Fear radicalizes Pandemic-Leadership

How you lead shapes follower-relationships for years

 

 

 

There is no specific Pandemic-Leadership style, in times of home offices and hybrid meetings Leadership is executed more extreme, more radical than before, though. Key for this phenomenon are the fears of executives themselves. According to their respective personalities they are on the one hand providing for too much control (micromanagement due to the fear of failures) and on the other hand too much space (laissez faire due to the fear of frustrating the staff even more). Two famed researchers in Leadership from the University of Miami draw this conclusion in a remarkable article that was published recently in the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies.

Hands on or Hands off – both principles of Leadership we do need the scientists summarize – still: there is a big job to be done in defining exactly where this overdosises here and there counteract the original intentions of the superior.

Also cristalclear is this: how you lead now in these times of crises will be remembered by your subordinates forever and will therefore shape the quality of your relationships for years.

Dasborough/Scandura, „Leading Through the Crisis: “Hands Off” or “Hands On”?, In: Journalist of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 1 – 5, 2021

 

 

 

From the practice:

Working as an executive coach it was, is and will be one of my main tasks to reflect with my clients about their fears and sorrows. In this type of sessions I am talking about potential reliefs and options for sustainable solutions, and last but not least I am encouraging men and women alike to go new ways. This I do regardless whether the guys came from the corporate world, scientific community or politics. Who else than one´s coach is a confidential and reliable interlocutor during the crisis?

That´s why I actually consider the contribution of these two US-scientists particularly interesting and that given I confirm from the practice their conclusion 100%: Fear chooses various paths in order to surface more or less covered within our everyday professional routine. Even more: nobody is immune against fears.

So I am coming up with two recos: 1. Please make yourself aware if and how your individual panics shape your leadership. 2. Ask yourself if you – 18 months after the first lock down – have found yet a definitely well working leadership-mix.