Leadership lessons in a pandemic

2021 was supposed to be the year we finally put the pandemic behind us. In countries where most people were inoculated, some normalcy was returning to daily life. People were heading out, meeting friends and family and planning their travels again. Two years of dealing with lockdowns, social distancing, vaccinations and job insecurities have taken their toll on the best of us. It was time to move on, or so we hoped. Unfortunately, pandemics have a way of taking on a life of their own, and before we could properly bid farewell to Delta, Omicron has slipped into our midst. The jury is still out in terms of how Omicron will affect us - it is more transmissible than Delta but early research suggests that it causes less severe disease. More people are vaccinated, which we know now doesn't protect completely against catching an infection, but still works to keep most people out of hospitals. We are more prepared today than in 2020, but the road to recovery remains bumpy and uncertain.

However, if COVID was the spark, business leaders are dealing with a much greater firestorm of issues today. Geopolitically, stakes are higher than before - tension and distrust between the two largest economies - China and the U.S, remain elevated, forcing smaller nations to choose their alliances in an increasingly bipolar world. Supply chains are facing disruptions due to factory closures, shipping delays and loss of transport workers. All these feeding into higher inflation - affecting both consumers and businesses. For ordinary workers, two years of relentless change, intense work hours and the absence of a real connection to their colleagues in a remote working environment, are sufficient reasons to call it quits. The Great Resignation is upon us, and employers are struggling to respond.

This maelstrom of change and uncertainty has created an unprecedented challenge to leaders - both in the public and private sectors. Now more than ever, the world needs good leaders. However, if good leadership in the old normal was all about setting a clear vision and direction for others to follow, leadership in the new normal is starting to look very different. Leaders who can adapt quickly to these new demands are more likely to survive, and thrive in a world of constant change and disruption.

Align on Purpose

Purpose can feel very much like another management fad - just another reason for consultants to sell the next million dollar organizational change project. However, strip away the glossy veneer of the management jargon, and you might uncover a real shift amongst a new generation of workers who have very different motivations for being at work, or working at all. According to research by McKinsey, 70% of people now define their purpose through work, especially Millennials, who are more likely to see their work as their life calling. Don't get me wrong - I am certain there are still many who see work as a means of getting a paycheck, but for an increasing segment of workers, it is no longer enough. The psychology behind this phenomenon is simple - according to Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, when our basic needs are fulfilled (increasingly the case in developed countries, where there is a major transfer of wealth from the previous generation to the current one), people start to focus on self-actualization. Given that the average person spends more than 90,000 hours at work - a whole one-third of our lives, it becomes quite natural to expect people to seek meaning from their workplaces. And organizations who can help their workers connect to this deeper purpose are reaping the rewards - a study by CIO reveals that creating more meaning for employees at work increases motivation by 55%, loyalty by 42% and productivity by 22%. In fact, an article in Harvard Business Review suggests that 9 out of 10 people are willing to earn less money to do more meaningful work. In an environment of constant change and uncertainty, a clear sense of purpose can be an effective anchor that holds a team together, even whilst corporate goalposts are shifting.

Be Transparent and Authentic

In times of crisis, people inevitable look to their leaders for answers. For many, that is the very essence of leadership - to have the answers that nobody else has. However, this expectation of leaders is no longer tenable in a VUCA world, where predicting the future often feels less like strategy, and more like a toss of the dice. Here, leaders are caught between a rock and a hard place - how do you acknowledge that you do not have all the answers, at a time when people need it from you the most? I would argue that the culture of lionizing leaders as "know-it-alls", the lone genius or superstar, is counterproductive for traversing an uncertain future. Leaders who are pressured to have the answers when they have none, often resort to making them up, making a bad situation, a lot worse. We don't have to look far for examples - the rise and fall of Theranos under the leadership of Elizabeth Holmes, the spectacular collapse of the WeWork IPO under Adam Neumann, the revealing exposé of Uber's toxic and aggressive work culture. These cases usually have one thing in common - a powerful, charismatic leader who has all the answers, and whom nobody could question. In a post pandemic world, we need different kinds of leaders. Leaders who are transparent and open about what they know, and don't know. Leaders who invite questioning, and encourage collective reflection and problem-solving. Leaders who have the courage to empower and also hold employees themselves accountable for organizational outcomes. This requires leaders to have the humility to be their authentic and imperfect selves, rather than an idealized Hollywood version of what a leader needs to look like. By not having all the answers, you invite everyone else in the organization to be part of the solution. This creates a culture of distributed and empowered leadership.

Design the Way You Work Around People

The pandemic has forced a major paradigm shift in where and how we work. While many organizations were experimenting with telecommuting and flexible work arrangements prior to the pandemic, repeated lockdowns have forced a complete shift towards remote working arrangements. Some organizations have adapted well to this new reality, adopting new processes and tools that enable new forms of collaboration, while many others still struggle with not seeing their workers in physical offices. Salesforce, an organization that has consistently ranked highly as one of the best places to work, is showing the path forward. Its own research with employees suggests that almost half would only like to come into the office only a few times a month, but 80% still want a physical connection to the office. Rather than trying to force employees to return to the "old normal" of 9-5 office work, Salesforce is listening to how employees actually want to work, and redesigning both their physical and digital workspaces around that. This is not just about keeping employees happy - anyone who understands the Salesforce culture knows that it is high-pressure and results-driven. But that is exactly why redesigning work around workers makes so much sense. Because Salesforce trusts its workers to know what they need to perform their best, they are using the pandemic as an opportunity to redesign its work around their needs. The assumption here is that employees are not simply sheep to be herded - most of them (especially if you have done a good job with employee engagement and goal-setting) are motivated enough to seek out the best way to work, including finding opportunities to connect with colleagues face-to-face when required. And if they are not engaged and motivated, then shipping them back to the office will yield limited improvement to productivity.

While I am confident the world will eventually move past the pandemic, I am certain this will not be the last black swan that our leaders today will encounter. We still face multi-year macro challenges, including climate change, geo-political uncertainties and increasing polarization in society. Technology has and will continue to have a major influence in how we work, live, play and shop, with both positive and negative social implications. We have seen how social platforms create echo-chambers that accentuate extremism - and the Metaverse is only going to take that to the next level. Blockchain has created a parallel economy, offering new opportunities to revolutionize (and decentralize) finance, but also encouraging many others to speculate in assets that have limited real-world value. As more organizations go digital, cyberthreats are becoming even more relentless, ensnarling businesses, consumers and even governments. Now more than ever, leaders need to step up by adopting a new model of leadership - one centered on purpose and principles, but highly flexible and adaptive to changes in the environment. The stakes are high but if done right, we might just have a chance of coming out the other side of the pandemic in a better place than when we went in. Now here is a something worth toasting to as we welcome 2022.