Leading in a Crisis

How to lead during a crisis

Dr Timothy Low explains what makes a good leader

All of us are equal. We’re as good as the weakest link. We do need one another to be successful. No one is greater than the other. With this new pandemic that is new to all, we need to have the right attitude, to brainstorm, to look at every angle, and listen to everyone’s point of view in order to stay united to fight the virus.?Everyone in the world plays an important role.?

For?example: ?

a)??????????The management steps forward to be on the ground with the staff, to address the situation together, by listening to the staff, doing their best to protect every one of them to ensure they’re all fully protected from the virus, and to provide the moral support and encouragement to the fatigued staff.?

b)?????????Healthcare personnel, like the doctors, volunteer themselves to take turns to work round the clock, even on weekends and public holidays, while nurses work 12-hour shifts, not removing their personal protection equipment, not eating and resting, but just doing their utmost best to nurse the COVID-19 patients. ?

c)??????????The cleaners ensure the environment is disinfected and dispose of all the trash with care; the office staff step forward to help take temperature, and the security personnel ensure all areas are secured and safe. Everyone is sacrificing themselves, working endlessly and tirelessly for the patients and their loved ones.?

There are two things we need to do:?

????????????I.???????????????One is to practice personal hygiene constantly, like hand washing, social distancing, and wearing masks under the current situation.?

??????????II.???????????????Secondly, practice empathy in our everyday life. Everyone has a different role to play, and together we will be united as the Power of ONE.?Hence, we need to put ourselves in another person’s shoes, to truly see the world through everyone’s eyes in a given context or situation.??

It’s human nature to assume that others will think and feel the same as us in particular situations, but of course, this isn’t always the case. The first step in empathizing with others is to suspend our own view of the world around us in order to truly see it through other’s eyes.?

We need to spend time getting to know and understanding one’s needs, wants, and why people are doing what they’re doing. This means observing and engaging with people in order to understand them on a psychological and emotional level.

We need to listen to what everyone is Saying, Thinking, Doing, and Feeling. We can use the What-How-Why framework.

For example, get to know what the elderly have been going through in these trying times. How did they cope with it, and why are they not taking the advice to stay at home??

It could be that they’re staying alone, or they’re scared and prefer to be surrounded with people to have social connections. For us and the younger generation, we connect through technology, but for the elderly, they may not, as this is not their way of life, and they may not have the abilities or resources to do so.

The more we reflect on how and why people might behave in a certain way, the more we can empathize with them and come out with a solution instead of being seen as forcing them to stay at home and not showing care and concern for them.

In order to create positive experiences and get people to buy-in, we need to first understand their needs, frustrations, and pain points. This requires building empathy. To me, this is the starting point of anything we want to do.?

So what can your industry be doing and focusing on today that can prepare it for a post pandemic world??

At Farrer Park Hospital, we’ve always been incorporating technology and infrastructure to expedite our processes. The hospital is designed and built with the pandemic in mind to minimize any risk and contact and ready to handle a pandemic.?For example, we’ve set up telehealth from the inception and washable beds for ultimate infection control.?

In the healthcare industry, we need more robotics for logistics, such as drones.??

What gives me faith and courage to move through this crisis to inspire others, as a medical doctor, is simply saving lives and taking care of others, practicing humanity and caring for all my staff. This has always been a way of life for me.?

During a crisis is when people are looking out to their leaders to lead them through the trying period. Therefore, as leaders, we must stay positive, stay connected with our people, provide them with encouraging words to motivate them, and stand by them on the same battlefield. With unity, we can weather any challenges and stay strong. I hope that through serving as a model everyone will show care and support for all their people who are sacrificing their lives for others. Your kind words and actions will inspire the healthcare personnel to press on, to stay safe.

We need to embrace the evolving dynamics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution with a different and more adaptive style of understanding and leadership.

To put the idea of industrial revolutions into context:

The First Industrial Revolution started with the mechanization and invention of the steam engine (18th century).

The second was brought about by production lines that were launched by Henry Ford’s automotive factories (19th century).

The third was when the proliferation of electronics in telecommunications and computers became mainstream, giving rise to automation and robotics (20th century).

Today, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the cyber-physical systems that resulted in the full integration and connectivity with computers, networking devices, and cloud networks.

One thing that’s certain about the industrial changes happening today is that the interactions between individuals, small companies, and large enterprises will be different.

The way we conduct business and talk to each other will never be the same. Just like how the internet has dramatically changed the entire world, our environment will soon see the impact of disruptive technologies and trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI), not to mention the Metaverse which is upon us.

This means that our priorities need to evolve as well.

In the industrial age (18th - 20th centuries), companies tend to focus in this order: Profit as the first priority, followed by Product, Quality, People and lastly Recycling.

In the digital age today, the most successful companies are the ones that prioritize People first, followed by Quality, Recycling, Product, and lastly Profit.

Successful leaders understand that profit comes naturally and in larger quantity when you focus your priority where People come first.

That’s why employee engagement is so important.

To lead in today’s Industry 4.0, we need to engage with an active leadership. But what does it mean to have an active CEO and management?

It means that we need to lead with the four factors of Leadership 4.0:

1 Authenticity

?????In a world where anyone can claim just about anything on the Internet with photo-shopped profile pictures and fake news, authenticity and “being real” is a premium that few people get right.

?????As a leader, we may feel that we need to present a certain persona to our employees, but we may not realize that they know if we’re coming across as authentic or if we’re just putting on an act.

2 Empathy

?????With the world progressing at breakneck pace, it’s easy to focus solely on information and forget about the experiences and feelings of other people.

?????We need to show care for our customers and employees, and know how other people are interacting with your brand (products, services, experience, speed of work, and tools they’re using).

3 Over-Communication

?????It’s far better to get the message and risk communicating a little too much rather than to hint and lose the meaning you’re looking to get across.

?????I’ve found that anything worth communicating is often under-communicated. That’s why rather than saying too little, we need to over-communicate.

4 Trust

?????Your stakeholders (customers and employees) are looking for a company that they can trust.

?????How reliable is your company? Can a customer trust the promise of your brand to deliver? If your company is perceived as reliable and trustworthy, your success is only capped by your imagination, and the sky’s the limit. ?

If we’re able to implement these four factors of Leadership 4.0 into how we lead and manage our companies, we can achieve organizational success.

And here’s how I would like to define organizational success: If we take care of our staff, they can take care of our customers and our organization.

It’s a principle that’s close to my heart, but I cannot stress it enough. Your employees are your ‘internal customers’; treat them like your customers and that’s how you take care of employees.

Some companies are surprised to learn that their customers actually care about how you treat your employees. It’s related to authenticity.

If you treat your customers well and your employees poorly, word gets around. And the thing you’ll lose is authenticity. When authenticity goes down, it’s likely that trust and revenue will follow in short order.

To keep your company on the upward trend to success, remember the four factors of Leadership 4.0 and your goals will be closer than you think.

Dr Timothy Low is the consultant for HealthCare Investment at Pavilion Capital (Temasek ) and is the current CEO and member of the Board of Directors at Farrer Park Hospital in Singapore.