Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis

Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis

Leadership Change

This article by Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky, deals with managing change and the barriers that leaders face when solving problems in today's unique economic climate. The authors assert that because of intensifying global competition, energy constraints, climate change, and political instability, that once the current economic crisis has passed, which will happen after policy makers implement technical adjustments, we will face "a sustained crisis of serious and unfamiliar challenges." Simply put the times are changing and yesterday's solutions will not be enough to fix tomorrow's problems.

Leaders in tomorrow's business world must have the capacity to lead during this sustained crisis. The author's assert crisis leadership has two distinct phases. The emergency phase deals with stabilizing the situation and buying time, in other words protecting assets. The second phase is the adaptive phase when underlying causes of the crisis are addressed and capacity is built "to thrive in a new reality." The author's warn that this adaptive phase is especially treacherous for leaders because there is pressure to alleviate uncertainty with authoritative certainty, even if this means "overselling what you know and discounting what you don't." People are naturally resistant to change, especially if the change knocks them out of their comfort zone. This creates a paradox, people want direction but as they are required to make the necessary but uncomfortable changes necessary during the adaptive phase, they may turn against the very leadership that is trying to facilitate the change. There is often much uncertainty during this phase which creates anxiety.

There is much merit in this observation. People's natural resistance to change has been an issue for as long as there have been leaders and followers. When negaholics or individuals addicted to negative thinking and behaviors assert, "It can't be done," "it won't work," or "it will never happen," and spread this negativity unchecked in the workplace, morale plummets, motivation vanishes, and productivity slows. Conversely if leaders do "oversell" they face loss of credibility with every failure and eventually risk taking becomes too risky in terms of their personal survival. They become mired in the emergency phase of crisis management.

The authors contend that because of this, leaders may fall into the trap of "hunkering down" and try to solve problems with short-term fixes such as tightening controls, across-the-board cuts, and restructuring plans. Leadership will turn to what they know how to do in order to reduce frustration and quell their own and others' fears. Their primary mode will be drawing on familiar expertise to help their organizations weather the storm.