COVID-19 pandemic: An Opportunity for Leadership Development

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” ― Nelson Mandela

The continuing coronavirus crisis has once more reminded every person about the critical role that leaders and leadership play in addressing unanticipated happenings that are a threat to the life of governments, institutions and corporate world (Bundy, Pfarrer, Short, & Coombs, 2017). In view of their position of influence, leaders get a lot of attention and public scrutiny in these tough times. The reason for this is that people look forward to leaders to provide accurate information, hope and guidance. Such unexpected attention gathered with a robust need for leadership under ambiguity has been demonstrated to profit even non-exemplary leaders in the form of bipartisan support and better responsiveness of effectiveness and charm (Rast III, Gaffney, Hogg, & Crisp, 2012). However, recent happenings reveal that some leaders cannot harness the opportunity presented by the crises, such that some leaders lose support, face resistance from their followers, or cannot protect their organizations from economic distress. Considering that the only sure thing about crises is that they are likely to happen repeatedly. Thus, we maintain that more attention should be given to leadership in turbulent environments.

The speed and magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic proffers monumental challenges for leaders in today’s most important institutions. It is uncomplicated to understand why many leaders have missed the opportunity for honest communication and decisive action. But it is a misjudgement to think failures of leadership are all we can expect in these depressing times.

As the business and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis soars, leaders in every industry and organization are moving urgently to safeguard its workforce and build resilience. Governments are mobilizing to protect citizenries and manage the economic domino-effect. Urgent action is critical, but leaders must also adopt a new agenda – one focused directly at what comes next.

Leadership has always been crucial to the effective functioning of society, and organisational performance depends on the successful management of human capital. Throughout history, leadership has been vital to the fortune of companies and entire economies alike. Yet today, we face a progressively more convoluted world that demands leaders to effectively deal with what we call “wicked problems” – challenges that have extremely many variables involved which it is not possible to solve them with natural-born charisma or talent.

Cities have had to respond quickly and imaginatively to tackle the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. They have a critical role in monitoring the effects of the deadly disease and of the measures introduced on health inequalities and the health of the population. For instance, Kampala, Uganda has designed a COVID-19 vulnerability index to identify which areas of the city need most support. Also, in Freetown (sierra Leone) and in Milan (Italy) local authorities have started and developed emergency food programmes to make sure the most vulnerable in society have sufficient to eat regardless the lockdown measures.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the critical role played by leadership in times of crises with the popularity of many global leaders rising and the others’ declining. For example, we now know that leaders are mainly important to influencing the meaning of the happenings and giving direction to stakeholders’ understanding and interpretation of the character and outcomes of the developing crises (Sobral et al., 2020). Despite this, our knowledge concerning how leaders can productively and confront the unique challenges that the current crisis has generated for governments, businesses and institutions globally remains scant. Thus, future research should target and examine many of the topics identified in this editorial to aid to better groom leaders and organizations for the next global crisis.

Assuming that crises expose leaders to contradictory pieces of information from multiple sphere of influence, high-levels decision-making, and require communication and contact with multiple stakeholders, they offer ideal conditions for leaders to learn new skills through problem-related capabilities. Similarly, living through a highly disruptive event is likely to increase a leader’s self-efficacy and confidence in managing crises and enhance their motivation to lead (Chan & Drasgow, 2001). Not every leader appears to accept this opportunity for growth and development. This is due to the fact that leading in times of crisis is an immense challenge, and it demands great social, technical, physical, and emotional skills. Some organizational leaders may not have these skills or capabilities or may never have been requested to show them, which provides an opportunity for other people to take part in leadership activities. Therefore, future research could investigate how each of the ingredients of crises promotes leadership emergence and development. Researchers and academics could also test how actual and nascent leaders can get the most out of the crisis-related leadership competences to either enhance or improve their identities as leaders.

While the above findings remain valuable and significant, the coronavirus pandemic has revealed that technological developments and increasing interconnectedness among nations have altered the organizational environment. Thus, the existing framework presents leaders with additional challenges and opportunities when acting in response to disruptive phenomena. Below we identify themes of interest that researchers and academics might want to focus on and investigate to achieve a better understanding of the attitudes and behaviors associated with leadership under crises.

Themes:

Ambidextrous leadership

Authentic leadership

Compassionate leadership

Crisis leadership

Democratic leadership

Ethical leadership

Female/Women’s leadership

Identity-based leadership

Innovation leadership

Leadership for Innovation

Leadership development

Sales leadership

Servant leadership

Transformational leadership

Transactional leadership

Urban leadership