7 Elements of Leadership to Succeed amidst Pandemonium Times

Certain individuals and organizations have displayed greater resilience to stage a quicker comeback than that of others out of this pandemonium. What comes out clearly was the fact these groups of people had exhibited one or a combination of seven elements of a leader, which differentiates them from others. Let us look at the first of the 7 Elements of Leadership, which are the keys to succeed amidst these pandemonium times.

Element 1: Encourage

The first element of surviving and succeeding in times of crisis and pandemonium is to encourage people to share ideas and get into action. Encourage also means that these companies big or small allowed their people to communicate bad news up the ladder. Conventionally top leaders love to surround people who would sing music to their ears and would like people to tell them what they would love to hear. But the situation had changed completely when we look at the leadership styles of winning organizations.

Dial the CEO:

CEO of a leading Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company had a virtual meeting with all his sales managers in the first week of April 2020 and encouraged them to call him personally if they had any challenges since decisions are to be taken very quickly. His Area Manager called him late in the evening and told him that if the packing sizes are not changed there would be no takers in the market from his area. A particular SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) was being supplied by the competition which was not available with this company and in the changed scenario that SKU was in demand because during COVID times customers were looking at several factors such as transportation and other things when they were making buying decisions. Consumer behaviors had changed and companies had to read the new consumer behavior and change accordingly. The manager knew that this decision can be taken only at the highest level given the urgency. He gave him the required data and persuaded him that if sizes are changed, he would deliver the numbers within a week. This kind of communication was not something possible in the old way of doing things. The AM knew that if this had to be fixed immediately, talking straight with the CEO was the best option. He could not have waited for the regular hierarchical methods of communication. The CEO was walking the talk and got it fixed. He was telling me in my personal conversation that if he had asked that employee to talk with his immediate boss the entire morale of the organization would have gone down. Within minutes the CEO got others into a conference call and the decision was made within an hour to come with a new size of packing and the whole team learned that the management and leadership in the organization has completely transformed where people are encouraged to openly communicate.

Speed of decision-making is very crucial during COVID times and post-COVID 19 because it is not going to be the survival of the fittest but it is going to be the survival of the quickest, fastest and swiftest.