危机时期有效领导的秘诀

© Oliver WymanThe past few years have sprung plenty of surprises on business leaders — COVID-19, thesubsequent supply chain crisis, and then, once everything looked like it had startled to settledown, the massive disruption from the war in Ukraine. The highest inflation for severaldecades, high interest rates and a new international banking crisis resulting from poor bondyields have been poured onto the mix, adding fuel to the fire. And for many businesses whatis burning ismargin.These challenges have stretched business leaders across the world. The world has movedfrom a time where an occasional crisis might be expected to one where continuouscrisis management is rapidly becoming the norm. In this article, we focus on thepersonal challenges of leadership during crises and the new ways of leading that thesesituationsrequire.UNEXPECTED DEMANDS ONLEADERSHIPThe unexpected demands much of leadership. In troubled times, as the businessenvironment moves from the familiar to uncharted territory, leaders are called upon toshow ingenuity in their responses. Dealing with the complexity and uncertainty producedby a crisis, let alone a whole string of them, demands not only a willingness to showflexibility but also knowledge of how to demonstrate the leadership required. This is bothcontextual andpersonal.What does good leadership look like today, in this time of continual crisis? One leader whohas been seen to be adapting well to the unexpected is Volodymyr Zelensky. Until he becamePresident of Ukraine in May 2019, he was best known as a comedian and the lead actor of theUkrainian TV series The Servant of the People, playing a comic role a very long way from thatof his current role as wartime leader. Despite his relative inexperience, at the very outsetof the invasion on Feb 24, 2022, Zelensky pivoted, shedding his suit and tie and donning hisfamous khakiT-shirt.In a broadcast that is now almost as famous as Martin Luther King’s speech, “I have adream,” Zelensky, surrounded by his fellow ministers, spoke extempore into his mobilephone from the streets of Kyiv. Looking straight into the lens, he reassured his fellowUkrainians, “We’re all here,” he said, “defending our independence, ourcountry.”“We’re all here” immediately became a slogan of Ukrainian solidarity. From that moment,people around the world took note of Zelensky’s newly impressive leadership andcommunications style. Journals in Europe and America feted him. TIME magazine not onlymade Zelensky its person of the year for 2022 but also placed the on the cover of its May 9,2022 issue, with the headline “How Zelensky Leads”. A year on, the world is stillwatching. © Oliver WymanLEADERSHIP AT THE NEXTLEVELWhile no business crisis is as serious as that facing Zelensky, every business leader needsto know that they can lead during a crisis. To do so well requires becoming grounded inareas where few are comfortable, well beyond familiar areas of analysis and planning.It also demands shedding some of the conventional tropes and finding new ways ofapproachingleadership.Sound preparation sets the road to mastery. This can start with examining your track recordin leadership during times of crisis. Gaining a better understanding how you respond in suchsituations, thereby increasing self-awareness, not only builds competence through betterunderstanding of what your preferred responses tend to be but will also help you readyyourself with options to deal with futurechallenges.In one respect, this is the main message of this article: becoming more effective requiresincreasing the range of your responses. This in turn demands increased self-awarenessabout how you act when under severepressure.To respond appropriately to the unexpected often requires doing something new anduntried. In a crisis, nothing is fixed. But without adequate personal preparation, ourinstincts and habitual actions are always capable of undermining even the best-laid plans.Rehearsal in responding to the unexpected can prepare us for the realevent.Becoming more flexible requires acting outside our comfort zone. It sometimes meansbeing reliant upon other people’s skills and insights. This demands accepting a degree ofrisk not every leader is comfortable with. When Zelensky stood with his fellow ministers onHrushevsky Street in front of the Verkhovna Rada building and said “We are here” he wasboth inspiring andvulnerable.THE FROZENCOOIt is human nature to revert to what we are most familiar with when we are put underextreme pressure — if it worked well in the past, we assume that it will again. The problemis that what worked well historically can sometimes be inappropriate for the very differentneeds of today. If we act without due reflection, we can all too readily choose the wrongtools from the toolbox, ones poorly adapted to presentpressures.This is what happened to one COO (who we will call Stefan, to avoid embarrassment).When the crisis broke, Stefan became trapped into adopting a single response to thec