Leading in difficult times - what works?

We have all seen a large number of posts and articles about leadership during the pandemic, some relevant and others not so much. With all the different theories and advice offered, how do you determine what is going to be the best fit for you and your workplace?

What is clear to me is that an effective leader is sufficiently self-aware to be able to adapt their leadership style according to the situation. In practice, this means being attuned to the people around them including their emotional needs and their personal situations that may impact upon their ability to do their job.    

These professional (non-technical) skills are becoming increasingly recognised as essential for any leader and particularly critical in times of crisis and prolonged uncertainty. After all, all organisations, whatever their core business, are dependent upon staff who feel appropriately supported and valued.  

Over the past year, I have developed and delivered a series of workshops and webinars on leadership for doctors who primarily describe themselves as delivering clinical services, managing patients, managing their unit / practice and staff, managing hospital administration and teaching doctors-in-training. These are essentially management practices.

But what about leadership and where does it fit?

After 15 years of working in the healthcare and medical training space, it became increasingly evident to me that the leadership training for clinicians was a significant gap and required a new approach that builds on a range of leadership theories and practices.

Clinicians are often in leadership roles although they may not be formally described as such, where they are directly and indirectly influencing and leading people. This is also true of other professions and workplaces.

So, what works?

The following four elements are central to the Situational Teaching and Supervision model that I delivered recently. However, I believe that they are equally applicable to any organisation:

• Being self-aware. In practice this means being willing to deeply reflect upon your values and attitudes. Model the way. After all, as a leader, you set the tone and the culture.

• Being attuned to the emotional and developmental needs of your people. This requires the ability to consider the whole person and their circumstances, not simply their role and function in the organisation. This is more than showing empathy.

• Being able to adapt to the situation. This means stepping back to analyse what is going on in the circumstances and to respond to the situation with an appropriate leadership style.

• Keep your people safe. This means creating an environment of trust where staff feel safe enough to tell you that they feel unsure, out of their depth, fearful about the future, or that they have made a mistake.

As an example, a few years ago I was brought into an organisation where there had been a period of instability with multiple changes in management, high staff turnover and low productivity. It was evident that culture was poor and morale low. Staff did not know what the priorities were and seemed to be more concerned with job security than performance. Upon further inquiry it became clear that staff felt that they were not being heard and were disinclined to speak up or express an opinion for fear of being terminated.

My first step was to establish some stability with the team as a whole, and concurrently to engage with each team member individually to assess their strengths and developmental needs by actively listening, acknowledging their opinions/perceptions and understanding individual circumstances.

I quickly realised that one-size leadership does not fit all. And in fact, in most situations, a mix of leadership styles is required ranging from being supportive and encouraging, to being more of a coach and at times quite directive. I was also very aware that my role was critical in establishing the team’s tone and culture and that leadership involved modelling the values I was aiming to instill. These included listening, respecting and being courteous to each other and being open and transparent about decisions. In short, being authentic and leading by example.

While some chose to leave, over time we nonetheless co-created a cohesive and trusting workplace that ultimately became productive to the point of exceeding annual KPIs.

These measures however do not reflect what I consider to be the most significant achievement which was exemplified by an employee who approached me and said “I’ve made a big mistake. It will impact X, Y and Z. I feel really terrible. It won’t happen again”.

This represented a seismic cultural shift, and was a strong indicator that I had gained their trust and that together, we had a created a safe working environment, that enabled people to do their job without fear of reprisal. Moreover, productivity improved appreciably and morale was much enhanced.

So, in essence, effective leadership is about putting people first, at the centre of all decision-making, strategy and operations.  

On one hand this all sounds straight forward and self-evident. However, like any skill, you need a good teacher, continual practice and perseverance to perfect it.

While the pandemic has presented us all with unprecedented challenges, it is also giving us significant impetus to do things differently. If ever there was a time to embrace a new way of leading, it is now.  

Brendan Grabau is a change management consultant using human-centred and design thinking methodology.