At the helm of its test, in these times, leadership has unveiled many extraordinary traits, which are not taught or found in the executive program pedagogy or conventional didactic books. The unprecedented backdrop created unusual situations for executives, already dealing with personal and professional crisis. Finding themselves in atypical dilemmas which tested individual leadership style and questioned the essence of being human navigating various routes.

There has been a tremendous business, financial and human resource loss. However, there has been equal amount of gain in uncovering many hidden layers of work life masked under years of repeated patterns. It took the pandemic to reveal the human wearing the leader cloak. It brought them to the crossroads to question the basics of mine vs yours, life vs professionalism, leader vs subordinate, so on. The classical lines blurred. What happened in the last one and a half years was completely out of curriculum and required a different, creative and open ‘You’.

Our recent memory is replete with bizarre stories, situations, people and circumstances, which either can be forgotten or taken as a flag-off for much needed change in the way we perceive or take on the role of a leader. Here are a few common learnings in most of the experiences.

It is ok to be vulnerable
When there is fire raging behind you, it would be dishonest and stupid to show heroism of being strong. Being vulnerable in a situation doesn’t make you come across as week or incapable. On the contrary it makes you strong and trustworthy where there are no facades. You give the power to co-workers or subordinates to rise up and feel adequate.

Humanity first
The pandemic has taken the sheen off robotic ideals of the boss, wearing the undies on the pants and saving the world. Well, we all know, the best of the best could not be saved even with influence or money. Looking at colleagues as humans and without the lens of labels, stature or designation brought people closer and many out from ICUs. Organisations built on the foundation of unshakable values have leaders with unbelievable stories to share.

Kindness as an equaliser
Crisis doesn’t have eyes, ears or discernment to follow hierarchical structure. The blow was equalised by kindness at all levels across the chain. Many organisations did retained employees, senior management took pay cuts, many donated for the needy. In fact, many provided basic groceries for the house helps and others around the employees

Elastic Styles
What style or category of leadership do you belong to? Have you taken those surveys? Don’t you think they are redundant? There is meaning in the researches, however the way we interpret needs to change. It is not the leadership style that is important but the situation. One needs to adapt to a situation and bring out a resource within that can deal with it. Rigidity has to give way to moving like air in a particular situation. Here is where redundancy creeps in. More often than not, leadership style becomes predictive and so do the behaviour, reactions and defence mechanism of the entire team. Adapting to the situation gives more freedom and power to the leader. Sun Tzu’s suggestion in the book ‘The Art of War’ is more relevant today than centuries ago. Be like the wind, penetrating through situations. Rise up like fire, transmuting anger into passion, burning obstacles. Flow like water, passing through barriers. Be firm, grounded like the earth.

Complimentary Vs Competition
No two humans are same. Ditto for flowers and animals. It is in our nature to be unique. The conditioning of the industrial revolution makes us factory fitted, standardised. Hence, we are going completely against our basic nature, always trying to compete apples to oranges and that’s why failing miserably. Competition is motivating, complimentary attributes are elevating. A leader is not a factory fitted robot with all the traditional buttons of a saviour, problem solver, networker, flogger, and so on. As one realises this aspect, she/he is liberated of the make belief ‘Ideal’ role and can step out of the cast to find complimentary attributes in colleagues. A general sets the stage with an appropriate strategy, creates best possible scenario for the army to win fearlessly and curtail losses.

Abundance mindset
Many perished and equal if not more, thrived through these times. We can attribute it to statistics, conditions, etc. For a moment, pay attention to the mindset: is the mind complaining about the lack in one’s and other’s lives? What we focus on gets magnified. Let us believe that there is abundance in the universe. It may sound dreamy or non-practical, but if you believe in this, you can expand the pie. There is enough for each one of us and more in this world, only if we let go of small, boxy crab mindset. And move from surviving to thriving mode. Those who think there are abundant resources or clients or customers will receive more and give fervently. And the cycle will continue to grow.

Creating Vs Reacting
Solving a problem from its present level will not bring a different result. One has to get into a frequency of creation. It happens with no predisposed baggage and open mindedness. Let’s talk about work-from-home culture. If it was proposed before the pandemic, most of us would have killed it in our mind. It wouldn’t have worked, but it has. Barring the social interactions aside, it has collapsed the line where work-life balance argument begins. Leaders are stepping into the ‘Creator’ seat to bring offbeat, DIY hacks, creative solutions to solve old and new problems. It is also becoming very difficult to suppress the real creators in the team. Not every time a leader will come up with ideas, but the ability to identify, chisel and back an idea is far bigger than reacting and dismissing.

A lot has changed and in a way nothing may still change. Change is something that will still stay, so resisting it or dismissing it will not be a good idea. Embrace it and make it your own.

There is light within us, acknowledge, find, follow and radiate it.