Keep calm and trust each other

By Peter Sarasyn – December 29, 2020

Don’t panic!

With the COVID-19 health crisis and accompanying business disruption, many companies find themselves in a perfect storm and millions of lives have been turned upside down. How can we keep a positive mindset with all of this?

It takes more than resilience to navigate through the unknown of this global pandemic. The Board of Directors and the CEO need to work together to find short-term solutions while developing a longer-term strategy for accelerating out of this distressed times and for preparing for a winning mood in the new normal. In this extraordinary situation an effective leader’s brain is on high alert and tries to think ahead finding solutions for unprecedented challenges. Meeting these challenges requires the courage to act, based upon a trusted partnership between the Board and the CEO.

Without a doubt, the Board of Directors and the CEO can’t be panicked (even if everyone else in the organization is), instead they need to be realistic and responsible, in some cases taking tough decisions when restructuring their business is needed to recover it. Today, CEOs need to plan, more than before, for the worst, hoping then for the best, or as Winston Churchill said during WWII, “If you are going through hell, don’t stop, keep going”.

We are not alone in this

As indicated by the OECD, many governments around the world have decided to take unmatched financial measures to counter the profound impact on the society and to sustain social safety nets for millions of citizens. Many countries have approved aid schemes to support companies facing economic difficulties due to the COVID-19 outbreak. But, how long can this situation continue? When will the coronavirus pandemic end and when can we return to normal (not sure though what “normal” means in the after-pandemic era)?

As we all wait for a vaccine to defeat the coronavirus pandemic, I trust that science will conquer this. In the past 20+ years I worked as a business transformation consultant for the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world like J&J in Zug (Switzerland) and Pfizer European Logistics in Brussels (Belgium). I witnessed the dedication and effectiveness these companies demonstrate in fulfilling their mission to find cures and defeat human diseases.

Despite my good hope in and admiration for the scientific life savers and hospital care heroes, as long as the vaccines are not injected for the majority of the world’s population and the coronavirus has not been stopped yet, CEOs have to stay strong and continue manage their operations in difficult and uncertain times. Indeed, the world needs leaders who guide their companies no matter what through this storm and, by doing so, who save jobs for millions of families.

Learn how to dance in the rain

Leading in turbulent times is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but instead it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Please find hereafter some lessons learned based upon my previous experiences with managing a crisis and leading turnarounds and transformations in over two decades.

I do hope that this may inspire and help you to remain courageous, energetic and mindful behind the steering wheel.  

1.    How to be calm and inspirational during a crisis? Immediate action is critical, but leaders must also embrace a new agenda. CEOs need to look much further ahead and envision how the crisis will continue to affect the competitive environment and what society will need in the coming months and years. Paralysis is not an option.

2.    If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. When the going gets tough, an organization needs an experienced captain. Decisions have to be made and short-term successes have to be accomplished. As a CEO this often means not avoiding to discuss taboos and controversial issues, if needed, break through barriers, also in the Board room. Do you make friends like this? No, but the highest priority for a CEO during a crisis is not to make friends but to survive and to achieve progress with the highest possible benefit for the highest possible number of stakeholders involved.

3.    Now’s the moment for inclusive leadership! This pandemic crisis is an accelerator for companies to become more resilient and put flexibility, experimentation and agility first. No time to waste, it’s now or never. This tone needs to be at the top and hence leaders will have to find quick ways to foster a culture that accepts learning and is comfortable with people taking a bet to innovate. Leaders who put people first and who are oriented toward purpose and caring, are in my opinion best-equipped to lead these days. Because, make no mistake, also when the coronavirus will be defeated, disruption is not going to slow down. Throughout my entire career, I’ve always had the opportunity to work with people exceptionally smarter than me, and my humble role as facilitator has always been to leverage diversity, orchestrating talented people and leading them be successful together, also through a crisis. I’m convinced that the new generations are going to be smarter than previous ones, because they are thriving in a more sophisticated, digitally native, and rapidly evolving world. Part of my CEO job is to be a magnet for such people and to get them to be the best that they can be. Most direct reports, especially those who may be leading through their first economic crisis, require more attention and support from leadership. Nevertheless, this crisis is also an opportunity for them to build manager effectiveness through demonstrating leadership and showing great collaboration skills, particularly in trusting employees and not making assumptions about an individual’s circumstances.

4.    An effective and strong relationship between the Chair of the Board of Directors and the CEO is crucial to emerge from a crisis, and an effective Chair is even so hard to please, he is also the best in acting as a sounding board, mentor and advocate for the CEO. According to SpencerStuart (research in CEO Life Cycle), CEOs frequently feel isolated and under-supported by their Boards. A crisis may create an inherent tension when a Board is either too complacent or over-involved when holding the CEO accountable for performance more than to serve as a supportive partner to the CEO. Independent directors, if any, are also very important in this difficult balancing act to guarantee an unbiased decision-making process in times when making the right things happen is what it takes to survive. The relationship between the Chair and the CEO needs to be one of mutual trust, they need to be "partners in survival" during a crisis.

Be candour and inclusive

I like the candour used by Phil Darby (from the Digital Transformation People) when he’s saying straightforward: “There are no plug-and-play answers, we’ve not experienced anything like this before.” Clearly, during this pandemic crisis organizations and their leaders should be clear about and focused on their most pressing basic needs. Maintaining productivity and producing cashflow, sure, but also on the physical and mental health of their employees, and towards adapting to new ways of working without losing its process maturity and organizational culture of connection.

Ever since I got my first responsibility to manage others than myself – I’m grateful for my own leadership pipeline development (refer to R. Charan) thanks to the courageous belief and everlasting encouragement of remarkable people I worked for like Don Murray, Patrick Simons, Richard Rekhy, Stephan Claes, Takashi Sano, Frits Aarts, Jeff Dobbs, Andrew Thomson, Roger Neininger, Patrick Van Outryve, Philippe Corthouts, William Van Aerde, Johan De Cooman, Hans Wilmots, Chris Kindermans, Pradip Kanakia, and Mark Campbell, to name a few – I have been an inclusive leader “avant la letter”, recognizing diversity and differences of opinion and different cultures as an asset to my teams. No, there’s no escape to the need for diversity, not during a crisis, not ever, because the only certainty in all of this is that companies need to innovate to survive, one way or the other.

According to McKinsey inclusion and diversity are at risk in this crisis, but at the same time are critical for business recovery, resilience and reimagination. I fully agree with the latter.

Stay tuned to hear more from my journey as an inclusive leader!