Crisis leadership in crisis
March 17, 2020
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
LEADERSHIP IS BOTH AN ART AND A SCIENCE. We know that. But for the fledgling or accomplished professional leader, mastery of the art is almost always more challenging than is the science of it. Nearly anyone can master the science of good leadership. The question is: Does one who has mastered the science also have the innate ability or flair for leading others, especially in a time of crisis? Not necessarily.
Everybody wants to believe they’re a good leader (just like everybody in the age of the Internet and social media believes he or she is a good writer). But they’re not! At least not necessarily.
Most people are not nor have they ever been professional leaders. Consequently, few fully grasp the complexities of leadership. Nor do they understand that just because a person in a leadership role may be an adequately performing – even successful – leader in a normally functioning, conventional environment; that DOES NOT mean that same person is automatically going to be a good leader in an unconventional environment or a crisis.
CRISIS LEADERSHIP IS TOUGH. We could even call this combat leadership, because combat itself is essentially a series of fluid asymmetrical crises, all of which must be managed in real time where the stakes could not be higher. Not everybody is good at managing, guiding, directing, and above all inspiring others through this kind of an environment. It requires the ability – among other things – to inspire others to action and to encourage and inspire confidence in them as they act.
Which brings us to the present global crisis. We are seeing both good and bad crisis leadership playing out in this current coronavirus threat.
Let’s hope that the good, moral, truly selfless leaders – the ones who have mastered both the science and THE CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ART – show themselves in this. There seems to be something not quite there at the present time. And we need it, well, yesterday.
Military technical consultant W. Thomas Smith Jr is a former U.S. Marine infantry leader and counterterrorism instructor.
