4 minute read
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AvIAD gOz
Rethinking leadership system
Leadership system” is a term recently coined to describe the full range of how leadership is exercised, formally and informally, throughout organizations.
The COVID-19 crisis has significantly changed the role of leadership in organizations, having an impact above and beyond the functioning of any given system. The life experiences of those who lead now have not prepared them for this mega VUCA crisis.
A static system will not do for leaders under the current state of affairs because of the vast amount of changes and the prevailing uncertainty. What leaders need instead is a systematic approach to be able to navigate themselves and their people. This approach must be agile, current, and accurate. They cannot simply rely on their previous leadership capabilities. They need a new compass to be able to navigate in these unprecedented times of change.
When the level of uncertainty and ambiguity is almost infinite, people look up to their leaders for answers to some fundamental needs. It has always been like that throughout the history of crisis management. Be it a war, or a natural disaster, people’s needs
Leaders need to take into account the human factor – which goes beyond business and operations, much more than they have done before. It is the element of leading people as people
in such times are known and have been recorded over the ages.
The human factor in leadership now
In times of crisis, leaders owe their people a clear sense of direction and focus, even when visibility is very
poor. This focus or direction can be short-term, with regular updates, allowing for the flexibility required to respond to the constant and rapid changes that times like these require.
Leaders need to take into account the human factor much more than they have done before. The human factor goes beyond business and operations. It is the element of leading people as people. As people are worried and uncertain, leaders need to proactively offer support, encouragement, and engagement.
In short, leaders need to discover their own human aspects, beyond their operational excellence and bring these to the workplace with them. For most leaders, this was not necessarily the case before. So, leaders need to find in themselves those "soft areas" that will enable connection, and therefore a continuation with their teams beyond the crisis.
Leading in a time of crisis
In times of crisis, leaders need to provide transparent and frequent information about what they know and what they do not know, in this way inspiring trust. Employees are not children from whom the grim reality must be hidden. They are adults.
With the right information provided at the right time, they will develop the trust that is so missing in the world at this stage. Leaders can also inspire hope in such times, but it should be open-ended hope, without a deadline.
No one knows how long the current situation will continue. Therefore, to offer hope with clear deadlines ("by the summer it will be over" etc.) is a mistake. If those deadlines do not come into reality, people will wind up breaking down as morale fades, and psychological resilience is weakened.
They need to encourage, contain peoples' feelings, and offer alternative promoting beliefs. All great leaders like Churchill, Gandhi, and Mandela, to name a few, did just that in times of severe crisis.
Lessons from history and the current crisis suggest that great leaders do all of the things mentioned above.
The issue of real leadership has been neglected for too long. Real leaders lead us from A to B both externally and internally. With
Embracing a systematic approach to be able to navigate their people –which is agile, current, and accurate, is important for leaders today
Leaders need to be an example of all the above by choosing to lead themselves first, beyond the boundaries of their own concerns and uncertainties. That is the first thing that is needed. Without self-leadership in a time like this, it is very challenging and almost unethical to offer real leadership to others.
Leaders now need to help those that are worried and fearful to overcome their fears, so they can again become fully functional and contributing employees. They need to legitimize people's concerns and not hold these against them. the right leaders, we grow and develop, whilst reaching new heights of achievements. Not everyone that was nominated as such is fit to be a leader now.
As structures crumble and businesses are heavily disrupted, new types of leaders are needed. They should be able to navigate us even in great uncertainty.
Would you care to join the new leadership that is so badly needed?
aviaD goz is the founder and Chairman of N.E.W.S. Coaching and Training, and the founder of Momentum Group, and a globally recognized thought leader in personal and organizational development.
