How To Be A Transformational Leader During A Crisis

COVID-19 is a global mess with tentacles, everywhere, affecting all aspects of life – and doing so simultaneously. The best definition of the tumultuous COVID-19, which has caused an unprecedented crisis, has to come from Louis Onyango Otieno. Chair Of The Board Sera Afrika and Absa Asset Management (K) Ltd., and Non-Executive Director Nation Media Group and Absa Bank Kenya. “It creates uncertainty because it is a situation undefined. It makes leadership challenging because a leader must make a series of difficult decisions in a crisis. A good leader leads the enterprise to survive; a poor one causes a business to wind up.” Emerging from the other side of this crisis as one of those epic case studies where the industry applauds ingenuity is the most aspirational thing a business can do right now.

“A crisis, more than anything else in life, amplifies strengths and weakness and accelerates an organisation’s trajectory. See it is a gift to a great leader. Many of us have been active crusaders for digital transformation; now there is no luxury on time. COVID-19 shines a spotlight on what and where you were at.”

As Chair and Director of several entities, Louis knows a thing or three about leadership during a crisis. A crisis should be manned by someone who looks at the strategy and notices it has disrupted everything. The immediate response once leaders understood what COVID-19 meant, especially considering government directives that impacted the bottom line, was to make cost-cutting decisions quickly or it would drain the financial organisation. Staff compensation brought forth compassion via pay cuts with leaders empathising with the situation and taking pay cuts on a graduated basis. The more you made, the more there was to cut.

“There were instances in some businesses where the Board did not have to, but they chose to take pay cuts in solidarity.” Constraints in movement brought about remote working to minimise the loss of business. It did not matter which organisation it was. It was a decision that had to be made, and what had to be done was put staff on leave, paid or unpaid, suspend casual contracts, do all that was possible to minimise the bottom line to keep the organisation operating. Mainly because who knows how far this will go, subsequent actions were made to focus on the future as everyone executed short term interventions.

This is where staff and leaders both learned which one of their processes and configurations to adopt, what skills need acquisition, take advantage of new competitors emerging, and what were their attributes. Louis lists the kind of traits required as: “awareness, foresight, decisiveness, compassion, empathy, focus, composure, strategic thinking, becoming a learner with reliable sources of information, to make fast decisions, be available by giving a lot more time to your team – and know where to go (mentally) during lockdown.

“The business strategy and enterprise mobility legend adds that, “All organisations have expectations towards decisions made by me towards them.” It can call for the suspension of the usual constraints – enough that there is a plan, and as regulators, they need to support given directives. A crisis, more than anything else in life, amplifies strengths and weakness and accelerates an organisation’s trajectory. “See it is a gift to a great leader. Many of us have been active crusaders for digital transformation; now there is no luxury on time. COVID-19 shines a spotlight on what and where you were at.”

If there is one quality we have been inspired to repeat, a mantra that is becoming a part of every industry, it is that there will be a new normal. Louis knows so in his bones and emphasises in spite, or perhaps despite this, there will be “A need for more resources.” That we simply must think of lockdown as an intervention and that this state of affairs we find ourselves in, is introducing us to said new normal.

“Detonate a crisis by letting it explode. In the US, citizens aggressively, and albeit violently, shopped for TP and guns in what was an explosion. In Kenya and Nigeria, we went bonkers over food, and leading to hoarding of hand sanitisers.”

There is an expression; a crisis is too good to waste. Lanre Onasanya, Managing Director H.C. Bonum Ltd., says “Crisis creates energy because it affects you in many ways: emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, socially. The job of the leader is to channel that energy. In crises, energy can be avoided, exploded, or managed.” You will agree, a global pandemic has caused a crisis so profound it cannot be ignored, generating energy that can be handled differently by different leaders. Note each choice has an impact.

Avoidance: Here, the energy is buried, like a nuclear chemical, hidden away not to be dealt with, except for the part where it starts to seep out. You might not even know it is causing harm.

Explosion: Detonate a crisis by letting it explode. In the US, citizens aggressively, and albeit violently, shopped for TP and guns in what was an explosion. In Kenya and Nigeria, we went bonkers over food, and leading to hoarding of hand sanitisers. “My countrymen bought data bundles. Others moved, travelling to what they considered safer destinations. This was an uncontrolled explosion,” muses Lanre.

Manage: This is what is required of a leader. Lassoing, then harnessing the energy that is useful and productive. Based on the webinar survey, 81% of leaders are currently living this approach.

Harnessing comes in three forms: Self, team, and organisation.

Self: Be aware of what you are doing. Check in with yourself and understand who you are and keep in mind that you can’t give what you don’t have. Assign meaning to the crisis. This is where you have the power of choice to get better as a leader. Establish your priorities, which is very different from setting goals. Priorities here could be what COVID-19 has allowed you the opportunity to acknowledge from time to exercise, learning, fasting over Ramadhan – whatever helps you harness your energy.

Team: They are looking up to you to get everyone to calm down. Now is not the time to drink bleach or listen to Fox News. Manage the climate and refocus the team. Acts that will solidify the team are welcome. Review tasks that were to be done before the pandemic, and every week, establish a set of priorities. Check in with your team members and ask how they are feeling.

Organisation: If you lead an organisation, you have other leaders reporting to you. Check in with them to make sure they are ok, and that they are also doing the same for their teammates and harnessing that energy. Reach out to individuals beyond the regular. Talk to junior staff who don’t report to you. You don’t know where talent will come from or get discovered.

And one other thing. Stop locking yourself inward. Impact your community. This applies across teams from work, family to your residence. “Think beyond your immediate team. It is interesting how much leadership this crisis as unearthed,” Lanre points out. “Political leaders are struggling right now, but if you go beyond yourself and reach out to the community, look at different organisations, realise this is also the African way, the spirit of Ubuntu. You must help yourself as a leader so that you have something to give.”

Different personalities, Lanre expands, are reacting to change in different ways. One size will not fit all. “Which is why staying in touch with your team will highlight the value each personality brings to the table. There are Red Hots who will act fast and immediately, Cool Blues who will take their time to work on the process because they need order, routine and systems, Sunny Yellows who find optimism and a joke in every opportunity, and Greens who are a respite for others, able to identify stragglers and reach out to them.”

There will come a time when you ill notice team leaders who just do not rise to the occasion. Again, a crisis amplifies weaknesses and strengths, and this is when you will know someone’s character. That being said, hold your judgement when people do not react or respond the way you expect them to. Once past the crisis, you will learn more about who is what on your team. For instance, who can work remotely without supervision versus who you need to keep a close eye on because they require daily monitoring to get things done? COVID-19 is hardly the be-all-end-all, because work continues.

“The Red Hots act fast and immediately, Cool Blues take their time to work on the process because they need order, routine and systems, Sunny Yellows find optimism and a joke in every opportunity, and the Greens are a respite for others, able to identify stragglers and reach oUT To them.”

But now you know who you can trust to work from home. For the employee, a crisis is an opportunity to showcase yourself to your employers, develop that work-life balance that comes with remote working. Should your team let you down, you will at least know how to manage the team. Ultimately, some will rise; others will fall off; others will stay. As a leader, don’t let your people flounder. Establish processes and ensure your team is focused on priorities and delivery, which starts now. Review KPIs on what they deliver, not if they show up to a physical location, but if they show up. Look for collaborative tools. Virtual is no longer an option. Little dramas are bound to rear their ugly heads. Handle people and situations exactly as you would when working face to face. Humans have not changed. Also, do not hesitate to reach out to a therapist or a coach.

Louis sheds light into a formidable aspect of a business by illuminating that, “If you are going to fail, now is the time to fail fast. The worst thing to do is do nothing. Arm yourself with a lot of knowledge with reliable information; then you can make decisions about the future. Forget this years’ budget. That is already gone and if that is what pushes decisions, forget it, and start looking at 2021. Expect this to continue for some time. And make decisions based on that. Cast your eye a little further out based on things you have picked up on here and there. No one will blame you for taking a position, but as a leader, you must take a position.

This is a reset, and the strategy you had in place has been upended. In the end, Louis predicts, “there will be plenty of case studies everywhere in every industry. These will crystalise cause and effect, particularly with budgets and strategies. We have to be very good at talking business and financial numbers beyond technology.” The essential thing to do as a leader – “Survive. Understand who you are. Start leveraging all the resources available to you. Reach out to your networks. We are all trying to figure this out, prepare for a marathon. This is not a sprint,” lays out Louis.

The next webinar, AI4G: How Artificial Intelligence Is And Can Assist In Curbing The Pandemic, will be next Thursday, April 30, 2020, at 03:00 PM. The key speakers will be Georgina M. Odhiambo, Head of Enterprise Services, National Bank of Kenya, and John Kamara, a Tech Entrepreneur (AI, Blockchain, IoT). Register here.