journey that we all may choose to take. When we do it, it creates a huge opportunity to build a real “impact economy”, that which pursues financial returns alongside positive impact on people and planet. It is possible to incorporate more elements to the traditional form of doing business, and make business a force for good. 

Jocelyn: Amazing! So you see it as sort of a muscle that we need to start developing over the course of time, this ability to be “zooming in” and “zooming out”? 

Adriana: Right! The exercise of “zooming in” and “zooming out” and of acknowledging change as it is enables us to build the muscles we need to face the changes that will come. We are living in a world that is changing in a much faster rate, this is unprecedented. This is a characteristic of the 21st century. And we can make business really pursue additional benefits by embracing ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) metrics and impact. There could not be a better moment for us to do that than right now. 

Jocelyn: That brings me to the next obvious question. I am very much a fan of your previous experience as a leader, as the CEO of GE in Brazil, and so I have to ask you how do you envision the crisis impacting leadership differently in emerging-markets, for example in Brazil, and in other countries outside of the US?

Adriana: Believe it or not Brazil and the US share many similarities in terms of leadership style these days, especially in the political level, but I believe there will be a difference in terms of the outcomes because we do have different levels of development in the two countries. When we look at the way prosperity exists in the world these days, we know that some countries have not reached the desired conditions, they are not there yet, and Brazil is one of them. 

When we look at the countries that have reached a good level of prosperity in the world according to the Prosperity Index of the Legatum Institute, we see some common ground in terms of “safety & security” for the most prosperous countries. When we investigate what the root causes are, what leads the countries to have that scenario, we find out that it is the ability to have strong institutions that differentiates them. Strong institutions are built over time. This is not something you can build from night to day, this is not something do create top down. For that reason, countries that are not as prosperous yet will probably and most likely have a hard time recovering from all the impact that COVID-19 is bringing. 

We have more poverty, we have more famine, lack of assistance, lack of access in developing countries, and Brazil is not different. I participated in a webinar the other day and the speakers were saying that communication in rural areas in Brazil is still done through radio because of lack of internet, broadband coverage. Radio is still the best way to tell people what to do in terms of sanitation measures or what to watch out for to avoid the spread of the virus. 

We have both the “developed” and the “developing worlds” present in countries like Brazil. And I am very optimistic. I see the opportunity for new leaders to emerge, and we already have great leaders in action, especially in the private sector. There are companies that are shifting production from beer and colognes to hand sanitizers, startups that are developing ventilators and other medical equipment needed to treat patients with complications due to COVID-19. 

There are CEOs, and leaders like Luiza Helena Trajano, former CEO of retailer Magazine Luiza, who are trying to convince other CEOs not to fire people and to try to accommodate employees and suppliers as best as they can. There has been more collaboration to help the most vulnerable communities, so my congratulations to companies like Ambev, Natura, Magazine Luiza, BRFood and to the startups that are making ventilators such as Magnamed, applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect pneumonia such as Portal Telemedicina, and so on.

Another good news is that a startup from Einstein Hospital called Varstation has developed a new technique to advance the pandemic fight with accuracy equivalent to the one used in the RT-PCR method, the gold standard of diagnosis, capable of analyzing up to 16 times more samples in the same time interval. A lot has been going on in the health/pandemic front. 

In terms of coping with the transition to a digital society, accelerated by the pandemic, another good example is a startup called Digital Innovation One. Briyah Institute partnered with them as well as with Meu Futuro Digital to co-create "Teachers in Tech", a series of inspiring, free webinars to engage and support teachers in Brazil, and to try to close the gap between the academy and the private sector. It is also important to mention the work of accelerators like Baita, that I am a very proud mentor of, to enable the growth of the startup ecosystem. 

Jocelyn: So when there is a crisis there are always new things that need to be done. How should business leaders plan to respond to this crisis, especially while their employees are working from home and it is difficult to engage with them. What do you suggest?

Adriana: We are going through big changes from what we used to have before COVID-19. if you leverage the learnings from systemic work, the role of a leader in a system is to hold the space for change, for the new to emerge. If you also apply the principles that keep systems together, you may find useful approaches to managing employees from the distance. 

According to Jan Jacob Stan, there are three aspects that keep systems together. One is “belonging”. Employees working from home still need to feel that they are part, that they are not left out. So how leaders include these employees working from the distance is very important. 

The second aspect is “exchange”. This is about rules on how to behave, on giving and receiving. It is about how to communicate the messages and the need to constantly communicate them so that there is exchange happening between the different parts of the system in order to keep the system together. 

The third aspect is also very important, it is “order”. Having clear, well established roles and functions in times of crisis is also important because this is going to give some sense of unit to the team, even if you are working remotely, from the distance. Leaders need to adapt the policies and the practices to a more digital operating model and allow for the new to emerge, at the same time that they take responsibility and protect the vulnerable while assuring business continuity.

Jocelyn: Right. And what advice do you have for leaders when it comes to making decisions? As you know, we are in the middle of so much uncertainty, especially for leaders, that the decision has a huge impact potential, what do you recommend to them?

Adriana: I recommend remembering this old saying that “crisis is opportunity”, and asking yourself how to turn crisis into opportunity. Again applying a systems thinking approach here, when you acknowledge the crisis, the change, the problem without judgment, just observing it, you are more likely to keep your serenity to look around the corners and find opportunities. The tendency for most people due to our human nature is to be very protective and reactive. However, if we can stop a minute and look at the situation with clearer eyes, this practice may help us see opportunities in the middle of chaos. 

Another advice I would give leaders is self-care. Just like we do it in an airplane when we have to put our oxygen mask first before helping others, I really encourage everybody to practice self-care before anything else. Meditation, yoga, doing some physical exercise to balance the amount of mental processing that we have to make in situations like this is extremely important. Listening to something that is vibrationally good for you, such as good music and positive, inspirational information, also helps. Eating well, being mindful of your diet, and sleeping deeply for a good numbers of hours per night is equally important. If you have the chance to have a coach or a mentor to just keep you in the process of productivity and creativity and serenity, that can be very helpful as well.

Jocelyn: Yes, it is amazing how some of these things are very basic and sometimes get overlooked. Actually, over a long period of time the lack of these things can become very dangerous. Considering that this is a healthcare crisis in a very widespread scale and based on your experience, how do you think it will impact the healthcare industry and more specifically the leaders in the healthcare industry? What is your opinion about whether it is systemic how these things are going to change? How do you see this industry, this vertical, at the end of the tunnel post-covid?

Adriana: I hope that this crisis will provoke a total disruption in the healthcare industry because we have to walk the talk right. If healthcare is about healing people, we do have to turn it into something that really helps heal people, organizations, the world, with more of the force of the collective. We have to stop just looking for ways to cure diseases and start promoting health in a different way, with more prevention, going beyond healing into regeneration, and really integrating all the different knowledge areas and going digital for good. We have advanced a lot in terms of the knowledge and the technologies available. There are very cool products and services emerging in the healthcare industry, including new business models, with more flexibility that values the smart, the clean, the healthy. It is not a linear process, it is a systemic process, and I do believe that there is an opportunity here. 

What has this virus showed us? It has showed us that we are truly connected, that our lives are intertwined, and what connects us is our humanity. We do need to be mindful of that. When the notion of competition sort of gives room to the notion of collaboration, of cooperation, we need to really embrace this moment to be able to disrupt the industry in a positive way and really promote a shift for a healthcare system that really heals. Ideally, we should go beyond seeking to offer the big fixes and the complex surgical procedures. Of course we need that as well, but how do we move incrementally towards a regeneration process with good prevention and good wellness practices along the way? This is a conversation we must have, so I believe this is again an opportunity for us to zoom out and take a look at what it really means to have planetary health, to have health in all levels: people, organizations, and the world. After COVID-19 there will be other crisis to tackle. Climate is next. How do we take the learnings from COVID-19 and apply it to all the different challenges of the 21st-century? I believe it is by making better decisions with a systemic approach and leveraging collaboration and cooperation.

Jocelyn: So that obviously brings me to what I’m hoping will be my last question. I’m very excited to collaborate with you on your Briyah initiative and so, for the folks listening here, can you share with us everything about the Briyah Institute, how you started it, what are your objectives? Please tell us what your vision is and what you are hoping to do with Briyah.

Adriana: Thank you for this question. Briyah Institute is a benefit corporation startup. We are being “born B” with the aim to pursue B-Corp certification. That means that we have a business that pursues profits, and in doing so, is promoting positive impact both socially and environmentally. 

Our mission is to inspire leaders based on three pillars: innovation, good practice and purpose. We have developed a project that consists of a training course that leaders who want to get inspired and start applying a systemic approach can take online. It is called the “CEO Meet & Master” and it offers a fresh start on how to think systematically to tackle the complex challenges of the 21st century. 

We believe we can change organizations and change the world by helping build an impact economy. We work in collaboration with other organizations, such as the Minerva Capital Group, and other amazing leaders to deliver this course and other projects. It was a great pleasure to have you, Jocelyn, participating in one of the panel discussions that is now available in the online program. Together we can definitely make this vision happen and I am so optimistic that this is the right moment for us to enable leaders to drive impact wherever they are! Anybody can start wherever they are, and by doing a little bit more each day we will definitely improve the world and make it a better place. 

Jocelyn: Yes, I totally agree with you it is a very exciting initiative, and, specially during these times, it is a resource for all leaders with purpose, which is something that I am a big fan of. Adriana, thank you so much. One of the most important things we have is time, so thank you for sharing yours with us and for sharing your thoughts and your vision. I just have one request: that you come back again soon and just share with us all the things that you are seeing or know, the things that are changing from where you stand at the landscape that you see. 

Adriana: Thank you. It is a pleasure to share. I will be available any time for you. Congratulations for the initiative of creating podcasts such as this one, and keep up the great work you do.