Leading teams through adversity

I have read quite a bit on the various appointed leaders in recent weeks and thought I might offer a few thoughts on some strengths and struggles of various styles. My preference is collaborative leadership in empowering qualified leaders to take collective responsibility for the whole. At Proadvice we began the Coronavirus pandemic messaging with a set of guiding principles. Internally we sought to protect our employees jobs as well as safety by accelerating a direction of travel to have our group "work from home ready" in about 2 weeks.

Bronwyn Walker rose to the challenge with our outsourced IT providers to update our fleet of hardware and systems to problem solve the complexities of work from home environments navigating connectivity, privacy, cyber security and a host of other challenges that are frankly beyond my aptitude to understand. Jane in Tassie and Jarrod in Geelong worked with their team to determine communication channels to stay connected and to essentially provide a connected team environment from anywhere and on any device to ensure continuity of service to the client base.

Samara Shimmin has taken a lead on our wellness, instituting an internal remote physical workout regime along with some healthy habits and healthy eating initiatives. The collective whole has to be more than the sum of the parts. We seek to bring everyone along on the journey. Employees and their families represent our greatest resource to serve our clients. Being a personal trainer in a past life helps but this is taking HR to another level.

We have then sought to be available and responsive. All the client facing team have almost had their phones surgically attached to their ears as we work through situation by situation a game plan for business and clients to both manage risk and to see their way clear to finding opportunity coming out the other side of this crisis. In the short term, the jobkeeper and jobseeker announcements by government and subsequent lack of detail have provided much comment and planning. State based grants are being applied for at a rate of knots. The raw numbers affected are mind blowing.

The economic issues in the client base particularly in non agricultural business are real and empathy is required when dealing with such sudden and decisive adverse economic conditions. Some nimbleness has been needed to "drop everything" and attend to the urgent.

In short, I'm pleased to say I am proud of the team and their initial response. We have not succumbed to a mentality of powerlessness nor used the crisis as a cover up for non performance. Winners get on with winning. Losers complain about the rules of the game and how it is unfair.

Now - for a run around the block of some global leaders and their scorecard from my perspective.

Donald Trump has been described in a multitude of language and is the best example of a charismatic leader in today's discourse. He is not limited by the truth, has an army of loyal followers and is not adverse to creating a crisis for the very purpose of emerging as the one to solve it. With his contradictory updates, he keeps all on their toes with daily entertainment. In the detail however his report card is not looking good. Governors have stepped in to try and lead in the absence of national leadership. States have compared themselves to other states leaving them doomed to repeat the mistakes made in Italy. No learning can occur if your eyes and ears are closed. A lack of coordination sees some states still operating per normal with other states overwhelmed by illness and death. The rest of the USA and New York are currently #1 and #2 in the world for infection. Donald still wants everyone to stay calm and to reopen per normal by the end of April. It must be nice to live in fantasy land sometimes but on this occasion it is not serving the country or the global economy very well. The disconnect between federal government and the governors is as plain to see as a pimple on a teenagers face.

Jacinta Adern by contrast is an empathetic leader trying to present direction and meaning to her actions. She went hard and early with the Christchurch tragedy voicing a nation's grief and again with her lock-down strategy and remains clear in her communication that she is seeking eradication not just herd immunity. Time will tell if this is fanciful or not but in leadership I give enormous credit for being clear, concise, consistently on message and decisive. At this stage, being located on an island (or two) with relatively small population gives unique opportunities which she is seeking to exploit.

Scott Morrison received much criticism through the Bushfire crisis. Leadership can evolve but doesn't normally result in wholesale change. His performance with the Coronavirus has been vastly improved. The solemn discussion about both jobs and health and acknowledging a dual crisis was sensible. The national leadership are trying to balance both utilizing the state administrations who have primary leadership in running the hospitals. Often lost in leadership is that it actually has to integrate to be useful. Disparate leadership results in failure. You can't have weak links nor breakaway groups and be ultimately successful. The unity between the coalition and the ALP in a time of crisis has led to a sense of "finally" in our country. Even Victoria and NSW are working together in the common interest across party lines. In Australia it once again shows if the issue is big enough, we can put aside petty pride and get on with it. Rolling up the sleeves and having a red hot crack is part of who we are and I think in this instance Scott Morrison and the state leaders in the national cabinet are to be commended and have displayed some real collaborative leadership which becomes collectively powerful when done right.

Boris Johnson is the last leader I want to mention, not to kick a sick man when he is in ICU, but rather to show systemic risk of dictatorial leadership. The UK have lurched from Brexit to this challenge with a very disjointed and disgruntled electorate. Boris Johnson sought compliance when others sought cooperation. He dictated the strategy beginning with a "herd immunity" approach before coming to his senses when it emerged what that strategy might actually end up entailing in the hospital system. Italy came just in time or even a little late for the Brits. Since moving to lock-down and falling into line with a health first message, he has had to endure the public figure infection at a greater rate than any other world leader. Prince Charles infected, the PM infected leads to the greatest likelihood of panic in society as it suggests all are vulnerable (which they are). Being taken to hospital and then to ICU merely confirms that a country who falls in behind a dictator better hope that dictator is both benevolent and strong enough to ride the ups and downs. From the other side of the world, I have no idea which way the UK will go should Boris be unable to continue. Surely not another election. The UK appear vulnerable in the short term to quite incoherent messaging and outcomes.

I have no doubt that new leadership will emerge. It will be fascinating to see if it is along the empathetic Jacinta Adern style, the collaborative Scott Morrison style, the charismatic Donald Trump style or something new again. Whatever it is, the reality is a consistent message, a willingness to do what must be done, some empathy for the fallout of following strategy and an embracing of community to come through together will be required.

Finally, before I sign off I would like to highlight the impact of "stay at home" measures when "home" isn't always a safe place. It troubles me greatly that kids who found sanctuary at school are now unable to find that escape in the short term and that Mums (primarily) who are the victims of domestic violence horror are faced with weeks to months of not being able to leave, not being able to stay and generally must be in a very dark place right now. As an upstanding member of society, if you hear disturbance next door whilst in isolation, don't look the other way. The vulnerable need some protection when the days are at their darkest. Be the light at the end of the tunnel if you find yourself in that situation. Show support in a time of need. When you strip it all back, we are what we continually do. Habits are our virtues. You can't choose your days.