What do you as a leader need to know more of?

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By Michael Lang

There are so many articles on leadership and what and what not to do.

#SGPartnersTips: Are you a responsible leader? from SG Partners on Vimeo.

Catch up on responsible leadership by watching this video.

So I thought I would distil these down to my top 7 leadership tips.

  1. The health and economic impacts of Covid-19 will be continuous, non-linear and global.

    So what steps do you need to take to provide certainty to all stakeholders of the business? I mean clients, employees, shareholders, financiers, suppliers and government? How are you effectively communicating this?

  2. State support of companies, such as government monies in all forms, means that governments may play an increasing role in corporate life, affecting everything from salaries to customer engagement. Something to think about. If you accept the money, so to the intervention that may come with it.

  3. Even after the impact of the pandemic subsides, there will be anxiety about the prospect of another seemingly unforeseeable crisis.

    How do we effectively communicate to our stakeholders of the business that we have strategies and plans accordingly? What do we share from the learning from the current environment we find ourselves in?

  4. Companies with strong balance sheets, excellent cost management and effective cash flow will likely not only survive but thrive.

    Others may fail. So what is the top 3 areas to focus on within cost management and revenue creation? What is your resilience strategy?

  5. Some business models will change completely, including those that rely solely on just-in-time operations and thin supply chains.

    How are you positioning yourselves? How are you communicating these changes to your supply chain AND your clients?

  6. There will be questions around being global versus being local.

    Manufacturing of essential products will depend less on foreign partnerships that can easily fail during worldwide crises. If your clients asked you how have your dependencies changes, what would your answer be?

  7. The crisis will accelerate transformation, including digital transformation. In some cases this will be the catalyst for changes that leaders had long put off or pushed back against.

    We know some organisations that transitioned in a home based work model quite easily as they were already “online”. Is there more work you need to do in this area? How have you gone with releasing "control" based management?

AS an effective leader you will need to review your strategies, business plans, organisational structure and put in place "a medium-term plan that is robust and has flexibility".

If not already, you will need to be a critical thinker, improve your self-awareness and adaptability, alongside strong communication skills and "a sense of humanity".

You need to continue to develop your empathy, a part of your EQ.

A balance of IQ and EQ in decision-making is going to be critical – the ability to engage with your and others emotions effectively will allow you to be able to pivot the business and bring people along.

Want to know more about EQ? Check out our evaluations to assist in the awareness stage.