Four Things to Remember When Leading in a Crisis
“When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists.’’
This is part of Choy Yong Cong’s favourite quote from the philosophy book, Tao Te Ching. Having been the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion and now a Deputy Director at the Economic Development Board, Choy has seen and led his team out of a fair share of crises. In the midst of the current global COVID-19 pandemic, he now works to prevent the disruption of Singapore’s economy while ensuring public health is not compromised.
Facing precarious situations and leading others through such adversity are often defining moments for leaders. Choy shares his experiences and tips for young leaders like you on how to brave these storms during your leadership journey:
- Understanding stress and its impact
Crisis can come in many different forms, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to note that crisis can induce stress — physical, mental and emotional stress, which can all affect your perspective on leadership practices.
There are two elements of stress:
- Stress that affects the leader: It is important to learn how to manage your own stressors before you can effectively lead in a crisis. As a leader you have to be able to manage your own stress. This takes practice, it does not show up suddenly in times of crisis. You cannot run a marathon without training, In order to be able to run, it is important to have a plan and build up resistance
- Stress that affects the followers: How you manage yourself in stressful situations helps to set the tone of how your followers can manage their own stress in crises. Violence begets violence, anger begets anger. Do not respond to anger with anger. When people start to lose their temper, give everyone some time to calm down. As a leader, it is important to create a calming environment when tensions arise.
So then, how do we manage three common types of stress?
(i) In terms of managing physical stress: Be aware of your physical body condition. You cannot expect to lead when your physical body is not able to do so.
(ii) In terms of managing mental stress: Your brain is like a muscle, the more you work on your decision making skills during periods of non-crisis, the more comfortable you will be when leading in periods of crisis.
(iii) In terms of managing emotional stress: Emotional stress is one aspect that most people neglect the most. There are three ways to manage it:
(a) You need to have a sense of self-awareness. Be aware and mindful of your own emotions, i.e. be able to recognise when you are angry.
(b) Regulate the emotion. Know what you have to do to regulate the emotion, i.e. when you are angry, know how to express the anger safely and how to calm yourself down.
(c )Express the appropriate action for your emotions, e.g. take a walk when you are angry.
2. Leading by empathy, by example
Choy emphasised how important it is to be on the ground with your team, understand what they are going through, and motivate them through the stress. He stressed not to underestimate the effects a leader brings when they are on the ground. The impact of presence and emotional resonance smoothens stresses and builds confidence among team members in you as a leader.
Oftentimes, what is on paper might not always translate well to what actually happens on the ground. Being there on the ground allows you to make better informed decisions when you have a clearer understanding of reality.
What is a common challenge is also communicating with people who do not react well to those who lead by empathy. Situations like this will happen, when colleagues and teammates become difficult to work with. The natural instinct is to feel defensive and wallow in self-pity. But do not do that!
Instead, Choy’s advice is to try to understand where the person is coming from. Be open, let them share their thoughts with you, be it frustrations or grievances, in order to get to the root cause of the disagreement.
In all instances, go back to leading with empathy — it helps you to connect with people who have disagreements, but also allows for flexibility to adjust your management style, especially when situations are dynamic.
Also honestly ask yourself if there are areas for you to improve on by incorporating more suitable objectives that you may have missed out on.
Essentially, there are no silver bullets, leadership is an arduous journey full of heartache. To become better leaders, it is crucial to make the time to go through that journey.
3. Decision Making
Choy’s advice on making decisions — when you don’t have the right answers, choose to lead with humility. You may face situations where action needs to be taken even before you have the full picture of the situation, and it may be anxiety-inducing.
Here is where open communication and transparency will help: A leader needs to understand what is happening on the ground. In order to do that, those on the frontlines must not feel afraid or be barred from providing insights. Leaders must cultivate the notion of open communication in order to find solutions to potential blindspots, especially in high pressure situations when developments are still ongoing.
As a leader, do not be brought down by the constant pressure to know everything. It is okay to momentarily say with honesty, “I don’t know, I don’t have an answer right now. But let us work this out together.” Never forget that your team is always ready to work the solutions out with you.
It is not about getting people to trust you on the decisions you make during the crisis, it is about making the effort to build that trust every day even prior to a crisis, so that when a critical time comes, they will say, “We trust that you will do the right thing”.
This takes time, but you have to start doing it now.
4. The Genius of “AND” instead of the tyranny of “OR”
Leaders are always in an interesting position (and a difficult spot) between meeting the expectations of set goals and ensuring that followers are clear on the path to get there.
Our job is to make it such that purpose and people are able to work together. Make an effort to understand the meaning and purpose behind what you’re trying to do, and make sure you believe in it yourself. Then, clarify the purpose of the task to your team members, and help them to believe it as well.
Next, focus on the experience of the people. What are people looking for when they are trying to get the tasks done? Are they looking for fun, growth, experience or simply camaraderie? Make the experience a pleasant one for everyone.
In summary, Choy shared that leadership is all about perspectives. There is no one book or guide that would provide all the answers on understanding leadership structures.
As leaders, we need to read a lot, and understand that there will always be central tenets of leadership that most people agree with, but they differ based on situations and leadership personalities.
Find out what leadership principles are central to you, learn to contextualise and adapt information, and focus on what’s most relevant to you!
These tips were shared as part of the Leadership Masterclass series, held in collaboration with The Birthday Collective. You can find out more about this year’s Leadership Masterclass right here.
