How to be a great leader during a crisis (like the COVID-19 pandemic)

healthHackers episode 42 with Ron Riggio PhD, professor of leadership and organizational psychology at Claremont McKenna College in California.

No time to watch the video? Below is the Soundcloud audio version. You can also get the podcast on your iPhone here or check out Spotify here.

#healthHackers is back.😊 Thanks for hanging in there for me while I moved to America. 🙏

During the series hiatus, a global health pandemic kicked off. I’ve been gripped by the news channels here, watching as world leaders make hugely consequential decisions surrounding COVID-19.

There’s so much judgement flying around about who’s getting it right, who’s not, and who should have acted faster. I asked a leadership psychology professor - just how do you lead in a crisis?

Ron Riggio has authored more than 100 books, chapters, and articles on leadership, organizational and social psychology. 

In this episode, you’ll hear Ron’s expert insights on:

• the traits of a great leader

• which figures are emerging as efficient leaders in the public fight against COVID-19 right now

• how to recover after making a bad decision

• the hallmarks of ineffective leadership

• whether being ‘nice’ damages your leadership

• the power of being a follower instead of a leader

• who are the better leaders: men or women?

• are leaders born or made?

• advice for anyone who gets promoted and has to manage their own friends in the workplace

• what lessons he hopes global figures will take away from the COVID-19 crisis

‘We’ve got to fight against the worst parts of human nature’

I don’t envy any global leader right now. Trying to keep a lid on things while an infectious disease upends daily life around the world, major cities are shut down, hospital staff run desperately low on protective masks and clothing, while future projections tell us the pandemic could be about to get even worse as huge event centers are quickly transformed into hubs to house the unwell.

We are all watching, judging, as these key figures make decisions that will have major consequences - and it’s not just presidents and prime ministers who are making an impact. 

“What we're seeing in this pandemic crisis is leadership occurring at all different levels, not just at the top; the state level, at the local level, and then people who have to make their own decisions about their family too,” Ron Riggio told me in healthHackers episode 42.

The professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Claremont McKenna College in California, who’s authored over 100 books, chapters, and articles on his specialist areas of expertise, had particular praise for infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, a key member in the White House coronavirus task force.

“I don't think we would think of him as a leader, but in this circumstance, he has stepped up into a leadership role.”

“He's effective at communicating his message.”

Taking charge and being able to communicate are two traits Ron lists as being strongly associated with good leadership. 

Another would be the ability to make informed decisions - based on advice and information from those around you and not based on how you feel.

“That idea of, sort of, flying by the seat of your pants, going with your intuition, going with your hunch. That doesn't work,” he told me.

Times of crisis don’t just test a leader’s nature, they potentially show us all who we really are. And that isn’t necessarily a good thing.

“Human beings are basically self-interested, self focused and somewhat greedy. And we're starting to see the greed come to the surface,” Ron said, after mentioning the famous run on toilet paper at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. FYI: Many (myself included) are still struggling to get hold of toilet paper. 

“We need to understand that we’ve got to fight against the worst parts of our human nature,” he told me, and suggested that a good model for effective leadership is parenting. 

“Think about what a parent is concerned about right now. You're more concerned about your kids than you are about yourself. "

“A leader should be like that. A leader should be more concerned about the followers than they are about their own agenda."

“A parent would never take food for themselves, take resources for themselves, and leave the kids to … starve or do with less,” he said.

But while Ron and his professional peers research and educate around leadership everyday - many leaders at the top of society may be falling short of great advice and knowledge.

“We’re really good at knowing what makes a leader effective and studying that. But how can we take that effectiveness and bring it to bear on social problems and bring it to bear on some of the impending disasters that we have as a human race?"

“One of the things that I'm concerned with is the knowledge that we have as leadership scholars, experts on leadership, doesn't get to the leaders to help them improve their leadership to help them solve global problems. I don't think they do enough consultation with the people who actually understand the dynamics of leadership.”

Leaders make mistakes. They are, after all, human beings. I asked Ron how a leader can best recover from a bad decision.

“You have to own up to it,” he told me.

“I don't think covering up makes any sense," he said, and referenced former US president Bill Clinton’s famous sexual transgression. 

“I think if he would have just owned up to it, and said, ‘Look, I made a mistake…’, I think people would have forgiven him, but instead, he covered up.”

Ron is clear that leaders have an obligation to be authentic, and right now - in the midst of a global health pandemic - is a key time to demonstrate this.

“A leader should be straight with us and say, ‘Hey, you know, yes, this is a difficult situation. This is a horrible situation. But you know, we will overcome. It won't last forever.’”

Follow Ron on Twitter here.