- We think of a great leader
as the unwavering captain
who guides us forward
through challenging complexity.
Confident, unwavering leaders,
armed with data and past experience
have long been celebrated in
business and politics alike,
but sometimes and certainly
now a crisis comes along
that is so new and so
urgent that it upends
everything we thought we knew.
(upbeat music)
One thing we know for sure
is that more upheavals are coming.
In a completely interconnected world
a single political uprising,
of viral video, a distant tsunami,
or a tiny virus can send
shockwaves around the world.
Upheaval creates fear,
and in the midst of it
people crave security
which can incline leaders
toward the usual tropes
of strength, confidence,
constancy, but it won't work.
We have to flip the leadership playbook.
First, this type of leadership requires
communicating with transparency,
communicating often.
So how can leaders lead when
there is so little certainty,
so little clarity?
Whether you are a CEO, a prime
minister, a middle manager,
or even a head of school,
upheaval means you have
to ramp up the humility.
When what you know is limited,
pretending that you have
the answers isn't helpful.
Amidst upheaval leaders
must share what they know
and admit what they don't know.
Paradoxically that honesty
creates more psychological
safety for people, not less.
For example when the pandemic devastated
the airline industry virtually overnight,
CEO of Delta Airlines Ed Bastian
ramped up employee communication
despite having so little clarity
about the path ahead,
facing truly dire results.
At one point in 2020,
losing over a hundred
million dollars a day,
it would have been far easier for Bastian
to wait for more information
before taking action,
but effective leaders during upheaval
don't hide in the shadows.
In fact as Bastian put it,
it is far more important to communicate
when you don't have the
answers than when you do.
Second, act with urgency
despite incomplete information.
Admitting you don't have the answers
does not mean avoiding action.
While it's natural to
want more information,
fast action is often the only
way to get more information.
Worse, inaction leaves people
feeling lost and unstable.
When New Zealand Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern
laid out a four level
alert system very early
in the COVID-19 crisis,
she lacked information with
which to set the level,
despite lacking answers she
did not wait to communicate
about the threat with the nation.
At first she set the level at two,
only to change it to four
two days later as cases rose.
That triggered a national lockdown
which no doubt saved countless lives,
later when cases began to dissipate,
she made subsequent decisions
reflecting that new information.
Third, leaders must hold
purpose and values steady,
even as goals and situations change.
Values can be your guiding light
when everything else is up in the air.
If you care about customer experience,
don't let go of that in times of upheaval.
If a core value is health and safety,
put that at the center of
every decision you make.
Now doing this requires
being very transparent
about what your values are,
and in this way, your steadfastness shows
not in your plans, but in your values.
Prime minister Ardern's clear purpose
all along was protecting human life.
Even as the immediate goal
shifted from preventing illness
to preparing health systems and ultimately
to bolstering the economy.
And finally give power away.
Our instincts are to
hold even more tightly
to control in times of
upheaval, but it backfires.
One of the most effective
ways to show leadership,
if counterintuitive, is to share power
with those around you.
Doing this requires asking for help,
being clear that you can't do it alone.
This also provokes innovation
while giving people a sense of meaning.
Nothing is worse in a crisis
than feeling like there's
nothing you can do to help.
We follow this new kind of
leader through upheaval,
because we have confidence
not in their map, but in their compass.
We believe they've chosen
the right direction
given the current information,
and that they will keep updating.
Most of all, we trust them
and we wanna help them
in finding and refinding
the path forward.
(upbeat music)