INTHEBLACK Mental Health 2021 - Magazine - Page 15
Above: Margie Warrell,
leadership expert
WALKING
WITH FEAR
Above: John Karagounis, The CEO Circle
solve problems. To do that, leaders must have
the resilience to back themselves and back their
teams,” he says. “If the COVID-19 crisis taught
us anything about organisations, it is that
we can get things done a lot faster and more
efficiently than we previously thought possible.”
Suppose a leader is seen to be prevaricating
or procrastinating. In that case, Karagounis
says, others will see the behaviour as a sign that
the leader is confused, overwhelmed or even
clueless about the way forward. From there, it
is a short path to losing the trust, support and
cooperation of those you lead.
Karagounis says excessive decisiveness
requires leaders to focus on three key areas:
concise and practical communications, flexible
tactics and strategies, and smart deployment of
the resources at hand.
“Excessive decisiveness requires confidence
and composure to advance on opportunities
and tackle problems without leaning too
heavily on the comforts of collaboration and
consensus.
“In testing times, leaders might lose the
confidence to do this, but it is something
leaders must do if they are to find clarity in
uncertain times.”
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Dr Susan David, psychologist
at Harvard Medical School,
defines courage as the
capacity to first face difficult
emotions, thoughts and stories
with curiosity and compassion,
and then to move in the
direction of your values.
“Courage is not the absence
of fear. Courage is fear
walking,” she says.
Warrell says the significant
paradigm shift in leadership to
come out of the COVID-19
crisis will be the acceptance
that we have to lead
decisively through uncertainty.
“We cannot wait for the
uncertainty to pass before we
make plans and move
forward. We have to embrace
uncertainty as a norm and be
willing to make the best
decisions we can in the
moment and then be
brave enough to iterate on
them often.”
Karagounis sees the past
year as a monumental
learning experience,
particularly for leaders who
may have coasted through
good times and then suddenly
had to face the scale and
complexity of the pandemic.
He says those who had the
self-awareness to recognise
their fear and use it as a
guiding light emerged
stronger than before. “They
could provide a beacon on the
hill for their people,” he says.
“Those who held to their
purpose and didn’t lose sight
of their ‘why’ were the ones
who were able to sustain
through this whole period.
They had clarity on what they
needed to do and clarity on
why they’re doing it.
“Did they have to change
how they were doing things?
Absolutely. They failed at
times, but they treated those
failures as gifts. They had the
mindset to look at the failures
and learn quickly from them.”
As Hobbes pointed out four
centuries ago, fear is part of
the human condition. Without
it, humans would never have
evolved and survived. When
we deny the existence of fear,
pretend it doesn’t exist or
wish it away, we tell ourselves
a lie that exposes us to even
greater dangers.
Having the courage to walk
with fear and understanding
how our faltering footsteps can
lead and inspire others might
be one of the great leadership
lessons to emerge from the
beginning of the 21st century.
intheblack.com October 2021 15