Strong leadership keeps business afloat in times of turmoil

We look for inspiration in every leader, and every leader looks for it in the people they lead. PHOTO | FILE 

By CANUTE WASWA

In Summary

• Being a good leader is all about being able to rise to the occasion during difficult times.

These are tough times to be a leader in Kenya.

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First, all the 47 counties had no money to pay salaries for public servants in August. As a result, medics at the coast were joined by nurses in street protests as the strike spread to other hospitals in the county.

Then there is Kenya Airways that was forced to cancel flights to West Africa. Pressure by the public and Parliament had been precipitated by the Ebola crisis.

Last Wednesday, teachers said they had planned their strike to coincide with the start of national examinations. This is over their long-running pay dispute with the government. The list goes on.

But what does this have to do with entrepreneurs? The answer is simply, everything!

Difficult times have an impact on all of us. They hit companies and even entire industries without warning, and often with little time for evasive action. Even a good manager may not be able to prevent his company from being sucked into the crisis.

Under the impact of a deteriorating operating climate, years of poor, or simply lax, management are suddenly transformed from latent problems into full-blown, life-threatening crises. Being a good leader is all about being able to rise to the occasion during such difficult times.

Ahead of the curve: If you look at many famous leaders throughout history, you’ll notice they became famous because they navigated seemingly impossible times. They held the flashlight at the end of the tunnel.

All historical figures were faced with incredibly complex or catastrophic situations. Instead of cowering in indecision, they reacted boldly and aggressively. They threw conventional wisdom out of the window and developed their own playbooks on the spot.

Getting ahead of the curve means taking a hard look at what the future might hold, and that requires a degree of courage.

The world—our world—needs to be inspired. We have enough doom and gloom. As a result, we look for inspiration in every leader, and every leader looks for it in the people he or she leads. Winston Churchill rallied a nation with it.

Had the English Prime Minister not been able to see beyond the dark clouds of war, had he not demonstrated the courage to inspire a nation, and had Hitler won the Second World War, the world in which we now live would be a very different place. As a leader you must bring the same level of energy and passion to the organisation.

Off the beaten track: In troubled times, managers must be quick to learn, and receptive to new ideas. They must resist the temptation to fall back exclusively on tried-and-tested methods, and avoid the trap of overlooking or misreading the warning signs coming from their immediate environment.

You must always remember that when people are under stress for sustained periods of time, predictable and bad things happen. They become increasingly wary and tend to interpret each new sign as an indication of more bad things to come.

Negative emotions run high and people are more likely to bark at each other and openly display frustration. They become sceptical of the new and different and are prone to reject it out of hand.