Leading in pandemic times: From resilience to revival

• Extracts of the 4th Dr. Dharnidhar Prasad Sinha Memorial Oration as part of the South Asian Management Forum (SAMF) 2021

It gave me immense pleasure to deliver the fourth Dr. Dharnidhar Prasad Sinha Memorial Lecture. I must confess that I represent the generation of perhaps the students of the students of the legendary founder of the Association of Management Development Association of South Asia (AMDISA). I recall my first visit to AMDISA office then located in the ancestral house of late Dr. Dharni Sinha. As a Commonwealth AMDISA Doctoral Fellow, I spent time in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan in addition to Sri Lanka for my research related activities and this was one rare and poignant experience I had on the visionary pioneer of AMDISA. Perhaps, this was the first time where this prestigious oration is being delivered by a person who has not physically interacted with the late legendary. Today’s column contains the glimpses of it.

Overview

It reminds me of what Roy O. Disney said in his dedication speech, in opening the first Disney Theme Park in 1971. “Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney.” In fact, Walt Disney was “very much alive” in the Disney world where his desired dream became a delightful deliverable. I earnestly hope that same can be said about late Dr. Dharni Sinha and AMDISA. 

Dr. Dharnidhar Prasad Sinha who co-founded the AMDISA was one of India’s foremost management professionals. An anthropologist by training, Dr. Sinha had a distinguished career as a management educator, administrator, consultant, and diplomat. He began his career teaching at universities in the United States, Hawaii, and Australia. Later, he occupied several senior positions as a Professor of Organisation Behaviour at the Indian Institute of management, Calcutta; the Principal of the Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad; and the UNDP Advisor on Civil Service Reforms to the Royal Government of Nepal.  He consulted with several large Indian and MNC organisations including ICI, ITC, SAIL, ONGC, Crompton Greaves and the JK Organization.  

Dr. Dharnidhar Prasad Sinha’s journey began from the relatively humble, yet comfortable, beginnings in a village in Bihar, India to the pinnacles of Indian Management. The journey characterised by the vision to create a new tomorrow, persistence to continually strive towards this future, courage to make the “tough calls”, faith in the goodness and ability of his co-workers, and most important of all, a deep sense of service above self. Dr. Sinha received his bachelor’s degree in Arts from the Lucknow University, India. Later he completed his master’s degree in Psychology from Patna University and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Illinois, St Louis, USA.

Glimpses of my oration 

Let me focus on my theme of leading in pandemic times which is an invitation to move from resilience to results. There is a silver lining in the dark cloud with the vaccination vibrancy and slowing down of daily deaths and new cases due to COVID-19. Yet, it appears as a long journey ahead with the possibility of new variants such as Omicron coming into the scene. Whilst being ravaged by the challenges of balancing lives and livelihoods amidst lingering lockdowns, the musings about the much-needed leadership at all critical points have come to the surface. 

Among many teething challenges, COVID-19 has become a true test of leadership at all key levels. It reiterates what Rulp Strogdil, said so many years ago. “Leadership is a vastly researched but least understood phenomena on earth.” Perhaps the only ship that survives a storm is leadership. It is essentially a mindset that is more about decisions and actions than about positions and titles. We often look at the leaders at the top but overlook the “leaders at the tap” and ignore its non-hierarchical applicability.

Dynamics of leadership highlights the leaders and laggards in the society showcasing actions and inactions. Leaders are performers in practicing what they preach. They inspire, influence, and initiate in such a manner to involve in result-oriented action. In contrast, laggards are passengers in hampering the progress by being lazy and lethargic. Indecisiveness resulting in inaction is often common in such an approach. Do we see more leaders or laggards in the corporate world? The answer lies in the results they achieve. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. Living with leaders and laggards leave us a smaller number of choices for lasting results. Leaders must be far more effective to overcome the ineffectiveness of laggards. 

The term agility is associated with the ability to move with ease. It is the dynamism with its distinct dimensions that is highlighted when it comes to agile leadership. In essence, agile refers mainly to self-organisation, quality, delivery, collaboration, and being adaptive to change. In contrast, the fragile leadership, is a term I propose to describe fragmented behaviours that would not pave way for collectively achieving desired results. Agile leadership paves way for development whilst the fragile leadership is the path for decay. Combatting COVID-19 in countries around the globe have shown the evidence for both scenarios.

The “hammer and dance” movement of the COVID-19 spread we saw in the first wave, and the Tsunamic way of rapid spreading we saw in the subsequent waves, with devastating escalations, are clarion calls for right leadership in taking right decisions resulting in right actions with right outcomes. It requires being proactive then reactive in moving beyond a vicious cycle of fragile leadership to a virtuous cycle of agile leadership. 

The starting point could be confronting problems. It is what leadership is expected to do. As it is often said, “calm seas never made a skilled sailor”. It is also true that “life’s roughest storms prove the strength of our anchors”. The true nature of one’s leadership is revealed when one encounters obstacles and stumbling blocks. Using obstacles as opportunities and stumbling blocks as stepping-stones are the signs of true leadership in action. When it does not happen, a vicious cycle begins to take place, demonstrating fragile leadership. 

Sadly, this is the story with laggards more than the leaders. As we have often observed when there is VUCA 1.0 reality (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity), the leadership response should be VUCA 2.0 (Vision, Understanding, Confidence and Agility). In the absence of it, we see the evidence for fragile leadership. 

When confronting problems, they demonstrate confusing approaches, lacking clarity. It could be a case of a manager of a small company handling a financial fraud by an employee. It could even be a case where a Country Head prematurely declaring COVID-19 vaccine success, disregarding the advice of medical experts and weird decisions sans consultations. It could perhaps be due to over-reliance of one’s experience and expertise, imprisoned in the bubble of “I know all”. 

From confusing approaches, it moves to conflicting messages. Last year, we saw this with the mockery of Twitter messages of a world leader who was refusing to accept the election realities. It may be true for fragile leaders at all levels where the followers are often confused because of the frequent change of standpoints to please higher powers. 

The next stage is the contradicting guidance where the team members are not clear about the way forward. It damages the coherence and consistency with regards to implementing a key decision with high people implications. We saw many such instances in the combatting of COVID-19 which needs constructive criticism for correction. It brings us back to the same problems being confronted repeatedly, thus trapping into a vicious cycle. Why some countries continuously struggle with COVID-19 with the escalation of cases and fatalities daily could be well explained through such a vicious cycle of fragile leadership. 

It may not be easy to break away from the perils of a vicious cycle in moving towards the promises of a virtuous cycle. This is where the agile leadership comes to the forefront. When confronting problems, instead of moving to confusing approaches, agile leadership associates itself with connecting ideas. That is where collective brainstorming takes place in a conducive climate created mainly by the leader. The team members openly share their ideas without fear or favour with the end solution in mind. It may sound utopian in certain political contexts but has been proven in many fields, locally, regionally, and globally like. 

From the connecting ideas stage, it naturally moves to contributing teams. Obviously, teams demonstrate synergy. With the holistic and humane approach, a team of a cross-functional nature can perform far better than just a mere group of followers or executers. A planetary pandemic is a perfect opportunity to synergise with multiple expertise with one common aim. Whether we see that happening to the desired level in the regional scene is questionable. 

When teams contribute to achieve collectively, the next stage of consolidating results occurs. That completes the virtuous cycle of agile leadership. This is very much in line with what is often called as an agile manifesto: “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support their needs and trust them to get the job done”. Now, they are ready to confront new emerging problems, in continuing with the virtuous cycle.

“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fibre of free people; A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough,” so said Franklin D. Roosevelt. The balance between enforcing controls and ensuring continuity is a tough task in the hands of key decision makers. We saw this around the globe. 

“This pandemic has magnified every existing inequality in our society – like systemic racism, gender inequality, and poverty,” opined Melinda Gates in an interview last year. The global pandemic unleashed on the world by COVID-19 creates a fundamental test of public values for leaders and decision makers both within and between nations. This harsh test reveals the collective responsibility that we share for self and others in uncertain situations of shared risk and the critical role of leadership in decision-making and mobilising collective action. 

“Be safe, be smart, be kind,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General, in the first months of the pandemic. With insight gained from the precedent-shattering experience of this pandemic and bold public leadership, nations of the world have a unique policy window for transforming global governance capacity to strengthen and maintain public health and, reciprocally, sustain the global economy. We in South Asia are no exception but to contribute locally, regionally, and globally, in aligning with health guidelines. That is the “glocal” response required with sensible decision-making. 

Having taken you though a thought sharing of the required leadership for revival, let me reconnect with AMDISA, as a network of “leader breeders”. 

Future of AMDISA

I do not intend to give a historical account of its progress so far, but to offer a word of caution that the past success does not necessarily guarantee future success. We need a constructively critical look at its way forward with a clear identification of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in giving due consideration to political, economic, social, technological, environmental, ethical, and legal (PESTEEL) factors. 

I would recommend that AMDISA should strive to continuously and collectively enhance the quality of management education in South Asia through knowledge sharing, academic networking, research publishing and institutional accrediting towards producing competent and confident leaders. Such a mission will be fruitful with a vision of becoming a sought-after value creator in management education in South Asia. 

It is a journey of converting stumbling blocks into steppingstones in thriving in turbulences. AMDISA needs Aspiration (achievement orientation with a specific set of objectives in mind), Mastery (demonstration of comprehensive knowledge and skills in management educational aspects), Dedication (commitment shown in exerting efforts towards executing the assigned tasks). Inspiration (mental and emotional stimulation depicted in words and deeds towards encouraging one another), Synergy (interaction with collaborative cooperation shown in action in relation to individuals and institutions), and Accountability (demonstration of ownership of results with fullest responsibility of one’s actions). With such a set of core values, it should significantly gear towards value creation. 

Let me recall with reverence the visionary thoughts of late Dr. Dharni Sinha. “The South Asian renaissance, brought by new corporations, will create new markets, new customers, new assets and new economies. With human resource at the core of the new economy, the gap between what can be imagined and what can be achieved will always get narrowed.” It amplifies the potential of AMDISA and the collective prospects that all of us should pursue. 

In conclusion, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to AMDISA for giving me this memorable opportunity and also to the organisers of the South Asian Management Forum (SAMF) 2021 for their wonderful coordination. In battling with a planetary pandemic, let us lead as individuals, interactive teams as well as institutions, with resilience towards revival.

(The writer, immediate past Director of Postgraduate Institute of Management, can be reached through [email protected], [email protected] or www.ajanthadharmasiri.info.)