It seems that for now, we are living under a regime of mutual assistance: the initiatives of businesses, opinion leaders and ordinary citizens to gather funds for medics, education institutions, rallying volunteers and helping risk group citizens are laudable. Beyond these achievements, there is a myriad of other actions, which we can be proud of and which we managed to achieve together.
But will such unity and commonality be retained over the coming weeks, months or even years? Will we really have the internal energy and motivation to help others, when we ourselves are no longer certain about our future, no longer feel financially and emotionally secure? It is then, when we come to lack faith and an internal energy that we will need Leaders as never before, ones who we would believe and who we would let lead us.
Do we have such leaders today among our politicians, business figures, news media representatives, opinion-makers? There are, but not as many as there could be or as many as we would want. What is lacking so that not only during a crisis, but overall we would have more leaders in Lithuania than we believe?
Firstly, I think that one of the core reasons is the still enduring vertical leadership – when you operate based on the “top-down” model. While most managers boast loudly about teamwork and decision making freedom, the reality is a little different – often the final say goes to the top-level manager.
This practice has two sides to it. Firstly, during a crisis, particularly one such as the current one, when there is much uncertainty and a lack of clarity, one or several top-level managers cannot and do not know all the right answers. Namely, this is why it is important to enabling staff to act and make decisions independently. This situation is the best time to turn “mine” into “ours” and express, as well as apply the principle of equivalence.
Second, without trust in one’s staff and without granting them space to be responsible for their own decisions and actions, you do not nurture new leaders.
Moving from vertical management to horizontal is easy for neither the manager, nor the staff, however, I can assure you that in the long term, the result will exceed expectations.
Be open and honest, even if sometimes the truth isn’t very pleasant and the thoughts you express might not match the “popularity” criteria. By underestimating people, thinking they will supposedly not understand or fear the real situation and by talking overly optimistically, we do ourselves a disservice. At a time of crisis, we should not live in an “alternate reality.” The openness of leaders will help unite their teams for a common goal and in the face of such difficult times, it is a way to keep everyone together.
The final trait, which I believe is essential for any true leader is empathy. When faced with a crisis, people first think about survival – the fulfilment of their and their close ones’ needs. Unfortunately, in business, the typical practice is often different – firstly thinking about the retention of business and not people. And this is an essential point, where two contradictory viewpoints clash: the employer and the employee, the seller and the buyer, the politician and the voter and so on.
Humanity and empathy are traits which must be demonstrated when facing crises. You need not go far to seek examples of what happens when these traits are undermined – company reputations, crafted over years and years fall; offices are lost; trust is lost, which later on, do agree, is hard to regain.
I hope and believe that the COVID-19 virus crisis will nurture a new generation of leaders, especially given that we already have good practices. We need only not lose strength and inspiration and be leaders not temporarily, but to the very end.
