Leadership in Crisis
Written by: Imogen Beecroft Photography by: Markus Spiske
In times of crisis, political and business leaders are scrutinised more than ever. And this pandemic is no different. Comparisons will be made and lasting conclusions drawn as the public looks to its leaders to guide, inspire, and support them through very dangerous waters. Here, Audley’s Imogen Beecroft delves into the intricacies of leading at such a complicated time, when survival as well as humanity and economics are all of the utmost importance.
Leaders must be brave and courageous, but aware of their own limitations. They must be decisive, but self-aware enough to change when proved wrong.
Leaders must be authentic and act with integrity; be honest and resilient. They must be inspirational, sparking loyalty and dedication in their teams, but also humble to a fault. Not an easy task in the best of times. All of these refrains we constantly hear about leadership are true; but they are true all the time, whether or not a global health and economic crisis rages.
So, what’s different about the leadership response to this crisis? Or, rather, what needs to be different?
For many leaders, the question keeping them up at night will be how they keep their business afloat. How, in the coming months, weeks, days, will they maintain a balance sheet in the black? How will they pay wages? Put simply, how will they make sure there’s a business to come back to once the ‘new normal’ resumes?
Many that do survive will do so precisely because they cultivated a pre-crisis leadership that embodied these characteristics, safeguarding the company and its workforce well before the first whiff of a crisis had left Wuhan. And survival is only step one.
When we emerge from this crisis, we will not bounce back, as early predictors of a palatable V-shaped economic and psychological recession suggested. We will be bruised and broken – financially and emotionally. The virus will have touched everyone’s lives in some way. Many will have lost financial stability, others will be questioning the work-life routine they once took for granted, and far too many will have lost friends or family.
In some ways, this is what is different about this crisis: its universality. And this is why compassion and collaboration must be the core characteristics of any leader who is to weather this storm.
We’re seeing this play out in the political sphere: leaders who are prepared to show their humanity have seen a positive public response and generous coverage from the media. Angela Merkel, Andrew Cuomo, and Leo Varadkar have all revealed their own personal responses to lockdown and benefitted from the accompanying ratings bump.
Rapidly cementing her position as poster girl for the empathetic leader is New Zealand’s Jacinda Arden, whose reaction to COVID-19 has been swift and emotive yet eminently pragmatic. This is a delicate balance to hold: the Easter bunny as a ‘critical worker’ may have been a step too far for some but – perhaps lockdown is making me cynical – for others, it may have been just enough.
The same is true in business: the leaders who made intelligent and compassionate decisions will be well remembered. And the gold standards of honesty and bravery remain true: never put something in an email that you wouldn’t be prepared to take a call about. On the micro, internal level, this might mean looking after the mental health of employees such as Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield’s all-staff memo which stated, “I want to repeat with a little more emphasis something I already said: don’t stress about work.”
More broadly, it might be Comcast’s offering of free 60-day internet to low-income and student households. Or Goldman Sachs’s donation of 600,000 masks in March which it had stored, “in the wake of previous epidemics”. A decision that smacks of an institution smart enough to heed scientists’ warnings – they’ve been saying that the next crisis our planet faces is likely to be a pandemic for years.
Most obviously, the question of executive pay will be one by which leaders are judged. And the country will remember those whose measures were designed to keep cash reserves high within the firm, to line their coffers ahead of the impending recession, and those who donated personal earnings to COVID-19 charities. There is a big difference between the Big Four accounting firms slashing partners’ pay by up to a quarter to build up cash reserves and Barclays’ CEO, Chairman, and CFO donating one third of their pay for the next six months to the bank’s coronavirus aid fund.
To respond with genuine compassion and empathy, one needs to listen: to employees, the public, and peers. It is a time to empower and enable colleagues that may be better suited to providing an empathetic lead. Do not be afraid of a flatter hierarchy over the next few months. At the same time, use your leadership ‘trump card’ – whatever it is that put you in this role – when it really matters. If your leadership is well-established and respected, collaboration will only reinforce your standing.
And beyond this internal collaboration, the world will demand greater collective action from its corporate leaders, something that has been sorely missing in the global political response. Now is not the time for earnings comparisons; there is no public appetite for competition.
With the best will in the world, no actions will stand the test of time unless they are communicated well, and differently. There is so much noise about coronavirus that a normal communications protocol won’t cut it. At Audley, we call this ‘unconventional wisdom’. But whatever it means to you – engaging on a one-to-one basis with junior colleagues, using a medium unfamiliar to you or showing some of your own struggle – your only hope of cutting through the noise is to rise above it. Collaboration and collective action are a good place to start.
Imogen Beecroft
Imogen Beecroft is Head of Client Services at Audley, working with corporate clients and private individuals to develop solutions to a range of reputational and business communications challenges. Imogen has written speeches for clients across the business, political, and philanthropic spheres and has co-authored several pieces of thought leadership, including two reports published by The Leadership Council, based on a series of in-depth interviews with business and thought leaders.