In these interesting times what should you as a leader need to know more of

Published on May 25, 2020 Michael Lang

My colleague, Michael Lang put together this concise, to the point article that I thought you would find a valuable read.

There are so many articles on leadership and what and what not to do so I thought I would distill these down to my top 7.

1. The health and economic impacts of coronavirus will be continuous, non-linear and global and so what steps do you need to take to provide certainty to all stakeholders of the business (and I mean clients, employees, shareholders, financiers, suppliers and government)? How are you effectively communicating this?
2. State support of companies, such as government monies in all forms, means that governments may play an increasing role in corporate life, affecting everything from salaries to customer engagement. Something to think about. If you accept the money, so to the intervention that may come with it.
3. Even after the impact of the pandemic subsides, there will be anxiety about the prospect of another seemingly unforeseeable crisis. How do we effectively communicate to our stakeholders of the business that we have strategies and plans accordingly? What do we share from the learnings from the current environment we find ourselves in?
4. Companies with strong balance sheets, excellent cost management and effective cash flow will likely not only survive but thrive. Others may fail. So what is the top 3 areas to focus on within cost management and revenue creation? What is your resilience strategy?
5. Some business models will change completely, including those that rely solely on just-in-time operations and thin supply chains. How are you positioning yourselves? How are you communicating these changes to your supply chain AND your clients?
6. There will be questions around being global versus being local. Manufacturing of essential products will depend less on foreign partnerships that can easily fail during worldwide crises. If your clients asked you how have your dependencies changes, what would your answer be?
7. The crisis will accelerate transformation, including digital transformation. In some cases this will be the catalyst for changes that leaders had long put off or pushed back against. We know some organizations that transitioned in a home-based work model quite easily as they were already “online”. Is there more work you need to do in this area? How have you gone with releasing "control" based management?

AS an effective leader you will need to review your strategies, business plans, organizational structure and put in place "a medium-term plan that is robust and has flexibility".

If not already, you will need to be a critical thinker, improve your self-awareness and adaptability, alongside strong communication skills and "a sense of humanity".