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How do we learn about leadership?   We read books and articles, go on leadership courses, get feedback from colleagues, find ourselves a coach.  We absorb “hacks” like “Seven Habits of..” or “Eight things all great CEOs do” . They are all helpful sources of insight and practice.  . Perhaps we should also spend more time looking around us and absorbing lessons from those who just happen to be truly talented leaders.  This is where we can absorb insights beyond the formulae and rules that we find in consultant-led sessions and journal articles.

A fish out of water (or in highly polluted water) will flop about for a while, gasping and then give up and fade away. It does not matter how well it can swim or extract oxygen through its gills. When it is out of its element it can do nothing.

When I hear CEOs express their doubts about the value of talent management and staff development programmes, I think that perhaps they are not paying attention to the water. I wonder whether it is possible that focusing on developing individual talent has distracted us from working to improve the habitat  (companies and teams) in which talent must first develop and them thrive?

“You are really good at that”. 

I am sure that many of us are in careers we have chosen because we were told (possibly in childhood) that we had a particular talent or had done something really well. It is a rare human being who does not swell a little with pride when receiving praise which comes from a person who is important in our lives, be it parent, teacher, friend or manager. 

I am (to be polite to myself) a long way past childhood. But I still got quite a thrill the other day when talking to an ex- colleague about a possible collaboration and he said to me: “That’s vintage Cedric. Getting right to the heart of the problem.” It made me think “that iswhat I do well” and it certainly made me keen to pursue the conversation.

The first time I sang in public, I brought the house down.

The school music teacher was recruiting for the choir. He had lined up the class at his piano and was playing a single note, and one by one we had to sing ”Ahhh” in tune to the note. My effort provoked a storm of laughter that held up proceedings for a couple of minutes. The look of disapproval on the teacher’s face probably got a bigger laugh than my completely off-key attempt. I was not offered a place in the choir, and I never sang in public again.

Amongst sports lovers there will always be disagreement about GOATs (greatest of all time), except perhaps Mohammed Ali and Donald Bradman. Sidestepping that debate, regarding men’s tennis, there are facts about Roger Federer that cannot be disputed. 

The global economic and social disruption we are presently experiencing is different to any crisis in a century or more.  There is no template for how to lead at a moment like this.

In this blog I share thoughts on the qualities most needed to steer enterprises through the systemic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent global lockdown. I suggest that they are different to the qualities that take businesses through an “ordinary crisis”.

Almost without warning, we are into the last few weeks of the year.  This is often a time when companies review the year and consider how to do things better as they plan for the year ahead. Company leadership and staff, too, may be engaged in formal appraisals and informal conversations focussed on improving their personal contribution and leadership impact at work.

Avoiding “death by feedback”

We have all either suffered or witnessed some version of the two kinds of death described below:

Sudden death

It’s your annual performance review: Your boss hates giving feedback, and never does so during the year. S/he comes to the meeting looking grumpy, complains about all the things you have done wrong in the last 12 months, gives you a poor score (which cuts your bonus to nothing) and threatens to institute an incapacity hearing