How do you play office politics in pursuit of recognition and promotion when there’s no-one around to impress with your showboating?
The question is posed by Martyn Davies, head of Deloitte SA’s Alchemy School of Management, to demonstrate the breadth of crisis-induced demands on corporate leaders.
Covid-19 is bringing many new challenges to CEOs and executives, not least in the shift to remote working. Having experienced the cost and productivity advantages (and disadvantages) of employees working from home, plenty of SA companies say they will continue the practice after the pandemic has gone.
That could be bad news for traditional office "smoothies", whose career progress depends on who, rather than what, they know.
Davies says: "People are often promoted for political reasons. Relationships and networking are considered more important than performance."
That practice may be hard to maintain in a remote working environment where chances for face-to-face interaction are limited. This potential levelling of the playing field could lead to more people being promoted because they’re actually good at their jobs.
"Leaders will have to use far more objective measures and criteria when evaluating staff," says Davies.
It’s like the old Wild West. We’re like settlers, creating new frontiers every day. Each time you put one foot in front of the other, it’s a new experience
— Cobus Oosthuizen
They will also have to trust their staff. Randall Jonas, director of Nelson Mandela University Business School and chair of the SA Business Schools Association, says many bosses may struggle in an environment in which they no longer reign over rows of desks and bodies. Despite research suggesting remote workers are often more productive than the office-bound kind, hidebound leaders will find it hard to change.
"Some will demand weekly, even daily, progress reports," says Jonas. "This is to prove they — the bosses themselves — are working. Employees know this. There are even suggestions that some companies will increase surveillance of employees through their laptops."
Simon Tankard, CEO of Extended Learning at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, says that while the basic tenets of leadership will remain the same, "there will be a different focus on building trust in the organisation".
He says organisational culture in many companies will undergo significant change. Leaders, he says, will need to provide a vision and supportive culture "where employees are encouraged to buy into the vision and plans for the organisation, and are entrusted with the tools and abilities to contribute".
As University of the Free State Business School director Helena van Zyl puts it: "Clear communication is the golden thread."
There is no doubt that leaders will have to revisit everything they think they know if they hope to retain the trust and confidence of employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, and in the years of economic hardship that are likely to follow.
"Between these and the new challenges being brought by remote working, it’s like the old American Wild West," says Milpark Business School dean Cobus Oosthuizen. "We’re like settlers, creating new frontiers every day. Each time you put one foot in front of the other, it’s a new experience."
In a recent article for the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in the US, Vanderbilt University chancellor Daniel Diermeier wrote: "Crisis situations can overwhelm even the most experienced leaders, presenting unexpected, complex scenarios that evolve at a fast pace and in several directions."
For many people, the overwhelming features of Covid-19 are fear and uncertainty. To persuade employees that the company not only knows what it is doing but also has their interests at heart, leaders must be utterly transparent, says Diermeier.
However, he observes: "Full transparency is reached when, in the mind of your audience, all relevant questions have been addressed. Your audience — not you — will determine what information is considered relevant."
The European Foundation for Management Development, which manages the international Equis accreditation system for business schools, says CEOs must be "communicators and empathisers" like never before.
It will help if they have a history of being both. Leoni Grobler, CEO of Sandton-based Regenesys Business School, says research among 390 local organisations found that those coping best internally with the current crisis already enjoyed "meaningful" leadership before lockdown. "Leaders need to … connect with staff on a personal level," she says. "Transformational and authentic leadership that encourages forward thinking and resilience is key."
Leaders must connect with staff on a personal level and must find opportunities, even in the face of disaster
— What it means:
She adds that leaders must avoid getting so bogged down in the quest for immediate survival that they pay too little attention to the future. During the extreme uncertainty of the anti-apartheid sanctions era, it was a common joke that when morning board meetings talked of long-term planning, they meant the period after lunch.
A return to that mindset would be devastating.
Sharmla Chetty, head of global markets for the US-based Duke Corporate Education group, says short-term crisis management must be tempered with vision. "You still have to prepare your company for the future," she says.
Chetty, who opened Duke’s SA office in 2007 and is still based in Joburg, says great leaders don’t hold their breath waiting for a crisis to go away. They find opportunities in adversity.
"Take a chance. Find ways to identify opportunities. Keep hopeful," she says. "All we are hearing is how bad things are. Find ways of creating momentum, energy and hope in your organisation. You will make mistakes, but keep moving. Don’t tell me what doesn’t work — tell me what does."
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