It should come as no surprise to anyone that living through one of our generation’s first major pandemic requires the strength of great leaders. Leaders who are able to continue driving our nation, our states, our jobs, and our families to continue through this time of darkness. According to Northouse (2016), leadership is the act of influencing those around us to accomplish a common goal and having the self-confidence to know that their influence is pushing the team in the right direction. As a leader in the military, it is critical for me to be able to influence my team to follow the direction of those appointed over us, and ensure everyone makes it through COVID-19 times healthy and able to carry out our mission accordingly. I have to have the self-confidence in my decisions of driving my Airmen to meet our goals and gaining their confidence in my abilities to lead them and knowing that I have their safety in mind. The moment that our leadership team lose the confidence of our team is the moment our organization begins to degrade and lose its effectiveness.
According to PSU WC lesson 2 commentary (2020), good leaders must be aware of their strengths and weaknesses and be able to modify their behavioral traits accordingly. The five-factor model of personality lists the five major dimensions that have been shown to produce effective leaders: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion (PSU WC, L. 2, 2020). I believe the most significant trait of these to be able to display during this pandemic for a leader is neuroticism. Having emotional stability and not being prone to freak out under pressure has proven in my work center to gain the confidence of my subordinates. We have seen leaders that treat every piece of COVID news as a world disaster leads the team into a frantic state and begins to degrade confidence of the leaders among the team. Explaining what is happening with the current events while also presenting a way forward with a cool, calm, and collected game plan ensures my teams success while building their confidence in my abilities.
Additionally, leaders must be able to display traits of determination, integrity and self-confidence during these times (Northouse, 2016). Integrity is not only a pivotal trait of an effective leader, but also one of the Air Force’s core values. Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is around to know the difference. During these times, it is easy for leaders to take advantage of the COVID work situation, as it is apparent many leaders are doing across the military. Hunkering down and “teleworking” while making their workers come in and work as normal. Our leadership team decided to lead with integrity through this pandemic and ensure that our team knows that we are in this fight right alongside them. While staying as safe as we can through split shifts, we were able to carry out our mission with the team and gain further confidence even though we could have also taken advantage of the situation, like many others have done.
This global pandemic has shown that we must also have leaders who are determined enough to continue pushing forward, even when the odds are stacked. Determined leaders possess the desire to complete their duties through hardship while also displaying the characteristics of persistence, dominance and drive (Northouse, 2016). Persistence and determination drive a leader to keep pushing through the challenges thrown at us during this pandemic while maintaining a mindset that still draws people into the team. Remaining positive when things aren’t always going our way gain be the difference between making or breaking a work center when times get tough.
Effective leadership is a critical aspect of maneuvering an organization through a global pandemic. Effective leaders are able to positively influence a group towards a common goal while inspiring confidence in their decisions (Northouse, 2016). Leaders must be aware of their strengths and know how to avoid weaknesses that are detrimental to the organization as a whole (PSU WC, L. 2, 2020). Determination, integrity, and self confidence are all traits a good leader is able to display, specifically determination (Northouse, 2016). Finally, determination drives a desire to accomplish a task and during this pandemic is necessary to push a team towards accomplishing their organizational goals. The combination of these traits and concepts are what leaders are made of that teams operating in a COVID climate dream of working around.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2016). PSYCH 485 Lesson 2: Trait Approach. Retrieved from. https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/fa20/22081–15503/content/03_lesson/printlesson.html
Nurefsan Aydin says
Dear Carl,
The pandemic has left everyone feeling quite shook and confused about the future with the uncertainties it has brought us. As you said, a leader needs to look cool, calm, and collected not to make followers feel anxious. From the five-factor personality model of leadership, aside from neuroticism, I believe agreeableness and conscientiousness are two important factors also consider during the pandemic. Agreeableness is about the tendency to be accepting, conforming, trusting, and nurturing (Northouse, 2016, pg 26). And leaders who possess agreeableness show empathy, friendliness, and optimism towards their followers (PSU WC L. 2, 2020). This factor is important to maintain a functioning environment, especially during critical times. By showing empathy towards how everyone is feeling and staying optimistic and confident in their capabilities, you showed your team how strong you are.
On the other hand, conscientiousness is about the tendency to be thorough, organized, controlled, dependable, and decisive (Northouse, 2016, pg. 26). When a leader possesses conscientiousness, they show their followers that they are dependable in any situation that arises. By showing your determination to push forward, you were able to stand strong against the uncertainties. Dependable leaders show that they are hardworking and planful towards following through with their commitments (PSU WC L. 2, 2020). Staying strong and managing a team that could fall apart easily amid the chaos of a pandemic requires integrity, as you mentioned at the end of your post. By showing integrity, you also inspire your followers to be confident in their abilities because you reassure them they will do what you ask them to (Northouse, 2016, pg. 25). Your post inspired me to be calm in the present moment rather than panicking about the future.
Thank you!
Nurefsan Aydin
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2020). PSYCH 485 Lesson 2: Trait Approach. Retrieved from. https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/fa20/22081–15503/content/03_lesson/printlesson.html
bgw5114 says
Being a leader during this pandemic has been challenging, working in the bottled water industry we were deemed essential employees. Leaders not only have to deal with situations and changes at work, but we must be cognizant about what is happening with employees outside of work. The stress of a spouse being laid off, staying safe from the potential of getting Covid 19 and the additional emotional stress that employees may have. I absolutely agree that having emotional stability and not cracking under pressure is essential for a leader during this time. Having emotional intelligence and understanding the challenges that everyone is facing would make it easier for subordinates to communicate their concerns. Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso (2000) defined emotional intelligence “as the ability to perceive and express emotions, to use emotions to facilitate thinking, to understand and reason with emotions, and to effectively manage emotions within oneself and in relationships with others” (Northouse, 2016, p.27) If a leader is able to manage their emotions and not show their followers they are worried or upset about the changes, not only in the work place but in society they can help to keep their followers calm too. “Leaders who are sensitive to their emotions and to the impact of their emotions on others may be leaders who are more effective” (Northouse, 2016, p.39) In these uncertain times I believe being sensitive to others and showing compassion goes a long way in building and maintain a strong team.
I know in my workplace we had to make several changes in the way we do things, from extra cleaning and sanitizing in the plant to wearing masks. We no longer have pre-shift meeting to talk about the plan for the day and this was a time to operators to voice concerns and ask questions. With that being taken away we as leaders needed to display different traits then what we may have before. As you stated determination is a trait that, at this time in the pandemic has a big impact on followers. Leaders with determination show dominance in situations where followers need to be directed and have the desire to get the job done, to persevere in the face of obstacles (Northouse, 2016). I also feel that integrity has played a huge part in leadership, being forthright with followers about changes happening and why they are happening has had a positive impact on follower morale. Leaders with integrity inspire confidence in others because they can be trusted to do what they say they are going to do (Northouse, 2016) Without the trust of followers in uncertain times can lead to a downward spiral of the team.
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 7th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publication.