Excellence
in Leadership
You can debate that we need different skills while handling the situation like Covid19. Such situations are extraordinary situations. Such an event happens once in a century. VUCA is one of the words which we always use in management jargon. We always thought that we were living in the VUCA world. If you believe this, then you should be able to handle the Covid19 situation also. Has anybody applied for the course to learn how to manage the situation during Covid19? Perhaps not, but there are a lot of webinars and online sessions conducted by different organizations and forums for professionals. When you listen to all this, you don’t get much new idea how to handle the situation. The wisdom shared is about the consequences, impact etc. However, the wisdom shared about behaviours is still we always speak about. This is the same which we are learning from decades.
One of the problems with such events is people's behaviour. This is called “amygdala hijack”. “Amygdala hijack” is a personal, emotional response that is immediate, overwhelming, and may be out of measure with the actual event because it has triggered a much more emotional threat. In this condition our reasoning, problem-solving and even our ability to “hear” things can be impaired. This creates uncertainty & triggers emotional threat. Further there is a lot of information shared and such information may not necessarily be authentic and true. Fake news spreads like the fire. With social media controlling such news is a bigger issue. This creates further emotional tension and people start behaving weird.
What are those skills leaders need to have during such times? I personally feel that it is not rocket science. This is a time now to execute and implement what we have learnt over a time. This is a combination of management and leadership. During such periods we need tough leadership where people need to make some tough decisions. It doesn’t mean that you should not consider the human element. During such periods, you don’t need to learn new skills but work on those skills you learned over a period and wait to implement in those.
Do you think the following skills are new?
- Clarity of thought,
- Courage,
- Analytical skills,
- Strong Networking and influencing skills,
- Communicating difficult messages,
- Empathy,
- Strategic and tactical skills,
- Agility and
- Strong change management skills.
The approach to implement may be different. Only difference is, now it is the time to exhibit behaviours. You have to figure out those behaviours which should be visible.
Following is the leadership guide which speaks about what you do during normal and abnormal situations. Homework for you is to identify those behaviours and work on that.
In view of Covid19 situation, it is also a time to reflect that we need to exhibit our leadership qualities (which everybody has) to bring back the business. Please watch the presentation below.
Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle; Vitality in Human Resource
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