By Jojo Fresnedi, Managing Director – Except One Pte Ltd
Did you ever think Covid-19 could change the world overnight? Before December 2019, we never even heard that this virus, super new and super lethal, exists. And now, if you read what the experts say, it seems it’s here to stay.
It has plunged the world in to massive uncertainty and unpredictability. Every time something like this happens, the natural human tendency is to feel lost. And in that state of mind, come feelings of stress, anxiety, frustration, and helplessness.
This is a time for leadership. Leading for a Better Normal. (I owe that term to Prof. Michael Tan of UP. This article comes in three parts. Part I is my definition of leadership and some key leadership indicators. Part 2 consists of my observations of how leadership is exercised – or not – during this pandemic. Part 3 is what leaders need to do to create a better normal.
Before I continue, allow me to state that I’ve been doing leadership development for over 30 years. I am a trainor, curriculum designer, talent management director, life coach, speaker, and a leader in corporations many times over. I’ve personally seen how leadership works – and how it does not.
PART 1: A DEFINITION OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership is mobilizing people for a common purpose to make a positive difference.
By mobilizing people, I mean rallying, summoning, calling to arms and compelling people to action. There’s an anecdote that illustrates this. When Cicero spoke, people applauded. When Caesar spoke, people marched.
The common purpose is the greater good as opposed to personal interests and ambitions.
To inhabit that definition, a leader needs to remember the following things:
#1 – Leadership is about creating new realities. It is about bringing forth something that didn’t exist before. Leadership is about envisioning, aligning, and empowering.
#2 – Leadership is about action. There’s a beautiful saying in Papua New Guinea: “Knowledge is only a rumor unless it lives in the muscle.”
#3 – Leadership is about four tasks. You only need to remember four. One, providing direction. Two, delivering results on that direction. Three, growing people, especially more leaders. And, four, creating a healthy environment, one where people can say, “I am valued. I belong. I make a difference.” Leadership is a verb.
#4 – Leadership is service. You’ve all heard of the term “Servant Leadership”. Robert Greenleaf of AT&T coined the term in 1970. He wrote: “The servant-leader is servant first … It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.
PART 2: LEADERSHIP IN A CRISIS
Let me now talk about the crisis we’re in and how leadership is exercised. Nothing reveals – or exposes – leadership competence or the lack of it more than a crisis, like Covid-19.
A crisis is both a spotlight and a microscope. Many looked good; others did not. In the former are the leaders of New Zealand, Taiwan, Germany, Vietnam, Iceland, Singapore. In the latter are the leaders of the US, UK, Brazil, India and, sadly, our own Philippines.
What did the leaders in the former group do? What did the leaders in the latter group do? How did they exercise leadership?
Professors Michaela J. Kerrisey and Amy C. Davidson of Harvard Business School said that crisis management requires a leader that overcomes his instincts so he can lead effectively. Crisis demands a counterintuitive mindset. They have identified four critical behaviors. I shall use these behaviors to frame my observations:
#1 is Acting with Urgency. The instinct to overcome is waiting for additional information.
Consider the action of Adam Silver, the Commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA). On March 11, the day the World Health Organization designated Covid-19 a pandemic, Silver suspended the season. The following month would have been the start of the playoffs! It caught everyone by surprise and caused a ripple effect. The NCAA’s “March Madness” (one of the biggest sports events in the US), the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball seasons were likewise suspended.
With the situation largely uncertain, the smart move would have been to delay action until things became clearer. Why risk billions of dollars? But Silver reasoned: by the time the dimensions of the threat are clear, you’re badly behind in trying to control the crisis. He was right!
#2 is Communicating with Transparency. Communicating bad news is a thankless task. Leaders who do so risk demoralizing citizens, employees, customers, stockholders, investors, and others. It is bad for the leader’s popularity. So, it takes wisdom and courage to understand that communicating with transparency mitigates risk.
Watch Prime Minister Lee of Singapore conduct his public briefings, and you’ll die of envy. In a clear, coherent manner, in the languages of Singaporean citizens (English, Singaporean Mandarin, Malay), PM Lee would lay down the facts (how many cases to date, where the virus came from, in which area it was heaviest), and detail the action to be taken. He would always end with a note, that with the usual Singaporean discipline, the country could overcome the crisis. (Jacinda Ardern, by the way, ended all her briefings with the words, “The enemy is the virus, not the people who contracted it. Always be kind.”)
#3 is Responding Effectively to Missteps. Covid-19 spawned a crisis that is new – and very complicated. Problems and mistakes happen regardless how well a leader acts. How a leader responds to these unavoidable mistakes and unexpected challenges is just as critical to his or her first responses.
#4 is Constant Updating. As someone who coaches leaders how to manage change, I tell my client-leaders, “Continue the briefings, even if you sound like a broken record. Remember: people are under stress, they’re scared, they feel like they’ve lost control. It’s difficult for them to absorb your message. You have to repeat yourself several times because if they don’t get you, they’ll make up their own message and spread it.”
The Leader’s Character
I’d like to say a few things about Filipino virtues and how they relate to leadership today.
I’ll begin with the core foundations of our Filipino humanism – kapwa and loob. According to Prof. Virgilio Enriquez, founder of Sikolohiyang Pilipino, “Kapwa is a recognition of a shared identity, an inner self shared with others. It is unique to us because its inclusiveness implies the moral obligation to treat one another as equal fellow human beings.” Prof. Enriquez added, “If we can do this – even starting in our own family or our circle of friends – we are on our way to practice peace.”
Recall the nation’s response when Taal Volcano erupted. The South Luzon Expressway was filled with private and public vehicles rushing food, water and clothing to affected communities. Many adopted communities and established temporary shelters for displaced families. Recall, too, the reaction of companies, major and small ones, and private individuals when Covid-19 landed in the country. Donations, both cash and in kind, poured in. Major initiatives began, THAT is Kapwa. I am not well if my neighbors are not well.
Let me now go to Part 3.
PART 3: AFTER THE CRISIS
Sarah Zhang, staff writer of The Atlantic, penned a sobering article entitled “The Coronavirus Is Never Going Away.” She said experts say Covid-19 has become too widespread and too transmissible. “The pandemic will end at some point – because enough people have been either infected or vaccinated – but the virus continues to circulate in lower levels” around the globe. Cases will wax and wane over time. “Even when a much-anticipated vaccine arrives, it is likely to only suppress, but never completely eradicate the virus.” Bottomline? “We will probably be living with this virus for the rest of our lives.”
What then should leaders focus on? What would be required of them?
Writing in Strategy + Business, Bhushan Sithi and Jean-Francois Marti of PricewaterhouseCoopers recommends a shift in attention when things begin to improve, namely from “survival and resilience to recovery and long-term health of your company.” They said it’s time “to redesign your customer and employee experience.” There are four things leaders should do:
#1, Go deep on employee safety and well-being. Make a promise to your employees that you will take care of them, and mean what you say
Ramon S. Ang, Chairman of San Miguel Corporation (and FEU Alumnus) has declared over and over that lives are more important than money. He said, “We can make money again later, but life once you lose it, it’s gone forever.” Nothing could be more sensible. When the government said it was OK to go back to work, SMC had all of its 70,000 employees tested for Covid-19. SM Holdings did the same. SMC, Ayala Corporation, and United Laboratories promised full pay for their employees during the lockdown.
#2, You’ll have to give employees the tools and support they need to shift from face-to-face collaboration to long-term, virtual work. These may include: laptops, faster WiFi, Zoom subscription or connection, cloud storage, office furniture, etc. Your online/IT systems are critical.
#3, Deepen your connection with those who work for you. Here’s a good question: If you’re working remotely, what is the new meaning of belonging to an organization? I won’t pretend to know the answer to that one, but it’s certainly worth thinking about. Given the distance, leaders would need to double down on a strong and positive work culture, one that demonstrates a connection to and care for employees in every possible way. This requires authenticity, compassion, and empathy from leaders.
#4, Reconsider how you you’re defining success. This pandemic will force us to re-evaluate how we work and how we measure employee performance. How does a leader ensure employee productivityand well-being while they’re trying to cope with the disruptions of working remotely, at the same time, worrying what the future may hold for their careers, families, and loved ones? What positive behaviors would you like to spread throughout the organization and that negative ones should be eliminated?
I’d like to close with the words of Kouzes and Posner, pioneers in the field of leadership development. “Leadership is an art, performing art. And in the art of leadership, the artist’s instrument is the self. The mastery of the art of leadership comes from the mastery of the self. Ultimately, leadership development is a process of self-development.”
A good leader is a good person.
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