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The COVID19 pandemic is the ultimate test of leadership as the situation is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.
Leaders are grappling to make sense of the virus, develop policies with incomplete information, deal with sceptics, and manage an environment over which they have no control over. Adding to this challenge is a virus that is mutating in response to our measures to control it.
Never since WW2 have governments had to ask their citizens to make prolonged sacrifices for the common good. Rallying a nation towards a common good is exceedingly difficult today as, unlike the 1940s, society has become less homogeneous, more educated, and social media has given a voice to literally anyone.
My takeaway about successful leadership is that it is not about the quality or popularity of decisions.
Successful leadership is about people knowing you have their backs and hence, even if they disagree with your decisions, they trust that you have their best interest at heart.
Leaders should therefore worry less about being right, but doing right. This is because you are unlikely to make all the right (or popular) decisions, but you can definitely always put the interest of your people first.
