Being the Agile Boss: The Three Imperatives for Leading Through the Fog of a Pandemic

Original Air Date: 1/14/2021

Business leaders globally are facing unprecedented challenges and uncertainty driven by the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to economic and societal upheaval. As I have conversations with executives and board members across the globe to understand what it takes to lead in these extraordinarily challenging circumstances, one leader, Dr. Rakesh Suri, Executive Officer and Chief of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, said “It’s like leading through a fog”. To paraphrase, he said, “I am trying to steer a ship when I cannot see what’s ahead of me, conditions are constantly shifting, and every choice I make feels perilous.” Leading through this uncertainty requires leaders to adapt their leadership style and approach. How can you lead when your vision is obscured? How can you achieve clarity when the situation is changing rapidly? And what can you do to help your team gain speed and confidence in its decision-making when reliable data is elusive? Throughout my nearly 20 years of field research building agile teams, I’ve found that great leadership involves three imperatives: managing yourself—as in, using yourself as an instrument to get things done; managing your team by creating a motivated and high-performing “we” out of all the “I's” who report to you; and finally, managing your network, meaning, understanding how power works in your company, and building a system of mutually beneficial relationships with people both inside and outside your organization. Together these imperatives comprise the fundamental activities of effective leadership and influence. I will discuss how to think about them in the context of guiding your team and organization in this “new normal.”

The Three Imperatives

Managing Yourself

• Being an agile leader in times of crisis requires a continued commitment to your own well-being and development so you can care for others
• Work harder to build strong emotional connections with others and demonstrate empathy and compassion for what they’re going through
•  Set the stage for your employees to harness their creativity and resourcefulness as you need “all hands on deck”

Managing Your Network

• Proactively manage your ecosystem and be aware of growing interdependence
• Avoid the trap of being a powerless boss when resources are scarce and business models are challenged
•  Reach out to customers, suppliers and vendors to offer assistance to help them weather the pandemic

Managing Your Team

•  Reinforce your team’s purpose and tie it to your team’s work as a way to energize and unify your team
•  Establish values and clear rules of engagement of how your teams work together, including in an inclusive way
• Drive an agile organization that empowers and leverages your people to be innovative problem-solvers and game changers to ensure business survival