Actions And Theatrics In Times Of Crisis: Reflection On Leadership, Communication
By Abdulwarees Solanke
TheFederal Government announcement of the resolve to implement the Oronsaiye report is no doubt causing trepidation in not a few quarters because in public sector reforms, casualties are bound to be recorded.
Changes that would change the status quo and impact many organizations would be recorded, raising fears and concerns on coping and adjustment. How are these fears allayed? Or how are likely victims prepared for the inevitable? This is a leadership and communication challenge.
But, not all reform initiatives should cause such fears if the right messages are communicated in a timely manner. Inspiring hope and building confidence are, therefore, leadership and strategic imperatives during critical reforms to guard against needless fears.
Reflecting on the current situation in the country, including the efforts to implement the Oronsaiye report, I found comfort in an old article I wrote some five years on how leadership at various levels responded to the Covid 19 emergency.
I know that emergency situations or crises often serve as the opportunity to determine leadership quality in any polity. War, natural disasters, economic emergencies, or pandemics are testy times when leaders need to make smart decisions. No prevarication.
These are times when stakeholders’ engagement needs to be robust. No question of enemy or friends.
They are times that communication need to be strategic, coordinated, transparent, honest, and simple. No time for the popularity contest.
In such times of uncertainties, the best foot needs to be put forward first. Point One. Point two: I take Nigeria as a commonwealth of 37 countries. So, I expect all state governors to see themselves as national leaders in a state of emergency, not champions of primordial interest. They must take responsibility for all in a critical time, cooperating with the national government and among themselves, and if need be competing on how best to overcome situations, learning from one another, sharing resources and information, understanding the peculiarities of one another, without offending individual or collective sensibilities because ultimately the way the situation is dealt with in one state will affect the other. It is no time for blame-trading or disagreements among state actors.
With the COVID-19 pandemic in the air, I was just interested in how leaders at the state level of the Nigerian polity took the situation as an opportunity to demonstrate their worth and calibre.
Needing greater depth, I resorted to a study of how leaders deliver in emergencies, and I found one interesting article on the Leadership and Managing People section of the online edition of Harvard Business Review.
The multiple-authors-article was published on April 2, 2020. Titled 4 Behaviours that help Leaders Manage a Crisis, the summary of leadership behaviours in critical situations in that informative article is as follows:
Decide with speed over precision
Adapt Boldly
Reliably Deliver
Engage for Impact.
But in an earlier edition of Harvard Business Review in January 2011, an internationally recognized coach, leadership consultant, speaker and author of some nine books, John Boldoni, recommended certain steps for the next big storm. Covid-19 was indeed a big storm for every office holder. Boldoni, in that stimulating g article, urged leaders to take a moment to figure out what is going on, asking them to act promptly, not hurriedly. He also advised that they manage expectations because when trouble strikes, people want it over right now. He further advised them to demonstrate control as when things are happening quickly, no one may have control, but a leader must assume control.
Boldoni suggested that leaders should keep loose, implying that a leader can not afford to lose composure. Succinctly, he noted that a leader can not be wedded to a single strategy. She must continue to take in new information, listen carefully, and consult with the frontline experts to know what is happening. Another role he said leaders must assume is to provide perspective.
I visited another website https://engaedely.com where I found another stimulating article, Leadership in Times of Crisis: how to lead efficiently. Posted a year ago ( 2018), the authors asserted that the real test of leadership does not occur when everything is smooth-sailing.
They affirmed my view that leadership is often tested during a crisis and added the way a leader behaves, and acts will establish their credentials as a good leader or poor one.
One good advice I got from here is that a leader in time of crisis must project honesty and confidence as its authors also emphasized decisiveness and adaptability and stressed the need to control chaos, but exercise caution and stay positive.
One other article that also enthused me more was from the Centre for Creative Leadership because of its communication focus. It itemised five ways to lead and adapt through a crisis. First it emphasized seeking of credible information, use of appropriate communication channels, explanation of what an organization is doing about the crisis, necessity of being present, visible and available and dedication of organizational resources for future crises.
The article also stressed that relationships matter during a crisis.
From these readings, I tried to contextualize these myriad of advice with behaviours of many actors in leadership at the state level in Nigeria and found all the examples of best and bad practices.
There are governors who created more enemies than friends and projected themselves in bad view about their leadership competence under the lockdown in the way they carried out their tasks as chief enforcers of the law in their states. They behaved as cavaliers.
There are those who first engaged in self-denials until they were overwhelmed by the pandemic in their states.
There were those who were careless and unguarded in their utterances that portrayed them as immature for the lofty office they held.
There were those who were not even acting or communicating at all while there are those who are swayed by popular sentiments in their comments and actions, lacking rationality or scientific or evidence-based research.
However, there were galso exceptionally brilliant ones that packed so much vigour in their frail frames and innocent looks as their actions during this lockdown portrayed them as visionary leaders with a mission in government.
The lesson for all state governors from the Covid 19 pandemic waßcthat when an emergency or crisis strikes, despite not praying for it, it is foresight and charisma that will see them through as competent leaders.
These e⅜were used about their sense anticipation, their readiness or preparation for emergencies and the style, content and simplicity of their communication on issues of public health, safety and environment, followed by their government’s massive investment in critical public infrastructure to for quick or smooth deployment if any emergency arises.
Without these, any state governor will merely be engaging in fire-brigade, self-deception, haranguing and harassing the public in the name of an action governor in enforcement of curfew, lockdown or stay at home orders without providing any safety net or offering any mitigation or palliatives that will portray him as a pragmatic, charismatic, proactive and sensitive leader.
So, kudos to the best and knocks for the worst performing governors as actors in leadership under COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown. Now, you can name your best or worst depending on their actions or theatrics while battling this scourge that spread from Wuhan in China.
Abdulwarees, Deputy Director/Head of Strategic Planning & Corporate Development at Voice of Nigeria, also volunteers for the Muslim Public Affairs Centre MPAC Nigeria Media & Strategic Communication Department
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