Stars align. Two have. And, that they do so defines us now.
One explodes and showers fire in all directions as a supernova practically none of us had heard of six weeks ago. An outbreak, fast-moving, acute, more scary specter than genuine existential malevolent threat.
Another, rather than a luminous beam, casts long dark shadows outward from a central orb. It’s chronic, averse to change, a self-validating formula that numbs, stupefies, rinses, and repeats. By nature, it may be more sinister in its actuality than many appreciate or even fear.
So, as we fret over the spread of coronavirus, we celebrate International Women’s Day. These stars align in time, as separate celestial entities that before this very instant bore no ratio to one another, had nothing whatever to do one with the other.
Time, the present moment, has seized each, one from the eons-old pool of microorganisms and one from the relatively more modern vocabulary of human constructs of order, and smashed them together.
Shall we explore why?
Yes, but first a bit about the takeaway. As these stars align, a moment calls for leaders. In a sense, involuntarily, suddenly, we are crisis managers. And moments that call for leaders call for trust. And from trusted leaders, what we ask is for neither brilliance, nor bravado, nor prescience. What we ask for is wisdom. For we know, brilliance may work magically when things behave as expected. Wisdom, unlike brilliance, rubs off on others when the unexpected happens. Leaders, we don’t want you to be smart, or pretend that you are all-knowing. We want you to be wise, because wisdom rubs off on us as hope, as patience, as calmness.
As some point out, in a few short years from now, the number of us who recalls the novel coronavirus and COVID-19–as a menace separate from its impact on the supply and demand daisychain of world markets–may be a relative few beyond a community of epidemiologists and economists who study the impact of contagions on behavior.
Options–on the surface of things–given the rapid pace of change each day and the total obscurity of the ultimate consequence of the outbreak, appear to be binary.
But they’re not.
We appear to have no choice but to either overreact or under-prepare. The reality, which hopefully will characterize our behavior as leaders among people, organizations, communities, workers, etc., is to strike a balance that only trusted leaders can achieve. Swift decisions, decisive actions, war-room planning, pre-emptive preparations. These may be taken–by some–as un-called-for signs of weakness, of capitulation to fear, of falling for the hype. Not when there’s trust. Not when there’s belief. Not when there’s wisdom. Too, measured vigilance. Patience as facts and evidence surfaces and comes clear. A bottom-line expression of absolute confidence that all will be well and that calm and essential focus on matters–and people–at hand is the next right thing to do. These may be understood–by some–as sluggish, denying, downplaying the severity, underestimating the risk. Not when there’s trust. Not when there’s belief. Not when there’s wisdom.
What can counter the domino-effect of fear, self-interest, chaos, panic, suspicion, and a potential break-down of an essential fabric that binds our way of life and the ones we love together? Reason, trust, wisdom. Being believable. Being believed. With that, leadership can call on us toward altruism versus self-interest, toward focus versus confusion, toward constructive action versus fear-induced paralysis.
Far deep down, many of us know, ultimately, that the magnitude of COVID-19’s direct damage is more than likely to be a minute fraction of the consequence and cost of loss of believability, of trust, of meaning that makes us stakeholders in our firms, our communities, our society, and our culture.
Medical scientists–even the ones who accord the current contagion due respect and know in their minds and hearts that before the spread of coronavirus reaches its inevitable peak, “things will get worse before they get better.” That’s not hype. That’s fact. How we react–whether we heed the signal or fall under the spell of the noise–is another matter. A matter for leaders. A matter for trust. A matter wisdom can help because wisdom rubs off on those around the wise.
Health officials, in fact, remain mystified by people’s tendencies toward misplaced alarmism vs. reckless complacency. Why, for instance, do so many people slough off an annual flu shot, when flu is several orders of magnitude more contagious and is a known killer of many? And yet, this new virus–statistically dwarfed by the flu–is causing worry disproportionate to its power to sicken or kill people.
In such trappings comes the unexpected we should have prepared ourselves to expect. We succumb to primal emotions, community reactions, collective self-harm when we cannot throw the circuit-breaker of belief, of preparation, of trust into effect.
This is why that other star in alignment now–the one having to do with gender inequity, with the failure of organizations to balance their leaderships so that they can draw upon not just strategic intelligence but wisdom, is critical to recognize.
“If we want this year to be a turning point for women and girls — and if we want this once-in-a-generation global gathering to live up to its potential — we need to be deliberate about expanding the conversation beyond the advocates and activists who sign up to go to gender equality conferences. We’ll also need to engage clergy members, community elders, entertainers, board members, stockholders, chief executives, more people like you.
“So consider my suggestion. There’s rarely a convenient excuse to strike up a conversation about gender equality; on International Women’s Day, though, you’ve got one handed to you.”
What better moment than now to “strike up a conversation about gender equality,” when leaders need to trigger trust, to be believed, to invoke calm by emanating wisdom to weather this moment of turmoil, of doubt?
As these two stars align, two Chinese proverbs seem fitting.
One, noted in this very helpful guide on “Lead Your Business Through The Coronavirus Crisis,” reminds us that “great generals should issue commands in the morning and change them in the evening.”
This wisdom suggests that as a highly-visible, rapidly-evolving story unfurls, we may need to “constantly reframe” our understanding of what’s happening to keep pace with the data, the evidence, what it means, why it matters.
This proverb addresses one of the two stars in alignment.
Another nugget of wisdom passed through the ages via Chinese proverbs addresses celebration of International Women’s Day, and a call to action on #EachforEqual in construction, engineering, and real estate development business leadership.
“The best time to plant a tree,” the proverb goes, “was 20 years ago.”
Like gender equality, which would better equip businesses to deal with inevitable moments of crisis management such as ones currently challenging us, the proverb suggests, “The second best time is now.” Now, #EachforEqual means a seedling for wisdom we’ll need to draw on when the unexpected pronounces itself again as it will. #EachforEqual is about resiliency, about understanding that the only real difference between shareholders and stakeholders is timing–shareholders demand quarterly affirmation while stakeholders want long-term results. Brilliance can satisfy shareholders. It takes wisdom to give stakeholders what they require.
Like it or not, we’re all crisis managers now. Let’s draw on wisdom, which rubs off on others, rather than relying on sheer smarts, which doesn’t.
