Leadership Post- COVID: What Really Matters, and What Doesn’t
The COVID-19 pandemic was a global crisis that turned out to be one of the toughest tests for leaders to skillfully maneuver through. Research on Lessons Learned From a Pandemic points out that leaders in every sector (health, business and even politics) can learn from the mistakes that happened during the pandemic to be better prepared to face future challenges.
As organisations begin to recover, business leaders in the U.K. have a positive outlook on the economy in 2022. A survey by J.P. Morgan found 77% of midsize companies expect profits to meet or surpass pre-pandemic levels. Chief Executive Officer EMEA of J.P. Morgan, Viswas Raghavan, points out that from the past two years, business leaders learned how to adapt and prepare for any crisis and are now entering a period of renewed confidence and high growth.
These are just a few traits that make a great leader post COVID-19. In this article, we’ll look at some additional leadership insights that matter, as well as others that may not be as important.
Key Takeaways for Leaders
Love in Leadership
Love may not sound like it has a place in business leadership, but through the lessons of the pandemic, it does now. An article by LSE makes a point that leaders who lead with compassionate and love create workplaces with higher levels of engagement and accountability. Such a quality is important when workers experience an emergency, like a family member in the hospital due to the coronavirus or something similar. When leaders act with compassion and love, they communicate empathy, which boosts employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Be Adaptive
A hybrid work model allows for higher flexibility in working hours, along with remote work for the employees. While this may work for some employees, others may crave the structure of an office environment. This makes adaptability crucial for a leader. A piece by LHH on hybrid workplace leadership suggests that keeping strong lines of communication open with employees is key to understanding each employee’s individual needs so that they can produce optimal results. A leader must recognise the hybrid model is far from perfect, and practice adaptability in situations with grey areas.
An example of two great leaders that convey such adaptability are the London-based Hinduja brothers, Sri and Gopi. Amid increased inflation, which hit a record 40-year-high of 9% in April 2022, they skillfully adapted and maneuvered their way through the chaos and thus, are still among the richest people in the UK with a £28bn fortune.
Create a Shared Identity
The feeling of vulnerability against the virus, regardless of social status, brought a sense of shared identity amongst people, which in turn spread throughout Europe and the world. If leadership post-COVID could recreate the same sense of shared identity and collaboration within a team, everyone would feel a sense of purpose and work together towards the same goal.
What Leaders Should Let Go Of
There are a few insights COVID-19 also taught leaders not to give too much importance to, and perhaps even consider letting go of. Here are a few of them.
Employee Engagement
Our previous piece entitled Does Employee Engagement Really Drive Productivity? outlines that activities like free food, pizza parties, and cake in the breakroom are poor engagement strategies. Instead, leaders should organise celebration events, or announce an employee of the month to commend great work. These strategies are effective team building activities.
Task-Oriented Leadership
In the past, it wasn't uncommon to see leadership focused on rushing to get things done. During COVID-19, leaders learned to let go of pushing and micromanaging, and let people work to come up with the best possible output within a given time frame instead. Thus, there's now been a transition from task-oriented leadership to people-oriented leadership. As stated earlier, this new style marks an era of leadership that's adaptive and full of empathy.
The pandemic turned out to be a training ground for the new type of leadership that we have today. Such leadership has allowed companies to survive and thrive despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic. Hopefully, more leaders can adapt these traits and make any organisation an ideal workplace for growth and development.
