'Beyond the Pandemic'

Leading in Ambiguous and Challenging Times The global threats leaders need to address are becoming increasingly salient. The two most obvious are climate change and global health challenges. Both of these require global, multilateral cooperation in contexts that are highly uncertain. Uncertainty creates fear, a psychological state that makes humans feel like hunkering down and staying loyal to local others rather than looking out and treating distal others magnanimously. How can leaders encourage themselves and others to think beyond the immediate and the local to have a broad circle of moral regard? Leading in an ambiguous world also benefits, paradoxically, from developing trust. Without trust, we cannot collaborate, and without collaboration, we cannot address the challenges the post-COVID world has set for us. However, we don’t always trust easily. What allows us to trust, and how does it benefit us? Leading in an ambiguous world requires a clear compass. One key element of this compass is a clear sense of who you are as a leader and how to act authentically to ensure that your leadership reflects who you are. But how do you know your authentic self and how do you use this to guide your leadership? How has the experience of the pandemic changed this? The Covid pandemic has forever changed the world of work. Working from anywhere (WFA) is now no longer a special case, but more the “new normal”. But this raises important challenges for leaders. How do we build and maintain culture when many employees are WFA? How do we build the social ties that high performance team working demands? How do we socialize new team members?