What we can learn about leadership from the pandemic response
The situation the world is in right now is horrible. Not only are we facing a deadly virus and a possible economic collapse, but we're also facing a battle every day to see the right information at the right time and from the right sources.
As the leaders of every nation stand at their respective podiums, we are looking to them to provide us with stability and help see us through this dark time. No matter how you feel about the current establishment, it's obvious that the job of a leader in these circumstances is incredibly difficult.
Learning about leadership
It's been said before that leadership is not something that comes naturally to most people. One can certainly learn the key skills of leadership, but it can take many years or even a lifetime before you can say that you've "mastered" them. Some even feel that to say you have mastered the skills of leadership is to admit to not being a leader at all.
So what skills have we learnt that are important during this crisis? What skills have stood out among the bad news stories, the frustration, and the fear?
Here are three examples of things we have learnt about that have proven themselves to be invaluable in the last few weeks and continue to inspire us going forward.
Great leaders don't always have all the answers, and that's OK
Every day when we watch the likes of Dominic Raab, Rishi Sunak, or Matt Hancock take to the centre podium we are, by the very fact that there are usually two others in the room, reminded that great leaders don't have all of the answers, and that's OK.
Great leaders are comfortable passing questions to those whom they recognise have better knowledge in a particular field than they possibly do. Whether it's England's Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, or Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific adviser, or the references to the wider SAGE group, the sense that a great leader must be comfortable passing to those with greater knowledge and ability has never been so stark.
Trust is an important part of leadership
A month ago, there were calls for the UK to go into full lockdown mode, but we delayed. Whether that was a good or bad decision will come out in the months to come, but every day for the last week or so, we have seen great praise heaped on the British people for staying at home so much so that stronger measures have been ruled out.
This alone proves that great leaders must have trust and faith in what they're saying, as well as in people to follow suit.
Teamwork really does make the dream work
It's a cliche, but it's true. The last few weeks have seen some incredibly difficult changes, and it would have been easy to slip 'into an all about me' attitude. What we have seen, though, is that great leaders develop teams, they develop mantras, and they develop a sense of belonging, and that makes the difficult choices slightly easier to bear for the people who are following them.
