“Great leaders rise out of adversity” – Harvard Business Review

A leader is known in adversity. There has never been a better time to study leadership strategies than this  pandemic has presented. COVID-19 has challenged every leader at every level, to react in one manner or another. And they have reacted in one of four ways:

Pretense: Some leaders pretend nothing extraordinary is going on. They are glaringly absent from the conversation. They do not address the nation, acknowledge the crisis, or create systems to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. As a result, their followers are left to their own interpretations, devices, and consequences.

Denial: Some leaders deny there is a crisis. They say, “the pandemic is handled;” and when confronted with the undeniable evidence that it rages on, they argue, ‘it is a badge of honor to top coronavirus cases.’ When constrained, these leaders deploy lukewarm and therefore, infectual strategies to combat the pandemic. In the end, their nations suffer tremendous loss of lives and livelihood.

Suspicion: Not unlike leaders who deny COVID-19 exists, these leaders claim the virus is a plot to distract the public from what’s really going on. And “what’s really going on,” is everything from setting up 5G towers to one-world government. Unfortunately, their followers who argue that “nobody can take away their freedom to not wear masks,” put themselves and others in jeopardy.

Conversion: Fortunately, there are leaders who started out pretending nothing was amiss, moved on to denial, and to suspicion but finally became believers. For some, conversion came at a painful cost. They either fell ill or lost family members. Regrettably, their late awakening is costing more lives lost in their nations.

Devotion: Great leaders roll up their sleeves and confront the menace. They do not deny its existence, point fingers, or shift responsibility. They simply face what is and deploy all powers to mitigate its impact. As Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York said, “It’s a terrible period of time. I get it, but we have to deal with it. The really bad news would have been if we concluded that we couldn’t control the spread of the virus.” As a result of ‘dealing with it,’ the level of the crisis is muted. And some nations such as New Zealand and Fiji have regained normalcy.

Paulo Coelho states, “When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back.” What would your response be?

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