Leadership During Unpredictable Times

when authentic could be confusing and distracting .. 

Thursday marked the closing of a remarkably long week and, for me, to set the mood for the weekend the best thing to do is to head to the gym and sweat out all the stress. While I was speeding up on the cross-trainer, I had a flashback of the main highlights of the week. There were many events, activities, discussions, laughs and smiles, faces, clashes, achievements, and down moments as well as inspirational ones. This was not only at the professional level, but the personal level too.

The speech of HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar at the 71st General Assembly of the United Nations, was the main thing that went through my mind and made me pause and reflect. It was a speech directed to the living human conscience about the moral and legal responsibility of leaders before their people, and in the speech, he said:

 “It is no longer possible to ignore the weakness of the United Nations’ legal and institutional system and its inability in many cases to apply standards of justice and fairness to the mechanisms of its functioning."

This was not the first speech the Emir of Qatar has given before the United Nations, however, this speech came during the unique times the world is going through. COVID-19 was not the focus this time, but he spoke of something even more alarming: the mounting chaos in the world led by groups of highly idiosyncratic leaders. This leadership is becoming ever more confusing and distracting in an age of turbulence.

The world has been in a state of flux and the pace of changes and crises is just continuing to increase as we approach the end of 2020 (it is an exceptional year indeed), and new rules are being written! Rich or poor, city residents or rural folk, no one is immune to the effects of changes the world is going through.

The word is in constant war in the race for advancement whether economical, technological, political, etc., and it is a legal right for nations to develop. The fundamental criteria to advance is change. Sound leadership along with a vision and futuristic thinking must embrace an openness to change whether the change is planned for or not. However, this is not enough to satisfy the basic psychological human need for safety and trust especially in uncertain times. In this sense, all the changes and crises we are currently facing have touched all aspects of human life. It applies to every country, organization, and community. Directly or indirectly, it has a bearing on the social fabric of the world, and is impacting the economic growth. It can have both positive and negative outcomes. It can cause the social fabric to come together, to tear itself apart, to thrive, or to crash, before reinventing and rebuilding itself in sync with what is going on around us.

One might think managing change and leading through crisis should not be an issue as there are many academic studies and examples to help with adopting the right style. So what is the best leadership style for such times? Leadership is a science and there are many studies that have tried to answer the question of which styles guarantee success, With the ever-increasing waves of change, leadership, in its different models with focus on change and response to crisis, is more important than before. One common leadership style is transformational leadership, in which leaders let their followers feel that they are seen as human beings and help people see challenges in a new way. They are concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals. This form of leadership changes the society through words and actions and influences its followers especially during unpredictable times. However, leaders could fall into the trap of copying another’s style in an attempt to follow the narrow description of what a leader does or there can be pressure to wear a mask. This results in the loss of values and ethics, and they will lose their authenticity in their attempt to gain the trust of their followers.

Authentic leadership is another style covered in the literature. It highlights the importance of remaining true to the self and practicing behaviors such as being honest with oneself, sincere with others, and behaving in a way that reflects one’s personal values. Authentic leadership promotes trust, which has a direct consequence of higher emotional safety and touches on one of the basic human physiological needs and unconventional idea proposition. Leaders with this style understand their own values and behave toward others based on these values. Their self-discipline gives them focus and determination, which allows them to remain cool, calm, and consistent during stressful times.

Inspiring and leading followers to go above and beyond when dealing with uncertainties is built on a strong foundation of trust in leaders. There is conceptual overlap between the core components of transformational and ethical leadership, however authentic leadership prioritizes ethics.

Today’s realities require a unique style of leadership that relies on individuals who can connect to the essence of leadership as well as core moral and humanity principles. In my opinion, that appropriate leadership style for these times is an ‘authentic transformational’ leadership style. The transformational leadership approach is vital, as it prepares followers for future challenges, which is imperative in our times. The leader is at the center, always encouraging and motivating and is a charismatic, responsible, and authentic figure who serves as a role model.

The world is plagued with rampant social, economic, and political crises. This is something the whole world is sharing, and when I look back on the unprecedented times Qatar has been going through, I can say that what made the Emir of Qatar stand out is his exceptional transformational leadership style combined with true authenticity. Leading with values is respected and influences actions.

Each passing day gives us new thing as well as taking from our life, relations, emotions, and memories. There is no exception to the increase of knowledge of things and exposure to new ideas and facts. Our personal values and standards are always under the test, whether they become stronger or would be fading with the times. It is unfortunate to see how rare genuine values becoming among leaders in the era of change and in response to crisis.