Leadership qualities to set the stage for business recovery

Four critical qualities for business leaders to care for people in crisis and set the stage for business recovery.

Over the last two months or so, we have been dealing with events that we would never have imagined that we would face. Now, one of the most critical things we need to build into our strategies is a leadership approach that will not only take us through the crisis but will also help our leaders to take their teams and organisations through recovery.

A recent McKinsey article, ‘Tuning in, turning outward: Cultivating compassionate leadership in a crisis’ articulates how, in times of crisis as we have now with COVID-19, demonstrating compassionate leadership and dealing with the human impacts is the first priority. It identifies four qualities: awareness, vulnerability, empathy, and compassion as being critical for business leaders to care for people in crisis and set the stage for business recovery. Click here to read the full article. Some of the key themes are outlined below:

Awareness, vulnerability, empathy and compassion are 4 qualities to help leaders find the compassionate voice to manage in crisis and shepherd their organisation into a post crisis next normal

As a leader, while exhibiting control in a crisis is important, it is just as critical to tune into personal fears and anxieties to be able to turn outward to help employees and colleagues grapple with their own reactions.

For more reading on how compassion influences Leadership Effectiveness, click here to read the MRG research summary on Compassionate Leadership: Coaching Leaders to Turn Empathy into Action, and read our related article on the compassionate leadership by clicking here.

“Numerous studies show that in a business-as-usual environment, compassionate leaders perform better and foster more loyalty and engagement by their teams. However, compassion becomes especially critical during a crisis.”