As former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault wrote in mid-March, “How our businesses, chief executives and other corporate leaders respond now will play a large part in determining whether we can defeat coronavirus without paying a huge price in lives and national wealth.”
With the new era of diseases and disruptions, competencies of leaders have been pointed again, a red alert has been raised. Especially after the pandemic, work from home on one hand might have opened opportunities for employees as the means of flexibility, but it has emerged as a challenge for many leaders. Leaders are being questioned again and again about their departmental strategies, about the values and the results, the way they are managing teams and evaluating team performances.
I have seen leaders that had been in the industry for more than 12 years started quitting, staying back, pressured and felt deep into depression! they were not ready for it and they did not even try, in other words – incompetency – which ultimately affected the quality of their decisions and ended up with layoffs of key employees, unpaid leaves and major pay cuts. Dumping all pressure on employees and their well beings.
This situation calls for the updated version of leaders who really need to have patience, empathy, understanding of each team member and exceptional emotional intelligence before taking any harsh decisions or passing on pressure. Once this is over, it will define the new and true versions of each leader!
As it is said, ‘leadership is not defined by the leaders themselves but by the people they lead’