Leadership Lessons From The Trenches Of Crisis
Tough times also bring out the best in us: courage, resilience, resourcefulness, solutions-mindset and empathy
Today as I sit down to write this post, I am reminded of a John F Kennedy quote, “when written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”
There is a strong sense of déjà vu around us; and bizarrely the same uncertainty that we had last April, as we continue to fight against this global pandemic. I know most of us thought we’d be well past lockdowns, wearing masks and sanitizing our hands by this time. But this is also the time to remind yourself that we survived 2020 and some of us even managed to thrive!
When we started our Lockdown Leadership podcast during the lockdown last year, it was because we were hearing so many amazing stories about leaders at the helm of providing essential services and leading critical businesses in times of crisis. As an institution committed to helping our learners thrive, the importance of the social, cognitive and behavioral skills these leaders have is something everyone can learn from. For me, it was a valuable source of optimism to see how many people were truly leading from the front in such turbulent times!
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on well into 2021, we have seen some critical questions about timely leadership, rapid innovation, social responsibility during tough times, and what mental models leaders fall back on when things get rough, resurfacing.
Today I look back at the awe-inspiring conversations I had with trailblazing leaders last year; each left me with their unique perspectives and so much wisdom! What does it mean to have a bias for action in the face of the biggest crisis ever? How can we effectively motivate and manage diverse teams with a shared purpose? What does self-care look like in a ‘new normal’? And many, many more such valuable insights that I keep going back to.
Build a foundation that is resistant to crisis
The first of my conversations was with Prashant Tandon, CEO of India’s leading online pharmacy 1mg, who not just led his team at the epicenter of the most incredible behavior change experiment in history, but also witnessed firsthand some paradigm shifts take place in the healthcare sector as demand for telemedicine and e-pharmacy saw a boom overnight.
Like every other organization, however, the onset of the lockdown brought its own set of anxieties for Prashant’s team. The future felt uncertain and chaotic and economic concerns were on the rise among the employees. Were there going to be too many layoffs? Were their jobs secure? Was WFH here to stay? How secure was the company?
Prashant and other senior leadership at 1mg took to proactively answering these questions to help their employees navigate their way through this crisis. Townhall meetings and frequent digital interactions with team members became a ritual to help alleviate the fear of not knowing what was coming.
Prashant swears by three key aspects to effectively lead teams in times of crisis: transparency, authenticity, and communication. Ironically, these are all built on the pre-existing credibility of an organization and are reflective of the culture they’ve built before entering times of crisis!
Another lesson that remains ever relevant and vivid in my memory from this episode was Prashant’s emphasis on how credibility and trust play out culturally; implying that you have to be focused on gaining and building both of these ALL the time, in everything you do!
Set your eyes on achieving the impossible
If you’ve read The Ventilator Project, you are probably no stranger to the entrepreneurial genius of Srikant Sastri, Board Member at incubation centres of IIT Kanpur and IIM Calcutta Innovation Park. With a pandemic as mammoth and life-threatening as COVID-19, Srikant took on the ambitious yet timely task of addressing key gaps in the Indian public health system. His goal? Provide 30,000 ventilators for critical COVID-19 patients in India.
To achieve this, Srikant successfully created a global task force, spanning 3 countries, multiple cities, an age group of 25-75—all with varied expertise. In the true spirit of effective collaboration, he brought onboard individuals well versed with Medtech, supply chain, medical equipment, and even medical practitioners (who’d know both about how lungs and ICUs work)!
This group went on to create an advanced prototype of a life-saving invasive ventilator, within a mere 6 weeks! A task that would have otherwise taken up to 18 months. How incredible! What I find most fascinating is how critical mental models and a robust problem-solving approach must have been to exponentially accelerate the product development process life cycle. I was delighted to hear Srikant say that Harappa’s 5 pillars: THINK, SOLVE, COMMUNICATE, COLLABORATE and LEAD were instrumental in defining their success as a team.
He also emphasized leaving aside a sense of seniority or hierarchy in situations that demand collaborative effort. When people with complementary skill sets come together, respect and trust are so important to achieve a common goal. My biggest takeaway from Srikant’s phenomenal project is to set ambitious, impossible targets, both on the personal and professional front. The key to achieving the biggest goals, especially in times of crisis, lies in cultivating a sense of shared passion and commitment.
Systems and processes will help you win the day
What if we could replicate some of the most robust and best practices from a system as structured as the army to build a civilian response in times of crisis?
This is exactly what Saikat Datta, an award-winning journalist, de-risking specialist, and public policy expert, did. During last year’s lockdown, he led a COVID-19 Integrated Command Center (ICC) by bringing together citizens, the police and private companies for relief work. Similar to an army command center, which forms the nucleus of coordinated army action, the COVID-19 ICC in Gurugram was an effort to supplement the government's existing capacity, avoid duplication of efforts and build a sharper response mechanism for COVID-19 relief.
Saikat and his team picked the command center model and incorporated within it what is known as the ‘Motor Pool’ fleet management model, for two reasons: rapid crisis management and strong and quick coordination to de-bottleneck any issues that came up daily. They successfully created a model that could not only succeed, be scaled up, but could also be sustained.
Saikat strongly believes that putting in place robust systems and processes is key to mitigating and responding to a crisis; personalities will come and go, but once we create a process, it’ll function at an optimal level, irrespective of the individuals involved. I also find incredible value in Saikat’s advice to lead by influence and not authority, both in times of crisis and otherwise.
Crisis management begins from within
There are always some issues that get highlighted in the wake of a crisis and mental health was one of those. The pandemic brought with it an onslaught of mental health challenges—sadly a recurring affair in every other household.
In the wake of the lockdown last year, I talked to Neha Kirpal, co-founder and Chief Business Officer of InnerHour, a mental health app that provides self-help tools to half a million users in 100+ countries and is making mental health support accessible to everyone who needs it.
Neha and I discussed our broken mental health system, the need for community interventions, and the gendered divide in seeking support. What stayed with me the most was how Neha's purpose and mission shone through every sentence that she shared.
With Inner Hour, Neha and her team have created a digital, anonymous, and frictionless ecosystem to support the emotional and mental health needs of people, within and beyond the pandemic.
Three things left a deep impression on me from that refreshing conversation with Neha. First, we must look inwards to draw strength and perspective from our own life experiences when it comes to crisis management. Coming from a family with a history of mental health challenges, Neha's message is clear: rehabilitation and recovery are possible; so rather than being scared about mental health, people should seek help early and effectively and communicate about it to their near and dear ones without feeling isolated or alienated. You will find support.
Second, cultivating and practicing an attitude of gratitude. Third, making self-care a default setting. What's most important is to put the oxygen mask on ourselves first, before helping anyone else.
Embrace change, don’t just navigate it
One thing that’ll never be the same in a post-COVID world is education as we traditionally know it. The higher education system, which makes up such an important part of our life, has already seen tectonic shifts due to COVID-19.
This was the focus of my enriching conversation with Professor Dheeraj Sanghi, Director, Punjab Engineering College, where we delved into the plight of institutions, students, and faculty during the lockdown.
Dheeraj is part of a cadre of progressive education leaders that openly acknowledge the skewed education system in our country and advocate for systematic and planned change.
With the shared, lived experience of battling COVID-19, these leading educators and academic administrators successfully embraced the shifts in modes of teaching and are now looking at holistically transforming curricula for a post-pandemic world. In Dheeraj’s words, ”we are teaching too much engineering and science” and if there’s anything the pandemic has taught us, it’s that a linear, single-faceted education is not enough.
He wants his students to learn about the humanities and social sciences, become skilled in communication, understand society, cultivate compassion, deep dive into ethics, morality, philosophy, and even know a bit of biology! What more could we ask for from modern institutions?
Dheeraj also relayed a strong message for young educators and administrators, who were asked to transform their ways of working at an unfairly rapid pace last year. The key to thriving in a crisis is to unflinchingly embrace change and newer ideas (and I’m sure all Harappans couldn’t agree more!).
These are some powerful anecdotes from some exemplary individuals that continue to refuel me and I hope they were able to reignite the fire within you to keep on fighting too. I want to leave you with this thought that challenges in every journey are inevitable but giving up is optional.