An honest excerpt from the diary of a locked-down leader- Part 2

Dear Diary,

So we were doing ok. The year 2020 zipped past us, mostly we were an anxious bunch; but guess what, getting to know your family members in more details and doing some extra household chores wasn't such a bad bargain! Well- almost yes, up until now.

Nothing in this past 12 months had taken away from our core beliefs around our lives and careers, if anything, it helped us to segregate, the wheat from the chaff. The instant gratification drive we were on, came to a crashing halt, true meaning of happiness emerged or is emerging. We learnt to run the marathons- both literally and figuratively, we fell back to what was truly our interest and not the ones we were chaperoning due to the peer pressure, our families mean more to us -now, more than ever, we settled with the realization that job is an integral part of our life but not the whole life, itself! And finally after months of lock-down, we were also learning to live.

Life seemed to be getting back to (new) normal until the second wave hit us a few weeks ago. If we said 2020 was unprecedented, then this last few weeks has no word in my dictionary. Its almost evident now that you can't escape this virus, and the 'you' being a larger you which is made of family, colleagues, society, teams and the economy at large. Such has been the wrath , and the theories, accusations around this wrath that, unless you were literally living under the rock, you have been affected by it in some or the other way.

The sheer morbidity that has permeated in our lives is not only difficult to explain but it seems unlikely to escape, too.

Earlier this month CEO of Tata Cliq an emerging Indian E-commerce company took the professional social media by storm by stating 'Community over commerce'. The post went viral as it was human, it aimed at well being of the society and for once it did make sense that coming unscathed out of this pandemic is far more critical as against winning the market share, GMV, valuation or the productivity battle.

Diary- I recollect this previous year, I was reminded of this same concept of not trying to be productive and perhaps shift the goal post a bit, from my true north.

We are living in times, when a sneeze can scare the household, when you seriously start questioning the value of money, you have already given up on governments around you, you have slowly become more spiritual and you are desperately trying to save on those last shades of hope, you are trying to make sense of the chaos that prevails around you- and amidst this you are trying to be a leader.

Lets face it, the resilience has been shaken, your internal motivation deposits have eroded and you are drawing a blank every time you hear the challenge this pandemic has thrown to you and your teams. If I go deeper in this subject it will expose my limited understanding of human psychology, so lets leave it at that.

If at the beginning of the pandemic, we were trying to save jobs, economy and the public health, this current phase expects us to just save lives and ensure wellbeing of our teams. It seems like a journey with no end, shifting milestones and expecting us to be comfortable with this emerging ambiguity.

Between 'grief' and 'languishing' and many other words in between, this pandemic will give rise to a new set of leaders. I had already stated that these are not the times for the weak leaders, neither for the templatized leader-managers. This is the time for true-leadership, the servant leadership, the one that is willing to keep personal ambition aside and do what their inner belief suggests. If you will wait for your organisations or circumstances to suggest an approach to this situation, you are already late to react.

Its not easy when you are trying to juggle between stakeholder's priorities, personal experiences, team expectations and ambition. Some thing has to give away, my recommendation would be to give up on your ambition for the time-being, concentrate your energies on being available for your team and your loved ones. Personally, I have been a strong proponent of milestones and self motivation and achievement orientation, but its time to take a pause.

Now one may argue that its easier to take a pause if you have reached reasonable heights in the corporate hierarchy. I agree and thus I am not suggesting this as a tool kit for everyone. I am only suggesting this to leaders, let go of those shining goals that you set for yourself ( although you believe those goals are for the team!), this is not the time to market yourself or your organisation. A healthy and better functioning team will get you all of these in years to come. And, no its not going to be a give and take scenario, because your team members will not set aside their own personal goals, some of them will come asking for promotions and some of them will even leave you.

I can almost foresee that organisations and leaders who will make wellbeing of their team and communities a priority today will stand the test of time and will eventually gain both monetarily and as well spiritually.

Diary- I think, we need to be more human, we need to be more available, we need to be more visible for our teams, we need to develop better trust on each other and above all, we need to have faith.

P.S:I am hoping that there is no part 3 of this series or if there is, then probably a happy one.

#covid #leadership #faith #compassion #lock-down #India