What’s a Leader to Do? Surviving and Thriving Through a Triple Threat
Imagine walking through an unfamiliar forest…in the dark. The sounds of night creatures; uneven terrain under your feet; tree branches suddenly brushing your head and arms; searching for a path, any trail; trying to see fallen logs before you trip over them; peering at the quarter moon in the sky and wishing for more light. You are trying to remember your wilderness survival training from childhood, but it’s a distant memory. It is a long night; you are exhausted from working all day. You know that dawn is coming, you’ve just lost track of when, and you don’t know how deep into the forest you’ll be when the sun rises.
This is what some leaders feel like today. Trying to lead their teams in the dark through unfamiliar territory, leveraging all the knowledge and skill sets they possess, while knowing that it is not enough to guarantee the outcome they desire. The ability to effectively assess risk, anticipate and plan for the future, compromised by a flurry of major events that are out of their control.
Triple Threat Capabilities
While there are a common set of leadership capabilities that all leaders should cultivate, different crises require prioritization of different skill sets. To survive and thrive during this triple threat (pandemic + social unrest + economic uncertainty), leaders should be focusing on these skill sets:
Adaptability to fast-changing conditions. Each of these threats seemingly hit us overnight (even though in reality they were a long time in the making), so we had to respond quickly. Change initiatives that have taken years in the past were implemented in a matter of hours in some cases because there was no other alternative. We must keep our brains, beliefs, and behaviors adaptable.
Collaboration with others to anticipate problems and find solutions. While predicting the future is more difficult these days, it’s important to work with others who have complementary skill sets to figure out the best policies, programs, and processes to address what we’re facing; and to forecast where problems may crop up.
Innovation to see opportunities where others do not. This involves visualizing future possibilities out of seemingly nothing, along with the capability and resources to bring them to life and reality.
Focus on purpose and passion to apply their strengths in meaningful areas. We are most gifted to solve problems in the areas of our purpose. We have the greatest potential in life when we connect with “why” to the challenges around us. When you have clarity of who you are and the talents you bring to the table you will step out boldly to use them.
Connection and engagement with our teams to maximize productivity. This is a defining moment for leaders to step forward, communicate clearly with their teams, provide guidance, make decisions, and lead their teams through periods of uncertainty and insecurity. Trust is typically the underpinning for this connection to occur.
Castleman and COVID-19
Dr. David Fajgenbaum understands and models these leadership capabilities well. He decided to become a doctor (like his father) as a tribute to his mother who died of cancer while he was in undergrad. During his third year of med school he became very sick with what was diagnosed as Castleman, an uncurable disease. He managed to graduate and instead of moving on to a residency, he decided to get an MBA and apply a CEO mindset to researching cures for his disease.
Now, he is an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania and survivor of five bouts of Castleman disease. He also succeeded in identifying a drug which had been around for 30 years to successfully put him in remission. Recognizing the similarities between Castleman and COVID-19, Fajgenbaum used his unconventional research approach to refocus his lab on identifying and repurposing drugs to address the pandemic. His methodology includes coordinating data-sharing efforts between labs, hand picking the best researchers instead of having them apply for grants and prioritizing clinical trials to repurpose existing FDA approved drugs.
He is currently leading dozens of researchers in a systematic review of all the drugs that could potentially fight COVID-19 and sharing those results with medical professionals across the globe. He tells his story in the book Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope into Action.
Most organizations have now moved from making life-sustaining decisions in the early stages of this triple threat, to exhausting every possibility to find a way to thrive during it. This isn’t the time to divert money away from leadership development. It’s the time to invest deeply in identifying and developing the right capabilities to lead the organization forward. Leaders have always needed to thrive in order for organizations to survive but it is even more important while we are facing this triple threat.
For more information on Dr. Fajgenbaum read https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/27/health/coronavirus-treatment-fajgenbaum-drug-review-scn-wellness/index.html
Copyright 2020 Priscilla Archangel
Image by Twomeows_IS from iStock