Thoughts on Today’s Leadership for Tomorrow

In our last talk, we tried to look at the future.

Or, more specifically, in trying to better understand the future unfolding before our eyes with each passing day, we looked back at how situations (both locally and globally) continued to develop, and how perhaps they could have been handled differently.

While my thoughts were primarily speculative based on what I had been observing here and around the world, I carefully prefaced my thoughts by saying that no one can predict the future and that hindsight is always 20/20.

In other words, I didn’t want our discussion to centre on case-by-case analyses, where we picked apart the decisions taken at various levels of leadership and say “Well, this worked” or “That was a terrible decision.”

The fact remains that, even after 5 months, it is still too early to fully grasp COVID-19’s socio-economic impact, especially on the business landscape. While we have seen massive disruptions in the ways that we work, interact, and live, the challenge remains on simultaneously returning to the ways we have grown accustomed to and taking into account the huge leaps we have had to make in dealing with the pandemic and establishing a new leadership status quo.

On one hand, many industries, including financial services, have made significant inroads in promoting more remote, distance and online facilities for both clients and staff. On the other hand, many companies that have not been able to make these infrastructural leaps have had to downsize their operations. A move that comes as many markets were just starting to undo their pre-financial crisis setbacks.

Regardless of the circumstance, the pandemic has created a situation where the world has been forced to grind to a halt in a time when the proverbial engine needed to rev up faster than ever before. In fact, many industries like tourism, construction, and manufacturing, prior to the pandemic, were well positioned to make this year a profitable one. What now?

On a side note, as we are talking about COVID-19 and the future, I want us to consider the impacts that the shutdown has had on our future leaders and entrepreneurs. The disruptions to education and commerce at all levels have been massive. Many students who were on the verge of graduation or simply progressing along their academic (and career) paths have had an unexpected wrench thrown into their plans. Many small and start-up businesses, who after doing all they could to put themselves into operation, have now been thrown into positions of uncertainty, or worse, have had to defer their dreams to some future date.

In addition to having shocked the systems that sustain societies, the pandemic has come along and introduced new fear and doubts into diverse segments; many with dreams of making the world better are now being forcefully shown that it can all go south at a moment’s notice.

Nothing anyone can say or do can make things go back to the ways they were. But this should not be a call for greater consternation and worry. I want to take a stand here – as a leader, a teammate, as a member of generation that has seen trial and challenge in the faces of wars, crises and death – and say that the call for great leadership has never been more in need or stronger than ever before.

I’m sure that we all have both a tale of achievement and a cautionary tale that we can share as we continue to navigate these turbulent times. As relevant as they may be, we should not make them the sole focus.

Without exception, these examples bode well for another re-imagining of the future of leadership. However, I’m more interested in examining how we, as leaders, can do even more to right the sails of our industries, our businesses, our lives in moving forward – and do so from a more advantageous and effective position. Never before has there been a more pressing time for us to lead from the front and not the back; from the ground floor and not the top floor.

This is the NEW new normal of leadership.

I had come across a thought-provoking article in the Harvard Business Review from Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz called “Leaders, Do You Have a Clear Vision for the Post-Crisis Future.”

In it, the authors delve into some of the key attributes that the leaders of today will have to develop if they are to capitalise on the possibility of tomorrow. Among the skills that they discuss, they call for leaders to:

(I highly recommend checking out their article in greater detail. )

To their suggestions, there are a few that I would like to add. Admittedly, mine tend more to the softer side of leadership; the side that is not solely focussed on the financial bottom line but upon those critical factors responsible for securing that bottom line – our people.

Leaders not only lead organisations, they lead people. We are called to inspire, to protect, to mentor, and to be trusted. We are often called and must answer often.

Understanding this is a vital to navigating the challenges we face. The pandemic has come along and apart from the people directly affected by COVID-19, there are those indirectly affected by it.

All over the world, people are experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety and fear. Jobs are on the line, futures are at stake, and many have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Will things get better? Will they get worse?

As leaders, we can make a positive difference by showing greater empathy and compassion. One of the key steps that every leader should adopt is heart-speaking with their teams and showing appreciation.

In a time like this, these gestures, once meaningful and sincere, go a long way toward keeping our teams motivated, engaged, and, most of all, safe. Now is not a time for lip service. If the challenges ahead are dire, be honest with your teams in letting know just how dire. Now is not a time for sugar coating the truth. As much as we would like our teams to know that tomorrow is going to be better, we all have to deal with today first. We have to get them in a position to be able to do so.

In talking with our people, we walk a fine line between optimism and realism. As leaders, we need to believe in ourselves and our abilities to lead. We need to have faith in our people because they are going to need leaders that they can turn to and believe in as they work through this challenge. It is our responsibility as leaders to be those people. Remember, leaders lead by example.

The first step in doing this is understanding that the days of micromanaging and clock watching are over. Over the past two months, many of us have had to implement robust work-from-home policies in order to get the job done. We have had to trust our teams to perform at a top-tier level away from the office. It would be highly counterproductive, as we get back to a semblance of how working schedules used to be, to go back to the ways of so-called lording over our teams. We need to trust our teams more to get the job done within the changed working paradigm. Without this trust, and with constant micromanaging, we run the risk of negatively impacting our people’s work ethic, particularly at a time like this when fear and anxiety are already at fever pitch.

Trust is a major part of an organisation’s work culture. Our teams trust us to be open and honest with them and we must trust our teams to do the same as we work together to get the job done – whether they are seated at their workstations or seated in their homes.

In that same vein, gone are the days when we measured productivity by hours worked. Honestly, I have never been a fan of measuring hours worked in any given day or week simply because it is a poor indicator of true productivity.

I know that there are certain human resource management nuances with this point but we, as leaders, must be more cognizant of the fact that as our teams work remotely, they have now merged two previously separate worlds – home and work.

How fair is it to demand 8 hours of work from our people who, in addition to having to set aside this time, now have the added responsibilities of chores, family obligations, and the like? We may have the unenviable tasks of balancing our business but our teams have to balance their lives.

Compassion, trust and empathy are more critical than ever. Times may have changed but our people are still our people and they are people too.

When US President, Abraham Lincoln, delivered that quote he was dealing with a recently concluded civil war and the abolition of slavery in his newly unified nation. Just on the surface, we can see how those two events would herald a time of unprecedented change and no going back to the way things were.

As leaders, we face a somewhat comparable situation. Even as many quarantine restrictions lift and businesses and people try to pick up the pieces, we know that there is no going back either.

The future is never certain and now it seems even shakier and scarier. But as leaders, we cannot allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the possibilities of what wrong could happen. We need to keep our spirits up about the future.

What’s more, in recognising that we face a new way of doing things, we need to continue striving to be as effective, honest, and open as possible. Yes, we are going to stumble as we chart the future but that is all part of the course. We don’t need quick fixes for the problems we face today. We just need to be in a good position to create and apply solutions, always mindful of what and who matter most.

We need our teams more than ever and they, in turn, need us. As we adapt to the challenge, leaders should never shy away from the hard calls, the heartfelt talks, and the creative strategies that will put us in good stead to realise a better tomorrow.

And we need to do it like President Lincoln said – one day at a time.

What do you think? How has the new normal inspired you to be a more effective leader? Let us know.