UU-PhD-802-53584

ASSESSMENT 1

ABSTRACT:

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Effective leadership during a crisis is vital. Leadership and being a leader are a multifaceted

process and concept which entails inspiring and motivating followers to attain specific goals.

This skill is critical during a crisis. Crises are characterized by chaos and uncertainty. This study

delves into a detailed examination of the skills, traits, behaviors and strategies of an effective

leader during a crisis. This study emphasizes the significance of attributes in leaders such as

adaptability, proactivity, transparency, and decisiveness, as well as their capacity to

communicate effectively and create teamwork. Case studies of leaders during the COVID-19

epidemic and other crises show how these characteristics and behaviors made a major difference.

Furthermore, the paper explores several leadership styles, emphasizing the importance of

adaptation and a relational focus during times of crisis. The role of management in supporting

and implementing leadership goals is also discussed. Finally, this paper discusses why effective

leaders should examine a nations or organizations’ long-term viability and innovative potential in

the post-crisis environment. In sum, effective crisis leadership necessitates a blend of strategic

thinking, technical, conceptual and human skills, relational leadership, managerial support, and a

focus on long-term objectives.

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Introduction

Crises whether financial, environmental or global pandemics, are marked by chaos and

uncertainty. A crisis demands an effective leader. During a crisis, an effective leader plays a

crucial role of guiding, inspiring and motivating people during unpredictable circumstances. In

these circumstances an effective leader uses a combination of several qualities, behaviors and

strategies (James & Wooten, 2005).

This comprehensive analysis will explore some of the traits, attributes and strategies of an

effective leader during and post crisis. It draws from real world experiences, while highlighting

the impact of effective communication, collaboration and the impact of organisational culture.

This exploration reviews the experiences from the past. It also highlights important lessons that

form a comprehensive guide to equip leaders with information for the future that may face

inevitable crisis.

COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

Crises are often characterized as incidents that are salient and unpredictable events that may be

disruptive in their outcome (Wu, Yuen & Shao et al., 2021). Effective leadership in a crisis

entails acting to prepare for the inevitability of the outcomes or efficiently coping with the

impact of the undesirable outcomes.

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The world never really adapts to the unique challenges that a crisis or disruption entails. A crisis

results in unprecedented serious consequences and is often as a result of a low- probability

incident (James & Wooten, 2005). Therefore, it is no surprise that crises; like the world war, the

COVID-19 pandemic, SARS 2002/2003 and the EBOLA epidemic, are characterized by

unpredictability, uncertainty and chaos. In essence, they negatively impact nations, companies

and communities (Wu et al., 2021).

Each crisis presents its own unique challenge. In the business environment, businesses or

organizations are often subjected to a series of events. For instance: supply chain issues, delays

of consumer demand and supply as well as managing their employees’ team dynamics.

Some have argued that, leaders rarely have a predefined response or plan of action and that

effective responses are generally largely improvised (Bilstein et al., 2020). However, this writer

believes that the ability to effectively lead under pressure in uncertain times requires an

amalgamation of specific qualities, behaviors and relevant leadership strategies (James &

Wooten, 2005).

Traits and Behaviour

One of the key hallmarks of an effective leader is his mindset that inspires his followers to

achieve a goal or believe that attaining the goal is possible (James & Wooten, 2005). This

position is underscored by a few theoretical perspectives.

For instance, the leader- member exchange theory and the path goal theories posit that

leadership behavior can enable and facilitate people achieving their goals (Cho et al., 2019).

Similarly, the trait theory of leadership explains that an effective leader exhibits the inherent

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qualities of adaptability, proactivity, transparency and decisiveness (Forster et al., 2020). These

leaders then inspire their followers to navigate challenges by modelling the leader’s behaviour.

These qualities of an effective leader are extremely useful during a non- crisis period; however,

its true worth is amplified during a crisis. During a crisis period these behavioral traits are critical

because unpredictable circumstances are both traumatic and emotional. People need the support

of a leader to navigate this period (James & Wooten, 2005).

A leader can also harness either his human skills to support his followers during a crisis period

so that they have a chance of successfully overcoming this period of uncertainty (Al Saidi et al.,

2020). For example, during the COVID pandemic the then leadership of New Zealand

demonstrated how using the human skills and behaviors of proactivity and decisiveness can be

extremely beneficial to a country during a crisis. New Zealand’s leadership implemented border

controls, nationwide testing and a curfew which successfully reduced the transmission and the

spread of the disease.

Similarly, in the United States, the leadership of that nation demonstrated that during a crisis,

leaders must inspire resilience while also being empathetic. During the Covid pandemic, leaders

organised the distribution of both health care supplies and financial relief. The financial relief

was in the form of stimulus packages to individuals and businesses. This initiative substantially

contributed to reducing the financial impact of the pandemic on the society. It also demonstrated

that the leaders took a multifaceted and comprehensive approach to care for the well-being of the

people and alleviate any economic or health consequences.

In addition to being empathetic, other hallmarks of effective leaders include their skills of

excellent communication and the capacity to foster teamwork through collaboration. Effective

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leaders are self- confident and understand the importance of disseminating consistent, transparent

and accurate information (Forster et al., 2020).

This skill is critical during a crisis. People need accurate and consistent information. For

example, Jacinda Ardern (the former New Zealand Prime Minister) was credited for her

communication strategies during the COVID pandemic. Ardern was been praised by scholars for

her communication style which demonstrated empathy and imbued purpose to her listeners (Al

Saidi et al., 2020). Similarly, in Germany, the then Chancellor Angela Merkel used regularly

televised programmes to inform the public about new measures and strategy.

During a crisis, consistent and transparent communication mitigates the dissemination of false or

inaccurate information which leads to panic (Deitchman, 2013). In fact, one of the key indicators

of ineffective leadership is a leader who fails to communicate or is substantially inconsistent

(Tomkins, 2020). For instance, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, leadership across the

world struggled with disseminating timely and consistent information.

In fact, the then Prime Minister of England, Boris Johnson, was harshly criticised for what his

followers considered prolonged absences from the public and ‘incoherent responses’ when he

appeared in public (Tomkins, 2020). Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum was a leader

who was consistently disseminating misinformation during a crisis. In the United States, the then

President and leader, Mr. Donald Trump used social media platforms to disseminate critical yet

inconsistent information. This resulted in confusion and panic (Al Saidi et al., 2020). Scholars

described this as ineffective denialist leadership (Tourish, 2020).

Poor communication skills are reflective of an ineffective crisis leader (Tomkins, 2020). An

effective leader must use evidence-based communication strategies during a crisis (Al Saidi et

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al., 2020). An effective leader must be genuine and demonstrate integrity and behave ethically

when communicating during a crisis. In this regard, effective leaders using the servant or

authentic leadership behavioral trait would understand the importance of delegating his power of

communication to designated expert spokespersons. These experts can engage stakeholders and

respond to queries, needs or concerns using reliable and credible information.

For instance, in Jordan and Morocco during the COVID pandemic, their leaders created a

technological application as well as a website to facilitate the dissemination of science based

credible information to the public (Al Saidi et al., 2020). These strategies build trust and

demonstrate the leader’s authenticity and commitment to transparency and accountability

(Stoller, 2020).

In addition to effective communication, during a crisis many leaders must be able to successfully

manage the unpredictable circumstances by working with people. In these situations, a leader

who has the human skill of fostering teamwork is invaluable (Dirani et al., 2020). Leaders during

a crisis often deal with unknown, complex and multifaceted issues. Therefore, an effective leader

is one who has the capacity to coordinate stakeholder involvement and leverage connections

(Deitchman, 2013). This skill is important because combining approaches can enhance the

strategic plan, facilitate expert feedback and enhances the accessibility of additional resources to

overcome the crisis.

For example, in South Korea, the then leadership in 2015 used the skills of collaboration during

the epidemic caused by the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Al Saidi et al., 2020). The

government officially engaged both public and private stakeholders in a collaborative network.

In Lebanon and Tunisia, their respective leadership also took this approach by forming a multi

ministry taskforce to overcome the COVID pandemic (Al Saidi et al., 2020).

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By fostering teamwork, the leaders were able to successfully contain and reduce the spread of the

disease. However, in Brazil, the governmental leadership failed to collaborate with local experts

and international stakeholders during the COVID pandemic (Barberia & Gómez, 2020). This

flaw in the exercise of leadership caused a disjointed and delayed response which resulted in

extremely high death rates of the population.

Finally, effective leaders are capable of making decisions under pressure while creating an

atmosphere where people feel comfortable to share their ideas (Tomkins, 2020). Crises are high

pressure situations that are constantly evolving. If a leader lacks the human skill of decisiveness

to respond immediately, there can be dire effects for the delay (Al Saidi et al., 2020). For

instance, in Japan, at the time of the Fukushima Disaster, the leaders were heavily criticised for

their poor and delayed decision making which resulted in a lack of preparedness and contingency

planning.

Similarly, the then President and leader, of the United States Mr. Donald Trump, ignored the

advice of healthcare experts (Tourish, 2020). There was a substantial delay in implementing

measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID pandemic. This delay resulted in a massive spread

of the epidemic (Tourish, 2020). In sum, effective leadership during a crisis has the skill of quick

thinking. The leader also surrounds himself with a team of experts with this skill as this foster’s

greater accountability and input.

Leadership styles or Strategies

An effective leader recognises that maintaining leadership using traits and behaviors are not an

inherent guarantee of efficiency and success. Scholars believe that during a crisis, a leader should

use his technical or conceptual skills to develop a strategy that is adaptable or flexible (Wu et al.,

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2021). During a crisis, an appropriate leadership style is an important consideration because it

can impact the post crisis recoverability of the nation, organisation or business.

The general model of leadership and organizational management is the top- down or

authoritative approach. However, scholars have explained that in a crisis mode this traditional

approach is impractical (Wu et al., 2021). The authoritarian style favours a strict adherence to

rules and structures which may no longer exist in a crisis (Dirani et al., 2020).

Moreover, this leadership style is characterised by centralized decision-making which limits the

capacity of collaboration and feedback (Al Khajeh, 2018). Further, followers are generally overly

dependent on the leader and in a crisis situation the leader may change unexpectedly

(Georgiades, 2020). Therefore, to successfully overcome a crisis an appropriate leadership style

is one that is capable of being adaptive and dynamic.

Scholars have also posited that during a crisis the traditional top-down approach is not

holistically suitable because during a crisis the leader needs a relational focus (Hodges, 2020).

Because of the chaos and trauma associated with crises, the leader is often tasked with inspiring,

motivating and empowering their followers to overcome the crisis. The leadership styles most

suited to this need is either the transformational, servant or authentic leadership style

respectively.

The authentic, servant or transformational leadership styles are most suitable because of their

relational focus and their emphasis on caring for the well-being of people (Al Khajeh, 2018).

People need reassurance and inspiration to adapt to the new circumstances as well as motivation

to work towards their new goals. These leadership styles are also more appropriate during a crisis

because they imbue purpose as well as prioritize using human skills to foster contributions from

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team members (Hodges, 2020). Receiving feedback during a crisis is critical as it provides an

opportunity for leaders to assess their existing strategies and improve where necessary

(Georgiades, 2020).

In terms of decision-making unlike the autocratic approach, the servant, authentic or

transformational approach respectively fosters group think (Hodges, 2020). Either approach is

characterised by including group members in the decision-making and allow the leader to

harness various perspectives using group knowledge.

The ability to make efficient and informed decisions during a crisis are core competencies of an

effective crisis leader (Stoller, 2020). Unlike the top-down management approach, there is no

strict hierarchal structure of autocratic decision making. This allows the leader to leverage the

available expert knowledge to overcome technical challenges.

In addition, the transformational, servant or authentic leadership approach are often associated

with a leader who may delegate key procedural tasks to qualified persons. For instance, in Brazil,

the then leader Jair Bolsonaro, was accused of making unilateral decisions such as, opposing

lockdown measures (Barberia & Gómez, 2020). This autocratic approach severely impacted the

ability of the country to reduce the spread of the epidemic. It also demonstrates the impact of a

poor leadership style on the ability of a community or nation to successfully overcome a crisis.

Leaders need to rethink the predominantly task oriented or top-down leadership approach during

a crisis (Al Saidi et al., 2020). Leaders need to embrace a more relationship-oriented leadership

approach where the leader can inspire his followers to accomplish more than they usually would

do. Leaders who embrace the participative and relational leadership pattern are more likely to

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have a positive outcome (Cho et al., 2019). Scholars have noted that followers who feel that they

are a part of the solution generally want to see a successful outcome (Deitchman, 2013).

However effective leaders do not operate in a vacuum (Stoller, 2020). Leadership in a crisis must

navigate multifaceted challenges and unprecedented experiences. While the servant, authentic or

transformational leadership approach have the relational appeal, they often lack the capacity to

set a structured direction with streamlined goals for the post crisis era (Hodges, 2020). This is a

positive trait of the autocratic style.

Scholars have underscored the importance of the role of management in the execution and

operationalization of the transformation or authentic leader’s goals (Antonakis, & Day, 2018).

While leadership and management are distinct, they are complementary. Management is a crucial

support mechanism as it contains the technical skills to create strategic plans (Antonakis, & Day,

2018) that reflect the leader’s vision such as risk assessments and fiscal policies to successfully

transition the crisis.

In fact, they use the leader’s vision to create measurable targets, timelines for an action plan as

well as identify the resources to be allocated for the leader’s plans to be implemented (Hodges,

2020). In sum, effective crisis leadership requires managerial support for the nation, business or

community to successfully survive the crisis.

For instance, Anne Mulcahy, the former Chief executive officer of Xerox, successfully guided

the firm through a serious financial crisis. The then CEO displayed excellent leadership during a

crisis by implementing an innovative and comprehensive management strategy. The strategy

included implementing financial measures, streamlining operations, and harnessing the available

technical skills (Tourish, 2020).

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Similarly, Tim Cook, the Chief executive officer of Apple, also demonstrated excellent

leadership during a crisis in an organisation. Cook by merging his leadership skills and engaging

managerial expertise, navigated his company through the Tsunami and COVID pandemic. Cook

used strategic management plans to diversify his supply chain and manufacturing practises.

In essence, these examples highlight how leaders can merge their leadership traits, skills and

strategies while adapting managerial approaches during a crisis to successfully transition to the

post crisis era.

Finally, an effective leader must also contemplate the organization’s future post-crisis. A leader

must see the proverbial ‘big picture’ or have long term goals. A crisis is an opportunity for an

organisation to be less reactive and to become innovative (Georgiades, 2020). For instance, the

leaders in Singapore created a strategic plan to navigate the COVID pandemic. The leaders used

the evidence and knowledge attained from previous disease epidemics to guide their operational

approach (Al Saidi et al., 2020).

In fact, scholars believe that a crisis may be viewed in a positive perspective because of its

ability to cause leaders to reassess their operations and emerge stronger (James & Wooten,

2005). This inherently results in systemic improvements and growth. For example, during the

COVID pandemic the chief executive officer of General Motors Mary Barra, adopted their

business strategy to produce ventilators and other health care equipment. Similarly, Satya

Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, recommended a transition to remote work arrangements which

effectively changed the dynamic of the work environment and set an example to the world

(Tourish, 2020).

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Crises are inevitable and as such effectively managing a crisis can impact whether the nation,

community or business survives and emerges stronger (Tomkins, 2020). Scholars have also

suggested that post- crisis, the concept and context of leadership theories must begin to evolve

(Tourish, 2020). Leadership must be transformed from a humanistic expression to a more

corporate and institutionalized systemic plan. Organizations, businesses and communities can

implement procedural mechanisms that will transcend a single leader.

By using this approach, the organisation will take an institutional proactive approach to

preparing for a crisis that does not depend on the presence of a specific person. This can ensure

that order is efficiently reestablished post crisis and also minimize the harm from its disruptive

impact (Antonakis, & Day, 2018).

In sum, the examples of leadership illustrate that effective leadership can be attained in diverse

industries during a crisis. Effective crisis leadership, whether in business or politics, involves a

combination of strategic thinking, human, technical and conceptual skills, a relational leadership

style, management support and a focus on long-term sustainability.

Conclusion

Effective leadership during a crisis is important because of its ability to help others navigate

uncertainty, inspire confidence and promote change. This study identified some of the traits,

behaviors and strategies of an effective leader during a crisis. It underscored the importance of

leadership behaviors that foster teamwork, resilience and adaptability while noting that leaders

should be decisive and proactive.

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This paper also examined real-life case studies and highlighted how relational and adaptable

leaders were able to successfully motivate their teams to overcome the challenges. Furthermore,

the analysis noted management’s collaborative role in operationalizing the leader’s goals and

seizing new opportunities post crisis. It also noted that the concept of crisis leadership has been

evolving towards an institutional and systemic mechanism strategic plan that can transcend

individual leaders.

In sum, effective leadership during a crisis requires a blend of strategies and approaches. An

effective leader is not characterized by one specific quality or attribution.

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