COVID19 PANDEMIC HAS BEEN TRUE TEST OF LEADERSHIP

The current Covid-19 situation — described both as a pandemic as well as an 'infodemic' — requires leaders to cut through the noise to identify and address the most critical issues at each point. It also demands that they think ahead, and retain the sight of the bigger picture to avoid decisions that could have unintended adverse consequences, today as well as down the line. In addition to this business intelligence, the rapidly changing nature of this crisis necessitates agility in thought as well as action, where leaders need to evaluate and continually recalibrate the way forward as the situation evolves.

Leadership may be hard to define, but in times of crisis, it is easy to identify. As the pandemic has spread fear, disease, and death, national leaders across the globe have been severely tested. Some have fallen short, sometimes dismally, but there are also those leaders who have risen to the moment, demonstrating resolve, courage, empathy, respect for science and elemental decency, and thereby dulling the impact of the disease on their people.

Beyond politics, economics and science lie qualities of character that can’t be faked, chiefly compassion, which may be the most important in reassuring a frightened, insecure, and stricken population. Ms. Merkel is arguably among the least flashy, charismatic, or eloquent of Europe’s leaders, but nobody would ever question her decency. When she addressed her nation on television, something she does rarely, and with evident reluctance, there was nothing pompous or bombastic in her parting words: “Take good care of yourselves and your loved ones.”.

There are two occasions when we assess our leaders: times of success and times of crisis. But these are exactly the wrong moments to do so. Nobody is solely responsible for these extreme peaks and valleys—there’s nearly always an element of randomness. What’s really important is what the leader does during the quiet moments in between. Leaders reveal themselves through a series of small, calculated, and precautionary moves. If we’re not looking for those tells, we’re certain to miss them.

The competencies required are different from standard operating leadership protocols. In the current environment, it is about managing crises and navigating through feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and doom. However, this is also a good time for the emergence of “crisis leaders”.

Being decisive includes stringent measures to achieve larger and long-term objectives in spite of short-term inconveniences and unpopularity. It also means the ability to cope and manage the irritations, accusations, and anger. Being proactive highlights the importance of taking stock in a crisis and reviewing priorities. In a crisis, priorities can be vastly different from those in a “normal circumstance”. An effective leader will be able to navigate priorities and be flexible accounting for current needs the situation demands instead of being rigid and following an already structured plan that has been already set in place.

A well-documented and pernicious problem with any ambiguous threat is the tendency to wait for more information and clarity. The risks of delaying decision-making are often invisible. But in a crisis, wasting vital time in the vain hope that greater clarity will prove no action is needed is dangerous — particularly in the face of a pandemic with an exponential growth rate, when each additional day of delay contributes even greater devastation than the last. 

Communicating bad news is a thankless task. Leaders who get out ahead risk demoralizing employees, customers, or citizens, threatening their popularity. It takes wisdom and some courage to understand that communicating with transparency is a vital antidote to this risk, honest and accurate descriptions of reality — being as clear as humanly possible about what you know, what you anticipate, and what it means for people. 

Because of the novelty and complexity of a pandemic — or any other large system failure — problems will arise regardless of how well a leader acts. How leaders respond to the inevitable missteps and unexpected challenges is just as important as how they first address the crisis. They must not revert to defensiveness or blame when mistakes are made. Instead, they must stay focused on the goal and look ahead to continue solving the next and most pressing problems. An all-too-common misconception of good leadership is that a leader must be steady and unrelenting in staying the course. Certainly, steadiness is required in these times. But given the novelty and rapid evolution of the pandemic, it is wrong to think that the work of the leader is to set a course and stick to it. Leaders must constantly update their understanding of prior probabilities, even daily, deliberately using strategies to elicit new information and learn rapidly as events unfold and new information comes to light.

How do we prepare our leaders to lead in an increasingly (VUCA) Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world? This has been the focus of much of the leadership development work and research over the last decade. Little did we know how much of that would be put to the test.