In this series, authors will explore how individuals and communities imagine new ways to lead change, new mindsets to approach complex issues, and new strategies to align leadership theory and practice. We will share examples of how local leaders address global issues, highlighting leadership perspectives and strategic change actions.
How leaders and organizations “show up” in times of crisis matters. In this third blog of the Leadership in a Changing World series, leadership communication doctoral student Anisah Ari shares observations and lessons learned from her experiences as a non-profit leader in Nigeria during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The outbreak of COVID-19 precipitated deep and widespread anxiety, stress, and problems globally that spanned beyond medical concerns. Due to high transmission, governments worldwide placed a lock down order to curb the spread. Organizations were compelled to shut down and devised new ways of working without in-person contact while ensuring maximum productivity in the pool of turmoil. Organizational leadership styles and management approaches also had to evolve. Those who did so successfully engaged in adaptive learning, sense-making, and restructuring by creating adaptive spaces to meet their organizational and environmental needs (Uhl-Bien and Arena, 2018).
The pandemic heralded a new human era—paradoxically creating more relational engagement, despite the remote operational environment. As people felt cut off and isolated, they recognized the need for human connection to live through the uncertainties and opaque realities of the pandemic. The ensuing challenges required people-centric approaches, with emergent solutions led and collectively owned by the people themselves. This was not a practice that existed before due to rigid organizational leadership styles.
There were instances where leaders sometimes stuck to the notion of aggregating or homogenizing social complexity, thereby assuming that people’s interests, expectations, and experiences were the same. These assumptions led to linear and insulated interventions that neither solved technical nor adaptive elements of organizational challenges and ignored the evolving operating culture and realities of the conditions experienced (Heifetz et al., 2009; O’Malley and Cebula, 2015). For example, interventions designed by only high-level officials of an organization without a broad level consultation with the staff, who of course are the beneficiaries, lead to dissatisfaction and a poor organizational climate.
Organizational leaders continue to grapple with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it a priority action to unlearn and learn, strategically navigate uncharted territory, and intentionally experiment with new strategies. The capacity of organizations to absorb turbulence and continue to function without fundamental loss of identity was/is being tested (Berkes and Folke, 1998).
In my experience with a non-profit organization at a strategic level in Nigeria, it was quite interesting how the employees looked up to organizational leaders to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, even beyond materialistic considerations. Employees were looking for their leaders to show up in intangible ways, through inspiration, alignment, motivation, kind gestures. They expected to be seen and heard and to engage in more relational ways. For leaders, looking at the needs of employees within these times shows a keen aspiration of placing the individual at the core. How organizational leaders respond to these expectations matters. Next, I’ll draw from Firstenberg and Rubinstein’s (2014) model and offer strategies to meet expectations of how to be more relational within and amongst the team in ways that demonstrates trust, empathy, resilience, and support.
How we show up
We as people are all mobile institutions of learning and change, creating an appetite for learning and closing the knowledge gap. Such consciousness nurtures a sense of intentionality in our actions and inactions and through what lens we view complex challenges. How we show up in workplaces and organizational meetings can either increase the room’s energy or dissipate it. As a non-profit organization practitioner, I have made conscious efforts in tough situations to perpetuate an engagement approach that promotes being true to oneself when interacting with others. This is evidenced by how my team and I genuinely listen to others, show empathy, accompany others in troubled waters, and empower others to be courageous in the face of change. In such conditions, people are likely to show agency, be adaptive and ingenious, even in times of uncertainty (Fulber, 2002).
How we are expected to show up
Organizational and group conventions/policies prescribe what kind of culture and practices are acceptable and provide a microscopic lens through which daily behaviors and practices are scrutinized. Adaptive leadership activity has also changed the narratives surrounding leading virtually in a context of fear and uncertainty. In the case of the global pandemic, the interaction of people and organizational culture can create conditions for creativity, learning, and adaptability. As a practitioner I engage with diverse groups who are impacted economically and psychologically by the pandemic. I often see how leaders are challenged to maintain an expected role to assuage the needs of the employees. However, there is a moral obligation also to create an enabling space where others can engage in relational leadership practices of empathy, reciprocity, listening, and trust-building. Reflection in action and collective sense-making help us to identify ourselves in leadership praxis (Carroll et al., 2008).
How we expect others to show up
During the lock down, people were anxious, experienced some level of depression, despondency, and lost hope. Expectations from others were heightened and sometimes illusory. The desire and need for more connections and relational interactions were as clear as the sky on a sunny bright day. My positionality within the organization to lead a team comes with a sense and obligation that, “You have to be strong for others.” However, this messianic feeling gradually evaporated, with a dire need to be on the other side. A leadership as practice approach suggests that leadership should be collective, irrespective of positions, reaching out to each other, showing empathy, asking unusual questions, and listening to unspoken voices. How we engage impacts what surfaces from that engagement and sets unspoken expectations. Are you a leader who is the hero at the end of the story? Or are you intentionally empowering others to be active participants of a process that says, “We are in this ship together and must support each other to make it to the shore?”
Expectations cannot be met in a vacuum; as leaders, we must consciously build and nurture the necessary conditions that perpetuate an orientation of what culture or values drive how we show up, with a more resilient and adaptive capacity. The notion of reciprocity as a culture should be encouraged in both practice and practices, a sheer determination to hold ourselves accountable to these values.
Continuous experimentation of adaptive approaches to leadership should be encouraged and practiced even in normal circumstances because therein lies numerous opportunities to excavate, inspire others to take up leadership identities, and deconstruct dominant narratives that stifle innovation and change. This is how I embody leadership at practice and keeps me on my edge as a practitioner. I have a deep curiosity for creating adaptive spaces and intentionally engaging in leaderful practices that systematically privilege the co-creation of social organization and relationality. I invite you to personally interrogate your own leadership as as you engage with others. The following questions offer you an opportunity to get curious about your own leadership practice in times of crisis, and everyday:
- How does your daily interaction affect others, and how do others expect you to show up?
- When we leave a space, do you snatch the energy into sling bags, or empower others to hold that energy in place?
- Must you be challenged in a way like no other before ingenuity, creativity, and more relational experimentation can occur?
- Can you be more deliberate in practices that ensure the necessary conditions for more inclusive, relational, and collective leadership?
- How can you strategically drive a process for continuity of core values and identity as you navigate the struggles of the known and unknown realities and possibilities?
About the author
Anisah Ari is a nonprofit practitioner and works to build institutional capacities to address pressing and irrepressible complex societal challenges. She has over 15 years of work experience leading multi-functional teams across Nigeria on governance, gender and conflict resolution through policy reforms and practice shift. Anisah is interested in building the bridge between knowledge and practice in leadership paradigms for peace building and conflict resolution. She believes that a heuristic approach to solving wicked problems empowers individuals to assume leadership identities, especially in times of uncertainties, irrespective of position or titles. Anisah is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Leadership Communication with a keen persuasion that through community engaged scholarship, epistemic shift that would drive a context applicable, transformative and long-lasting solution would surface in community peace building and conflict resolution interventions.
References
Berkes, F., and Folke, C. (1998). Linking social and ecological systems for resilience and sustainability. Cambridge University Press.
Carroll, B., Levy, L., and Richmond, D. (2008). Leadership as Practice: Challenging the Competency Paradigm. Leadership, 4(4), 363-379.
Firstenberg, I., and Rubinstein, M. (2014). Extraordinary outcomes: Shaping an otherwise unpredictable future. Wiley.
Fulber T., and Lewis X. (2002). Relationship means everything: A typology of business relationship strategies in a reflexive context. British Journal of Management, 13(3), 317- 336.
Heifetz R., Grashow A., Linsky M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard Business Press.
O’Malley, E., and Cebula, A. (2015). Your Leadership Edge. KLC Press.
Uhl-Bien M., and Arena M. (2018). Leadership for organizational adaptability: A theoretical synthesis and integrative framework. The Leadership Quarterly, 29. 89-104
