LEADERSHIP MODEL IN COVID TIMES - Left Brain Approach

In last two months, a lot has been discussed and deliberated about the role of Leadership, be it in Corporates, Cities or Countries. Everyone is looking up to their leaders to define a rescue plan for this pandemic. New leaders have emerged glorified and old ones have lost their glory as all of them face the most challenging phase of their tenure.

In a look-out to identify the most significant leadership character that can withstand this crisis, I followed a left brain approach.

Firstly, I put together various well – established leadership models from the academics to identify the top three dominant characteristics stated by that model (Fig 1)

As next step, I picked up key leadership attributes from the recent researches done by multiple institutions like HBR, Executive Search Firms and Leadership Development consulting firms. All of them calls out the leadership attributes that will thrive in the time of COVID-19. (Fig 2)

Lastly, I mapped these attributes against those stated by academic leadership models (Fig.1) to understand the overlaps of behaviors required in these extraordinary times.

Quite clearly, TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP MODEL emerged as the model to emulate.

The concept initially introduced by James Downton, who coined the term “Transformation leadership”, a concept further developed by leadership expert and presidential biographer James Burns. According to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when “leaders and followers make each other advance to a higher level of morality and motivation. Through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to change expectations, perceptions, and motivations to work towards common goals.

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