Do We Need a New Leadership Paradigm Due to Covid-19?

Explores whether the changing context of COVID-19 requires new leadership skills in organizations and, perhaps even, a new context-specific leadership theory. Fourteen professional blogs and reports related to leadership skills and practices in response to COVID-19, published in the professional online literature during the height of the pandemic (March 16 - December 20, 2020) were reviewed in terms of suggested new leadership style dimensions and contrasted with the tenets of existing academic leadership theories. The proponents of an emerging leadership style advocate that in dealing with the pandemic, leaders must be able to manage their organizations in turbulent times, lead a distributed workforce of individuals and teams, and become a resilient leader themselves. Material and Methods: This article explores whether the changing context as a result of the ‘COVID effect’ requires also new leadership skills and perhaps even a new context-specific leadership theory. Using multiple sources, we reviewed 14 professional blogs and reports published online during the height of the pandemic (from March 16 to December 20, 2020) related to leadership skills and practices discussed in response to COVID-19 (Table 1). These professional publications had a common theme namely new leadership skills are required because of COVID-19. Using content analysis [48], the suggested dimensions of the proposed new leadership style found in the recent professional literature is compared the tenets of traditional academic leadership theories. Leadership theories as commonly taught in management schools have evolved over the past 70 years (ca 1950-2020), and traditionally been categorized under different headings including behavioral, contingency, situational, style, transactional, transformational, global, servant, feminine, shared, and crisis leadership theories Results: The results indicate that the so-called new demands on leaders due to the COVID-effect require leading under uncertainty, managing a distributed workforce, and building resilience. Conclusion: “The analysis shows the leadership style proposed to deal with the current situation engendered by the pandemic is not really a “new” leadership paradigm, but a more appropriate approach and contextual response to an external situation. Leadership development is a process of growth that uses defining moments like the pandemic as an opportunity for reinvention. Prior to the pandemics, leadership was already moving in this direction as a result of the advent of the 4th industrial revolution with employees/workers asking for more autonomy, flexibility to work from anywhere-anytime, work-life integration, and the unbossing [64] of their organizations. The pandemic accelerated the acceptance of a leadership style away from command and control. Leadership is foremost about transformation. In order to credibly transform others (individuals, teams, and organizations), leaders must first credibly transform themselves. This requires that “new” leaders possess not only the right mindset to lead but also the hard (transactional leadership) and the soft (transformational leadership) capabilities to thrive in this new uncertain world. Leadership is ultimately about kindness, giving people a voice, creating a safe space where they can be their authentic self, and extending them a guiding hand along the way.