Leadership, resilience in a pandemic

To grow a flower, a number of elements, including soil, pots, compost and fertiliser, tools, water and cuttings or seeds are needed. During its development, the planter’s attention is not on the flower, but on the element that makes growth possible - the environment.

This analogy is also applicable to the corporate world. The role of business leaders is to advance the company’s interest while taking up the challenge presented by stakeholders and the environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents yet another challenge where the environment remains volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. During these trying times, leadership is critical at every stage and in very activity.

Leaders, therefore, need to nurture and respond to the prevailing realities. In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nurturing environment needs to be retooled to meet the challenge. When a crisis arises, the person who knows how to solve the problem through motivation is sought after.

Inexperienced leaders can make rash decisions, react too quickly to a situation or may not react at all in hopes that the situation will work itself out.
In our COVID-19 situation, the leader and the team may consider the following:

Living by values

Values are the fundamental beliefs upon which businesses and thier behaviour culture are based. Once set, the core values need to be firm and unwavering.

The values should affect every aspect of the business and its relationships with stakeholders. Strong values give direction to teams and help build a reputation. If taken seriously, values will help form a solid brand identity and a cohesive guide for business growth.

Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, ability, or strength of a person or object. Crisis leaders must seek to consistently build trust in every interaction by conducting themselves in a professional and honest manner.

Leaders should accept responsibility and quickly correct mistakes committed. As a differentiating value, trustworthiness means being reliable and taking responsibility for one’s conduct and obligations.

Sense of purpose, focus

Business leaders should support efforts to minimise the spread of the virus. Demonstrating this sense of purpose will have a positive knock-on effect on staff, and stakeholders.

The staff should be made aware of the changes and variations of COVID-19 in a timely and accurate manner.

From encouraging mental wellness to ensuring employees are financially secure, corporations should take the lead in responding to the crisis.

Crisis can trigger physical reactions that may distort perceptions, decisions and outcomes. This crisis will have a physiological and psychological impact on traditional decision making.

By keeping everyone calm and focused, the leader will be more effective in solving the problem than one who allows panic to ensue.

A proactive strategy that describes the course of actions in response to this event need to be built. It plays a significant role in business continuity, risk management and disaster recovery. Business leaders should establish a cross-functional team to maximise the health, safety and security of staff and other stakeholders.

Team dynamics tend to be exaggerated by the crisis. A well-informed manager or leader should build their team and reinforce organisational values and productivity while ensuring confidence that makes for a stronger organisation, top to bottom.

Stay ‘close’ to clients and customers. Business leaders may need to make a conscious effort to keep customers engaged.

Leaders should start assessing and targeting alternative market segments and identify opportunities for growth.

Stakeholders hold the reputation and future of corporations in their hands. Reputation is based on stakeholder perception about delivering on promises.

Communications strategy

A company’s messaging during this crisis should be authentic. Stakeholder management in this crisis period may include assessing each one’s specific needs and expectations, identifying the team best positioned to communicate and the resources needed and ensuring that communication is tailored to the situation at hand
COVID-19 will tarry for a while and it is not bound to disappear in the immediate term. For longer-term stabilisation, leaders should seek to plan for consumer demand more thoroughly and make their supply networks more resilient.

In any crisis, leaders have competing responsibilities to solve the immediate problem, keeping it from happening again and improving the group’s ability to respond and recover from the breaks. In these times, everyone will be looking up to the leader for guidance.

Leaders should perform and review the operational risks. Finally, leadership needs to conduct scenario planning exercises using new tools and systems to understand the operational implications. This is because existing business continuity plans may not be able of handle the fast-moving variables of this COVID-19 outbreak.

The pandemic will likely result in longer-lasting reconfigurations of operational value chains. To build resilience, leadership needs to be on a constant look out.

The writer is the Coordinator, Security Investigations, Abosso Goldfields

E-mail: ek_agyemang@yahoo.co.uk