3 psychological shifts that will help you lead effectively during difficult times

Despite what myriad books, articles, webinars and lecture series might have you believe, there is no magic formula for crisis leadership. Yes, there are some basic behaviours to adopt — remaining calm and considering the long-term consequences of decisions are two of the most valuable. And, yes, useful lessons can be drawn from history — to pick just one recent example, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s handling of the 2008 financial crash was a masterclass in acting decisively in the face of considerable political risk.

But there is no magic formula for crisis leadership for one fundamental reason: there is no magic formula for leadership, period. All organisations are unique — and have unique leadership needs, informed by their vision, values, culture, industry, lifecycle position and so on. On top of this, the pace and nature of today’s working world demands a form of leadership that is highly adaptable. In essence, both organisations and the context in which they operate are too complex for any one-size-fits-all model to be credible or appropriate.

Instead, what is required is dynamic leadership. In our practice, we define this as the process through which individuals activate their own unique potential in accordance with the needs of the present moment. In the face of complex challenges, the dynamic leader seeks to access their own values, experience, and skills, in real time, in service of helping their people find the right solutions. Dynamic leadership is grounded in the value of the individual as a creative, adaptable, unique and resilient source of inspiration and guidance for others.

Dynamic leadership is a liberating concept. For one thing, it stops leaders feeling the need to chase some imaginary “gold standard” (and paying big bucks to business schools or training providers in the vain hope of attaining it). More positively still, it is based on the fundamental premise that the individual in question already possesses the attributes that they need to be highly effective, whatever the circumstances might be.

The nature of dynamic leadership also lends itself to continuous improvement — after all, there are always new ways to access our innate creativity and resilience.

In that spirit, here are three psychological shifts that can help even the most dynamic of leaders improve their effectiveness at times of crisis. These shifts will also help improve the dynamism of leaders who are new to this concept.

Resistor to conductor

Crises can create emotional resistance. Most of us fear the unpleasant circumstances that they tend to leave in their wake, and understandably wish to avoid them. This creates the temptation to avoid or actively repress the emotions concerned — for example, by spending time in “fantasy land” imagining that the situation isn’t happening or that it will somehow disappear by magic.

All fears are really fears of feelings. Avoiding or repressing them does not make them go away. Paradoxically, trying to do so actually gives the fears power — we become so busy trying to resist them that we have, in effect, allowed them to exert a stranglehold on our being.

Faced with a crisis, the dynamic leader’s task is to act as a conductor, not a resistor. This means accepting the situation fully, embracing an attitude of non-judgement about it, and creating a state of mind which allows the individual’s innate wisdom — the creativity that we all have deep within us — to flow.

The foundation for this mindset is a belief in the concept of impermanence. If we accept the truth that “this too shall pass”, we are better able to accept and face the circumstances — because we know that they will not be ours forever.

With that foundation in place, the conductor mindset is activated by achieving distance from the endless mental “chatter” that tends to become heightened in difficult times. In The Untethered Soul, the author Michael Singer describes the mind as “the difficult roommate.” Singer posits that the inner monologue is a relentless and well-meaning attempt by the mind to predict and solve future problems that are fundamentally unknowable. Putting some distance between that roommate and the real self allows leaders to access innate wisdom about what a situation requires, freed from mental distraction.

Ultimately, the resistor to conductor shift moves the mind from a distracted to present state, and so conditions the dynamic leader to work more efficiently and insightfully.

Crisis to opportunity

Crises have a habit of shifting the world on its axis — radically altering customer wants, needs, beliefs, spending patterns and a whole host of other factors. This means that every crisis contains within it the seeds of an opportunity, as someone or something will need to step in to address those wants and needs. The question is not whether opportunity exists, but whether the leader can spot it and turn it to their advantage.

The foundation for this mindset is a belief in abundance — which is to say, a conviction that there is always more of everything in life available to us, be that money, relationships, resources, or whatever else, regardless of what events might be taking place.

The opportunity mindset is then activated through peripheral vision. This is the ability to spot what might be happening outside of our immediate line of sight and to shift quickly in that direction when it is advantageous to do so. This places a burden on leaders to absorb a wide range of information and think laterally about its potential application within their organisational planning.

Ultimately, we tend to manifest what we envisage. The crisis to opportunity shift moves the mind from a negative to a positive state, and so conditions the dynamic leader to create better outcomes.

Victim to warrior

Crises have a habit of making even experienced operators feel out of their depth. Crises seem to demonstrate that events are bigger than any of us can hope to control — and at a stroke can (and will) exert a huge, unavoidable, negative influence on our businesses and lives. This can activate an archetype that exists in all of us: the victim. While it can be seductive, the victim is a passive, disempowered state of mind that is a poor conduit for effective leadership.

In the face of a crisis, a more powerful archetype to embody is that of the warrior. The warrior possesses courage and bravery — and the willingness and ability to overcome huge obstacles in the pursuit of his or her goals.

The foundation for the warrior is a belief in a higher purpose, vision or mission. This creates a bedrock of conviction that, no matter how difficult the journey might get, it is always in service of a worthwhile goal. This enables leaders to access the courage and bravery that is the warrior’s hallmark.

The warrior is then activated by the individual getting focused on their zone of influence. Events might feel huge, even overwhelming — but all of us have choices about how we respond to them. Taking the decision to identify and step into the zone of influence is itself empowering; it acknowledges that at some level we are always creators of our own reality.

The victim to warrior shift moves the mind from a passive to an active state, and so conditions the dynamic leader to take well-guided action.

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