What makes a good leader in times of economic crisis?
I remember asking a group of friends from New York after 9/11 what they thought of Rudolph Giuliani. The response was that they believed he was a great leader. They described him as decisive, assertive and determined, able to inspire a sense of security in a time of fear and crisis. When Giuliani was running for President I asked the same group what they thought and they said they believed Giuliani was not a good leader. He was stubborn, hard headed and made unilateral decision. It was obviously not the answer I was expecting but made me realize that at the time, in crisis, Giuliani’s character and management style made him a good leader but his style was not perceived flexible enough and at least this group of individuals felt that he did not evolve as circumstances and the environment changed.
What makes a good leader? His character and style? My hypothesis is that that it is his/her ability to adapt to what is required at the time to successfully guide the people that he/she leads. What makes a good leader in times of economic crisis?
Please comment!
You mention it in your question – the key is adaptability. Rudi’s style according to the people that you asked was arguably not adaptable. I believe that in general good leadership is timeless, but not everybody fits that criteria.
Links:
http://linked2leadership.com/2009/01/10/is-good-leadership-timeless/
http://manufacturingintelligence.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-makes-good-leader.html
Qualities of leadership which are respected and admired by others shift with the demands of time and the event that inspires as the groups needs and perceptions shift as well.
Right now, someone that can demonstrate empathy, clarity and sacrifice would be something nice to see as opposed to greed and aloofness
Sincerity
Hi Jose,
The true value of effective leadership may be ascertained when a leader after being accustomed to manage to his/her company from of his/her own comfort zone like happens in predictable business scenarios must face to an impending systemic change, a disruptive transformation, or a power struggle in adverse conditions.
In most of the companies, is commonplace that managers with excellent technical skills must assume leadership roles when there is no warranty that these professionals will have the interpersonal skill, the proper emotional intelligence, the required communicational skills and the right personality traits to be influential in others when is an imperative create cohesiveness, motivation and engagement in the workforce to face successfully to a threatening business viability.
A true leader in tough times should have the following qualities:
Accountability: A true leader excels for his/her integrity and his/her bold sense of purpose in virtue of which he/she becomes in an ethical reference for the whole organization; he/she stands as a role model to be admired and followed in times of crisis and uncertainty; he/she will assume his/her responsibility about the repercussions, effects and consequences regarding to whatever decision he/she has taken. He/she is a faithful guardian of the values, beliefs and principles that are inherent to the corporate culture.
Discipline and Perseverance: When a courageous leader take decisions in an highly conflictive context, he/she is concious not only regarding to the different repercussions, courses of action and consequences that such decisions can bring to his/her organization or community. He/she has the right mix of working experience, professional knowledge and emotional intelligence required to overcome any kind of difficulties that may be raised during his/her tenure, by designing alternative courses of action if needed, making the required adjustments when convenient and motivating continuously to his/her team, workgroup and/organization although he/she may have reasonable doubts about what to do, how to do it and when to do it.
Interpersonal skills: When a leader realizes that is relevant, pertinent and necessary he/she will identify the convenience of being supported by strategic coaching and helped by initiatives in change management to mitigate the negative repercussions of disruptive change and thereby ensure that this initiative will be successful by assuming that the leadership have the willingness to learn from this experience, to communicate effectively to others and to recognize that such a change is an opportunity for encouraging professional growth and assure long-term enterprise viability.
Humility: When a courageous leader has taken a mistaken decision, he/she is the first one in recognizing such mistakes and in assuming the consequences and repercussions of his/her decisions. Conversely, when this leader excels and succeeds after making a crucial business decision, he/she is humble enough to recognize the merits and commitment of his/her team instead of recognizing his/her own merits.
Emotional Intelligence: It is a behavioural competency that is characteristic in successful managers and inspirational leaders who usually have developed through years of disciplined introspection and continuous learning the aplomb and a self-confidence attitude to overcome the potential nuisances of a turbulent business environment and inspire a positive attitude to their employees to achieve cohesiveness and engagement in teams facing the repercussions of an economic crisis.
Complementary to this interesting theme, I am including links to 3 questions I have posted sometime ago in Linkedin Answers:
1. Can a manager who has high emotional intelligence become in a true leader?
2. How leaders may confront positively their fears?
3. How do you realize that a so-called leader is just a good manager?
I hope this helps you.
Octavio
Links:
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/career-education/mentoring/CAR_MEN/326556-933031
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/management/organizational-development/MGM_ODV/306830-933031
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/management/organizational-development/MGM_ODV/233158-933031
A good leader in honest adaptable and can read the circumstances.
Guillianni’s “a noun a verb and 9-11″ as defined by Biden was a demonstration that he was indeed NOT a good leader
A good leader in times of economic crisis is the person — it could be anyone and many more than one, as well — with the initiative to provide a combination of pathfinding, modeling, empowering and aligning for people within range who are willing to weave better economies.
Links:
http://www.smallisbeautiful.org
Jose,
Good question.*
A couple thoughts…
- Rudy took charge when a “take charge” leader was needed.
- Obama is doing this now, though his style (“no drama Obama”) is different.
A crisis calls for leaders that have…
~ Courage – to face the facts and make the personal sacrifices necessary
~ Steadfastness – to hold to core values in the face of adversity and not take the easy road (i.e., downsizing)
~ Wisdom – to keep your eyes open, recognize what’s happening, and distinguish the baby from the bath water
~ Engagement – to get others involved in figuring out creative ways to weather the storm
~ Vision – that things will be better in the future, and a path to get there
~ Caring – especially for those who are hurting, on the margins
Terry
*I have a series underway at my blog, Here We Are. Now What?, called Leading In the Crisis.
Links:
http://learningvoyager.blogspot.com/2009/01/leading-in-crisis.html
Interesting posting Jose. Thank you.
I think two sets of leadership abilities that become more important during crisis are:
1. Being able to successfully process a large variety of ideas, data, and information to identify clearly the top priorities to address.
2. Have the ability to inspire others to make the needed decisions, take the action, and do it in the best way possible given the circumstances.
That said, I think the Giuliani example can mislead us a bit on leadership.
When we see Giuliani taking action to address the 9/11 situation, we are seeing him leading. When we see Roosevelt or Truman, during military crisis, taking action – we are seeing them act or lead as President.
In the US, our democratic process requires candidates for president to talk to us. We want to see them, hear them, hear their ideas. When Giuliani was a candidate, we see him talking as a candidate. It’s true, the candidate is acting as a leader of his campaign to some degree. But much of this is not visible by the voters. We have limited chances to see a candidate exercising leadership.
That is one reason your friends voiced different opinions on Giuliani as a candidate. Another big reason is in times of real crisis, we tend to give the senior political leader some slack and withhold criticism for a little while. When someone is running for office, the opposite is probably true.
As a follow-up to my answer to your question, I’m not sure the leadership qualities we need from a senior political leader during an economic crisis are much different than what we need in a Governor if there is a prison riot or in a president if there is a military attack.
I am very interested in the opinions others have.
Cheers.