In an exchange exchange meeting I had with HR leaders in 2020 f the question came up: Did we select too many fair-weather captains as leaders? People who are great in managing growth, mastering smaller or midsize challenges – but being over-challenged in a perfect storm? We heard about managers who duck and cover, hoping it will soon be over but NOT taking a strong stand, NOT giving orientation and NOT sharing an authentic feeling for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now, 5 years later: Are we prepared for the next crisis which will eventually come?

In our times of creative disruption, thinking-out-of-the-box, rapid change and transformation nothing seems to be more antiquated than “discipline”.

Discipline stands for doing what you are told to do, repeating patterns without own thinking and following as opposed to leading.

On the other hand, we all can observe how a lack of discipline destroys value:

People checking their emails during meetings

working on unrelated topics during phone- or videoconferences

getting distracted from work by interesting pop-ups on their screens and finally

in the evening sitting at dinner with their partners and checking email.

People losing focus on what they are doing by trying to do several things in parallel.

Yes, discipline in the sense of following orders might be on the decline, however discipline in the meaning of “self-discipline” becomes a key attitude. Disciplining one-self to be there where you are , focus on whom you are with and work only on one thing at a time is key in this brave new world (same as it was before), it just has become so much more difficult.

Coaching is a method to develop people’s skills and behaviors. As a coach it is important to understand and apply the major principles of coaching which are 

–      Keeping strict confidentiality

–      See the world through the eyes of the coachee (Empathy)

–      Ensuring clarity about goals of the coaching process

–      Clearly limiting coaching to developing the coachee, not allowing it to become psychotherapy (unless the coach is a certified psychotherapist)

–      Respecting the coachee’s limits, e.g. areas the coachee does not want to talk about.

Major methods in coaching are

–      Providing adequate, precise, development-oriented feedback to the coachee, ideally based on a 360 -degree-survey in advance of the coaching process

–      Active listening with full focus on the coachee and paraphrasing to ensure understanding

–      Changing of perspectives, e.g. help the coachee to see conflict situation through the eyes of the others

–      Helicopter view, e.g. help the coachee to see the big picture

–      Leading with questions, i.e. bringing out knowledge and experience the coachee implicitly already has

Learn more about Coaching People and other 19 different areas of leadership in the Leadership Curriculum. Please contact me for more information.

When this crisis began, most of us (including myself) probably thought it will be just a matter of time until we return back to normal, to “Normality 1.0”. There are, however, fundamental changes taking place right now, which cannot be reverted:

1. Countries and companies suffer in very different ways from the crisis. This changes the competitive landscape and changes relative positions within. Nobody will simply keep their position “for historic reasons”. Past has passed, there is no way back.
2. This crisis is not over yet and will not disappear before there is a substantial medical solution (vaccination or at least cure from life-threatening symptoms). It will be a deep cut, deeper than anything most of us ever experienced in our lifetimes. Hence, the situation after the crisis will be very different from what is was at the beginning.
3. Digitized business models will thrive much faster than expected because the crisis paved their way while it currently tends to block the way for traditional face-to-face procurement, production and delivery of goods and services. 
4. I am not a psychologist, so I want to mention this part with all uncertainty I have here: It must have a long-term effect on us being confronted with the topic “death” in such massive way and for such a long time. For several weeks on TV we see these black body bags, fork lifts and trucks transporting them, we see bodies in ICU’s connected with plastic tubes to machines et cetera. I think it must have some effect on the way we see things in life, on our priorities, values.
5. As a child and young adult I liked movies in which mankind globally finally found together due to an alien attack, realising how things that we as humans have in common are so much more important than things that divide us. Now, the “aliens” are much smaller than expected and they attack from the inside. Although it sounds quite naive, there might be some positive effect in this direction, a global feeling that we are all together in this. Certainly, the current fight for medical equipment does limit this optimism. Still, I believe that some of this “global alliance” feeling will persist.

Taking these five points together, a return to “Normality 1.0” cannot be expected. 

We all have to think now how “Normality 2.0” will look like and how we can prepare ourselves for this.

What are personal consequences from this?

I suggest to think of what core competencies made you successful so far and what realistic future scenarios are, in which you still can leverage these competencies. Which will be the additional demands (very probably related to digitization) in these scenarios and what can you do to master these? The book “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, provides valuable orientation for this. 

For some this time means a lot of additional work, for others it is a time to take a deep breath and … learn new things. If you belong to the second group (members of the first group will probably not read articles like this at the moment …), my advice is to use the time for learning those things that will be necessary for your success in “Normality 2.0”.