Resilience marks the ability of humans to bounce back from adversity

If you have been in North India lately and have set out for a breakfast meeting, you will know what it is like to drive through a fog. The fog can be really thick, obscuring the road and other vehicles ahead of you. What prudent drivers do is to switch on their low beam lights, as well as their tail-lights and blinkers.

Sight is obviously crucial while driving, but in a fog you need all your other senses to be primed and at the ready to stay secure yourself and also help other drivers stay safe on the road. And with all that in place, it is possible to get around.

Driving in the Delhi fog this mid-January morning, it occurred to me that there’s a leadership lesson embedded in there. Leading in the current uncertain environment is quite like driving through a fog. With alertness, common sense, care for others, and ingenuity, you can make the whole trip successfully.

2020s have so far been a decade of unprecedented turbulence. The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on our lives—personal and professional. It’s been a time when countries and organisations alike have needed resilient leadership.

If you read through some of the success stories of those who successfully led their organisations through the crippling uncertainty of Covid-19, five qualities stand out; qualities that leaders brought to the fore in steering their ship, ensuring it did not veer off course.

Leading in the current uncertain environment is quite like driving through a fog. With alertness, common sense, care for others, and ingenuity, you can make the whole trip successfully. It’s been a time when countries and organisations alike have needed resilient leadership.

Quiet determination

In tough times people look for calmness at the top. Not chest-thumping bravado. When the path ahead is uncertain, you need someone who exudes positivity and a quiet determination. They are looking for someone pragmatic enough to deal with uncomfortable truths and has , also admit what they do not know, and reinstils belief that adversity will be defeated. These are times when community matters the most. And it’s the leader of the community who sets the tone.

Authenticity

Being authentic helps at the best of times; in the worst of times becomes life-preserving. Having the courage of live and lead authentically on the edge of chaos is an invaluable leadership trait. No false narratives. For the leader it’s a balance between being vulnerable and sharing their own fears and struggles, and also being a comfort and demonstrating stability to the team. At no time was this more abundantly clear than during the depressing months and years of the novel coronavirus. These are times when leaders need to be honest and transparent, while aligning people to a common vision and purpose.

Communication

This may be the most obvious but also perhaps the most critical. In uncertain times everyone needs to be constantly updated about the direction the organisation is moving. Why? Because in times of tumult, rumours abound and anxiety reigns. In that environment, and in the absence of clear communication, people imagine all sorts of scenarios. It is critical for leaders to reinforce company values, purpose and behaviours. I maintain that leaders communicate even when they don’t have all the answers—what it does is demonstrate their resolve to deal with concerns and needs.

Investing in well-being

Chaos brings with it stress. And organisations need de-stressed employees. I read a recent report that talked about the UK engineering group Rolls Royce. Its CEO said they were determined to bust the myth that productivity only comes from driving people harder. If you look at the whole person, and invest in the well-being of employees, it ultimately fetches better results. Moreover, the cost of leaving issues of well-being unmanaged can be catastrophic. This is especially true in a post-Covid world, which has moved well-being centrestage, almost in step with purely financial measures of progress.

Human ingenuity

So, finally, we come to the most important trait that helps leaders triumph in the face of adversity. It’s quite simply human ingenuity. And this is the one that I will dwell most on.

Humans destroyed Hiroshima by dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese city in 1945. 141,000 people died. But then humans also rebuilt Hiroshima;?the resurrection began just hours after it was effectively wiped from the map. Built on ashes and rubble, Hiroshima today is a major urban centre.

History is replete with such examples. Take the case of smallpox. It was one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity and caused millions of deaths before World Health Organisation (WHO) launched an intensified plan to eradicate smallpox in 1967. Widespread immunisation and surveillance were conducted around the world and just 13 years later WHO declared smallpox eradicated—the only infectious disease to achieve this distinction.

Likewise, we are also closer than ever to eradicating polio from the world. And, remember, polio was seen as the scourge of the 20th century.?

In times of chaos and despair, smart leaders need to reinforce these narratives of human ingenuity. For it not only lifts our spirit but also motivates us to work hard and provide an antidote to despair.

Talk about Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright, who said without order, nothing can exist, but without chaos nothing can evolve. Talk about Nobel laureate songwriter Bob Dylan, who said: Chaos is a friend of mine. Or talk about George R.R. Martin, the American novelist and screenwriter, who said this about chaos:

“Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm, or the gods, or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.”

When the chips are down we need to hear these words from our leaders. Also, for a long time in the business world the buzz has been about disruption. I think the key word in current times has become resilience, not disruption. Resilience marks the ability of us humans to bounce back from adversity and grow from the challenge. We have the innate ability to move quickly from analysis to a plan of action—from cause-oriented thinking to response-oriented thinking.

Steve Jobs, perhaps the greatest entrepreneurial creator of our times, had this to say:

“If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”