4 Leadership traits when navigating a crisis.

In the spring of 2020, McKinsey Organisation posted a thought leadership article defining the qualities that would be most useful to leaders navigating a crisis - at a time when crisis was universal.

On first read, they were not what you expect.
They didn’t relate to military planning, expert ability or Churchillian communicative powers.
They were quite simply the traits that define our humanity.

Having navigated the biggest crisis to define most of our lives, it’s clear why McKinsey connected effective leadership and deep humanity. It also became obvious which political, social and organisational leaders demonstrated these qualities. These traits are not just useful in a crisis - it just took a crisis to highlight them and by honing these traits throughout your own leadership, you will make better decisions, have deeper connections, initiate trust and have greater impact. 

1. Awareness:
   All progressive development starts with awareness. All successful change does too. Awareness means our ability to be conscious of and attuned to situations, environments and people. For a leader to make good decisions they must be able to take a measure of what is – not just rely on what they are told, or what has always been, not only reading the here and now, but sensing it in what may not have yet surfaced as fact or acknowledged in discussions.

2. Vulnerability: 
   The ability to get things wrong and call it. It is opposite thinking to right and might, putting aside our expertise to make space for what we have to learn, what we don’t yet know. It requires deep trust in ourselves and those around us. Leaders are not perfect. You do not know everything. You require consult. You make mistakes. You must learn over and over again. Without vulnerability, there can be no progress.

   “If you are not vulnerable you are not learning, and if you are not learning what are you doing in the room? Because in complexity and crisis being the fastest learner is going to help you recover fastest from the crisis.”

   Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, Declan Fitzsimmons

3. Empathy: 
   Psychologists Daniel Goleman, writer of the best-selling Emotional Intelligence, and Paul Ekman describe 3 types of empathy which humans can express. When I talk to teams about empathy there is often someone within the group who queries whether they have the ability to be empathetic, equating it with feeling comfortable in offering sympathetic support.
   One of the Eckman & Goleman’s empathetic types is cognitive empathy; the ability to see and connect with another’s perspective. But very few problems can be solved without the ability to surface and respect (even if you don’t own) another’s perspective.
   Creativity, innovation & problem solving all require the ability to discuss and see value in other perspectives. Stay open, welcome empathy.

4. Compassion:
   The literal meaning of compassion is to suffer together.
   Psychologists tell us that people demonstrating compassion feel motivated to relieve that suffering.
   Having compassion is action based; it’s not just an expression of emotion but the action as result of the motivation to help.
   As a leader you will have ability, power and networks.
   But how likely will you be to make something happen if you have the means and the emotional connection to the suffering? Ask yourself; what changes have you seen in your workplace, community or society when someone has actioned something they feel passionate about? And assess if the impact of these compassionate actions are weak or transformative?

Leadership is a human skill.
And whether you are leading a team through an administrative crisis or a global crisis your ability to hold the hearts and minds of your team will depend on your comfort in showing and feeling your own humanity.

Tapping into your humanity is not always easy.
Annette Burns Young is igniting courageous leadership globally with her coaching tools and programs Get in touch today. Let's work together 

Executive Coach & Leadership Development Consultant
Integral Facilitator | Business Advisor & Director

With over 25 years of leading teams and business Annette Burns Young holds deep “in the field” experience of all aspects of organisational life—growth, change, crisis, and transformation. As a coach, facilitator and business advisor her work supports leaders, entrepreneurs and leadership teams through growth and transformation. Trained in areas of organisational systems, psychology, adult development, neuroscience, movement and mindfulness Annette is a Certified Professional Integral Coach, Certified Integral Facilitator, a NLP Master Practitioner, as well as a Certified Pilates and Movement Teacher. Working with international and multicultural teams Annette delivers the work through a myriad of mediums—from ‘in residence’ leadership retreats to globally attended Thought Leadership webinars.