A recent study estimates that the current COVID crisis could cost the world USD82 trillion over the next 5 years. In a recent conversation with a CEO, he shared his struggles with surviving, adapting, re-structuring, pivoting, prioritizing, discovering new business streams, and executing new strategies. Here was a pretty successful and effective leader now brought to a new COVID-induced valley. The light at the end of the tunnel for him? His people.
Many bosses are realizing that no matter how well-resourced, automated, or future-proof their firms are, the heartbeat of success still boils down to having great people around them.
Light The LAMP
What are the key attributes that bosses and their teams of strategic workers must display during such dark times? Let me share four of them in the form of an acronym: LAMP.
Leadership
Leadership is the most obvious attribute that bosses and their strategic workers must demonstrate. Management and leadership are two separate groups of people-skill muscles to exercise. Especially in times of crisis, one must lead. Yet for every act of leadership, managerial follow-through is needed. While poor management can be augmented in different ways, poor leadership must be corrected immediately. If these leadership behaviors cannot be corrected within the crucial timeframe, then like a cancerous tumour, these leaders must be removed. Why is this so?
One must be trustworthy in order to lead. Leaders are trusted because they have the necessary character, competence, and credibility to lead. Where such leaders go, others will follow. Where such leaders persist, they replicate better versions of themselves in those they lead. If others follow in the wrong direction, it is very challenging to shepherd an entire flock back on track unless one first corrects the errant shepherd. If toxic leaders are allowed to remain in place, then like a cancer, they spread toxicity unbridled until the entire organization is paralysed unto eventual death.
Leaders are trusted because they have the necessary character, competence, and credibility to lead.
Leaders are trusted symbols. What they signify create a reaction in the rest of the firm. For example, leaders who serve others may engender gratitude, or an inflated sense of entitlement. Hence, leaders must know their impact on others, and be committed to using their impact for a greater good.
Agency
Agency refers to the ability of agents to act out the intent of the principals. This means that agents, i.e. the boss and the team of strategic workers, are able to set goals, monitor, execute and self-correct.
Agency results in agility, which is the ability to adapt well to unforeseen change. Agency also results in foresight, which is the ability to predict change, to pre-empt and put in place the necessary steps to navigate the impending change.
Agentic bosses recognize that plans are crucial but not central, because plans can change. Instead, such bosses put people at the center, precisely because people will change, must lead the change, and can hamper change. Hence, enlightened bosses who manage the agency of people will take control of the change.
People will change, must lead the change, and can hamper change.
Mental Health Acumen
Running a business now is akin to fighting a series of skirmishes. To be successful, one must maintain a high level of energy, vigilance and readiness for bursts of intense engagements followed by a brief post-engagement recovery before moving on to the next engagement. Many organizations I speak to are in fact living out this reality currently.
It is mentally sapping to remain fighting fit for protracted periods of time. This is why having the right mental health acumen is critical. This means that leaders must have greater mental fortitude then those that they lead.
Not only must bosses and their strategic workers be mentally strong, they must also be able to cultivate a similar strength in others. They must track and account for mental well-being as they would any strategic resource such as time, money or social capital. The wasteful worker is the one who does not take care of his own health and transfers cost of mismanaged health to the firm. The irresponsible leader is the one who does not care for the mental wellbeing of his team. The incompetent leader is one who does not even know he needs to do this.
(Leaders) must track and account for mental well-being like they would any strategic resource such as time, money or social capital.
Purpose
Purpose, or more accurately, the ability to forge a shared purpose within the firm, is the last letter of the LAMP acronym. Of course, it implies that there is firstly a clear and appropriate purpose within leaders. Purpose is direction, and includes the skill of defining the aim. The image here is one of an archer who points the bow in the right direction. Correcting for wind, distance, and personal quirks, the archer releases the arrow AFTER the aim has been set.
Now multiply this movement with a team of archers. The ability to forge a shared purpose requires the ability to see through the aim of individual archers, to help novice archers correct their aim, and to orchestrate a collective release so as to achieve a deadly volley.
Purpose is all about deliberate practice. Purpose arises from constant honing, survives the fiercest battering, and thrives when resonant hearts and minds are given voice. Where people falter, you will often find failed or divergent purpose at play.
Purpose arises from constant honing, survives the fiercest battering, and thrives when resonant hearts and minds are given voice.
Keep the LAMP Lit
Above all that bosses do to stay afloat, they must keep the LAMP lit. For it is with lit LAMPs that bosses can pave the way for the firm. How can all these be done? That will be too much to include for this article. Let’s talk instead. But I leave you with 3 tips to consider:
1. Transform HR
Gone are the days where human resource, human capital, or human anything can be organized neatly under a department headed by a chief HRO. I know I may offend many of my HR friends by saying this, but unfortunately, this is true. Still, I put this out because I also know many HR friends who share a similar lament.
Being human is a shared responsibility and a common goal. Yet it is also a contextual challenge that finds unique expression at different levels, across different sectors, and in different times within the same organization. This tri-dimensional variation of the human puzzle within organizations requires a different approach altogether. Here’s a hint: it’s not about departments, but about destinations.
It’s not about departments, but about destinations.
2. Change who and how you consult
This applies to both consultants as well as to companies seeking consulting help. Stay away from consultancies who import a general template and demand compliance. While such an approach works for compliance, safety and other forms of technical consulting, human capital consulting will require a different type of working relationship. Instead, find those whom you are comfortable journeying with for the long haul.
The role that consultants play in leadership and human capital development is undergoing another change. It is beyond the scope of this article to track these changes. But here’s a hint on which consulting working relationship will work for you: have a consulting relationship that puts forth appropriate levels of statistics, stories, theories and tips appropriately gleaned from a variety of sources.
Statistics, Stories, Theories and Tips – Key ingredients for great consulting!
3. Be comfortable with the mess
This is a change process, pierced with many griefs. People will mess up, and the process will be messy. Ironically, even as the world preaches a mass migration to AI and big data, the need to be human is even more important now.
The future of business belongs to those who, aside from value-creation, do business in a way that accentuates what it means to be human. Likewise, businesses that master the art of being human to their own employees will be better placed to amplify this new distinctive to their offerings.
The need to be human is never more important than now.
Ready to be the LAMP?
The new normal eschews long range forecasting and scoffs at scenario planning. There is no play in the playbook that can account for COVID. If there was, we would have had a vaccine for COVID by now.
The LAMP that lights the way sheds only enough light for where to place one’s immediate step. The same LAMP, collectively lit, will shine a bright glow to weather the night. I pray that together, we will shine brighter.