Never before in our know history would leaders and the leadership that they provide have been tested to the scale we are experiencing now. Leaders can contribute significantly to creating conditions where people can be at their natural best and contribute to their full potential. Leadership demonstrated prior to COVID may not be the leadership needed in a post COVID world. Leaders need to adapt, unlearn and relearn. In fact, there is clearly a space emerging for them to make a difference. They would however need to calibrate their approach keeping in mind the organization context, complexity of business, culture, unfolding economic environment and other considerations.

The following 10 actions can enable Leaders add significant value to the teams and the organizations they lead:

1. Provide clarity – Anxiety can be treated best in an environment where there is clarity. Clarity dispels the doubts about uncertainty people may have. Leaders must provide that clarity for their team(s) and organization at large.

2. Connect genuinely – In the times to come, leaders who engage with their people in a genuine, authentic manner will contribute to creating an ecosystem which contributes to a sustained commitment from their teams. Taking a genuine interest in matters that are important to their people would make a considerable difference in future results.

3. Involve others actively – Leaders will not have all the answers to the various problems their teams, organizations are facing. Seeking the support, inputs, and ideas from others around is essential to assess the situation and take a collaborative approach to success.

4. Be vulnerable – For leaders, it is critical to espouse a more humanistic approach. It implies being comfortable acknowledging the fact that as a leader, one does not at the time know what to do. Vulnerability narrows the gap between the people and their leader.

5. Be courageous – Making tough calls and seeing them through would be the biggest challenge that leaders would find themselves in today. Taking accountability for the results of such decisions would differentiate the good from great leaders.

6. Be mindful of hyperactivity – It is vital to initiate action, interventions to tide over the challenge. But one may need to cognizant of wasteful effort. An indistinct attempt, just because something needs to be done would end up exhausting the troops. What might be appearing as a sprint might actually be a marathon.

7. Be patient – Some of the actions, responses of teams, outcomes of the various activities may not go as planned. The pace and degree would vary and everything may not always match the expectations of the leader. Leaders with patience & tolerance can endure even the worst of the times and can contribute significantly to team effectiveness.

8. Appreciate contributions – Let emotions lead the way when contributions and efforts of people are talked about. It is not just the ceremonial act of recognition, but the authenticity of expression that makes the real difference.

9. Respect the multiple journeys that employees may be pursuing – Employees, including the Leaders, are pursuing multiple journeys at any given time. In present unprecedented times, managing the needs and expectations of their family has become more significant than ever before. Fears and anxieties around job, growth, promotion, EMIs and protracted disruption in general are also adding to the tremendous stress levels of people. Respecting that people are navigating through multiple journeys might provide the balm that may make all the difference.

10. Be flexible – There are no perfect solutions, and our actions and the ever-changing landscape, may further add to the problem as well. The comfort in making necessary, midcourse corrections (including abandoning solutions that do not work quickly) may be the best way forward. Staying in a perpetual beta mode may not be a bad idea.

Finally, the people we work with have the uncanny ability to surprise us – with their ingenuity, ownership, commitment and courage. True leaders should take concrete efforts to clear the path for the human enterprise to manifest. This is their space to make a difference!