LEADERSHIP IN A NEW WORLD
An RHR International White Paper

Special Times Call for Special Leadership
This document is meant to serve as a resource to those affected by the recent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the subsequent hostilities and threats that have emerged since September 11. What follows is particularly meant for people in organizations, but hopefully, it will resonate beyond that context.

Much of the attention since September 11 has been on relief for the disasters’ most immediate victims and on the strategies with which our government is responding. Thus, the “recovery” of organizations has not seemed an obvious issue except for those companies with facilities in the first ring, i.e. in close proximity to the disasters. It is our firm conviction that we are all in the first or second rings of proximity to these unprecedented events, and that all organizations will need to deal with their impact in the near term and over the years ahead.

In that spirit, it seems wise to make sure there is a common understanding of the new landscape in order to realistically be able to deal with it. What we pose here is not a final definition of that landscape. Rather, it hopefully will cause discussion and result in more informed actions. The “bottom line’ of those actions should facilitate the transition of people in their places of work from concerned survivors to more fully committed and productive employees.

The first section of what follows deals with the outstanding psychological features stemming from the recent disaster and the threats and hostilities that have emerged since September 11. Many of those features may seem obvious, but many people have not developed a full understanding of the effects, frankly, because they were never needed in the past.

The second section focuses on the short-term (six weeks to six months) priorities to which organizations should be attentive. Again, those may seem obvious, but leaders today face an unprecedented challenge to balance business imperatives with an encouragement of people to work through a complex and significant upset and re-mobilize their energies for the long haul.

The final section looks at the long haul, at the human resource issues such as some newly emergent leadership competencies, talent retention, succession planning, team effectiveness and change management, that will need attention if organizations are to thrive in a world that is likely to change in significant ways in the foreseeable future.

This situation is unique in many ways, but not so different that we have no clues about how to respond to it. The observations and suggestions that follow are drawn from the research and experience of experts on the impact of traumatic events and from their knowledge about leadership and business. The wisest leaders will neither exaggerate nor deny the impact of this trauma. Hopefully, what is provided here will help them to strike a balance and thus more wisely leverage their roles as leaders. and help their organizations through this difficult time.

I. The current situation:
Some important features to consider

· We all will be affected
Many people have experienced a direct impact of the attacks, a lost colleague or loved one. Others have been more fortunate. None of us will completely escape the impact. We will go on with our work, but we are all affected in some way as individuals, friends, citizens and as members of families and organizations. Moreover, as events subsequent to the attacks in Florida and elsewhere have shown, geography is not a guarantee of immunity.

· The effects will unfold over time
The impact of this disaster will be felt for some time. In the short run, perhaps six weeks – six months, there will be inspiration drawn from the courage of others, bereavement, sadness, loss, and other acute responses. They will give way to longer-term challenges, many of which are unpredictable for each individual. In the aggregate, however, they will likely include continuing or returning to work, but with an added challenge of dealing with anger, insecurity about jobs and families, conflicting opinions about how to deal with new realities in our individual and collective lives, e.g. airport security, travel policies.

· There are differences in the psychological impact of man-made vs. natural crises.
There will be far different and more challenging demands for leadership following something like the WTC tragedy and the ensuing hostilities and threats. Natural disasters, such as a hurricane, come and go. Their impact is great but they do not leave so much anger, on-going insecurity and a bewildering search for explanations in their wake. You can usually predict them and you can get away from them should you chose.

· The effects will be transformed because of events since the September 11 attacks
Those effects will include some consideration of continuing threat to the workplace by bio agents and other, as yet, unspecified acts. Because of these uncertainties there will be implications of reassuring workers, adopting procedures that are protective of safety etc.--and for managing/leading in times that are not only post-tragic but with lingering insidious threat. Here the issue is emotional/psychosomatic reaction far in excess of the actual threat to any company or individual. People will more likely wonder: Is that cold or rash really a cold or rash? What about opening that letter? With such possibilities increasingly on peoples’ minds, companies will be rightly concerned about building hardiness in peoples’ ability to deal with more than stress, but the lingering unease that's now been injected.

· People may be reluctant to come forth
They will be reluctant either because they are not fully aware of their stress level or because they are fearful about appearing less than fully competent. This is a common anxiety in times of recession when job cutbacks are prevalent. This is an important reality because some important disaster management vehicles, like EAP’s and insurance programs require that people self identify. In addition, they are structured more to deal with individual cases than the collective impact on groups of people.

II. The Imperatives of Managing a
Post-Tragedy Workplace: Short-Term
Short-term strategies are guided by one overarching fact. People at all levels must first recognize the characteristics of a disaster of this scale, one of which is the immutability of its impact; i.e. everybody is affected to some degree or another, whether directly or indirectly.
Senior leaders have a special role, to broadly communicate, that they are concerned for peoples’ well being and yet are confident about their firm’s resilience. Local leaders, by title or by reputation are the only ones who can practically set in motion forums and processes, as outlined below, that will enable and accelerate peoples’ transition through this time.

Suggestions for senior executives
· True senior leaders must step up and rise to the occasion
That means, foremost, that individuals in senior leadership positions must be visible as leaders. They also must take on a greater mantle of responsibility, one that includes close attention to the morale and emotional well being of all of their employees. Whatever their prior management philosophy, it will be worth re-examining to see if it reflects a truly balanced concern for results and the people who produce them. Leaders must be reflective and objective enough about themselves, bringing all of their capabilities to work and reexamining their own limits as leaders. Similarly, leaders must encourage others to innovate and reexamine their own limits as employees and citizens.

· The importance of providing communication and moral leadership cannot be overstated
More than ever, executives in organizations must strike a balance between compassion and competitive energy. Performance can be compromised by peoples’ sadness, numbness, distractibility, confusion, anxiety, all common symptoms in a tragedy’s aftermath. Senior leaders set the norm, put a culture in place that should allow for diverse responses, enriched communication as well as a desire to return to full capacity. Is the culture they represent by their example all that it should be in these different times? Objective answers to that question take on as much relevance now as the objectivity of a company’s measures of performance.

· Senior executives are also people who will have to deal with their own responses
By “deal with”, we do not mean to hide their vulnerabilities, but to be alert to them and even to discuss them openly, in a context of shared humanity. It is vital for people in organizations to have confidence in their leaders, but that confidence will not occur if leaders seem remote or artificial. Leaders at all levels need to say that they too are affected, and if the impact is great, to seek out their own support resources.

· “Lets put this behind us” is not an effective rallying call
Too many senior executives say this or act as if it were their guiding principle. It’s a good wish, but not an effective business message to communicate in times like these. Instead, they can acknowledge the situation, say that they are confident about recovering their company’s balance, yet concerned that they provide the means for people to re-create some sense of balance in their lives.

· “Getting back to work” should mean a focus on business-relevant projects with tangible, near-term outcomes that employees can direct their time and energies against
Talking about the long-term visions and strategies of the company will not be effective in an acute stage of recovering from a disaster such as this. For a company directly impacted by the attacks, this might involve a physical rebuilding or relocating of the office; for other companies, it may involve senior executives taking the lead in identifying and committing their organization to important short-term business goals and projects.

Suggestions for Local Leaders
In local level forums, some issues should be emphasized and in local forums discussed in some detail. A sample of the most prevalent issues:


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