By Michael Adeboye Adeyemi
There is no doubt that the Coronavirus outbreak in the world today has dramatically changed just about every facet of people’s lifestyles. This challenging period has sent leaders back to their closet to think up ways to remain relevant in their diverse leadership roles. This is a period when leadership matters most for countries, organizations, businesses, and families.
Millions are confused and seeking directions. And the core compass of leading is to understand the dynamics of a season and show others how to navigate it.
For young leaders who want to stay relevant, post-COVID, here are four ways to do so in your respective leadership roles:
Have the ‘Pandemic Emotional Intelligence’
Like I said above, millions of people are confused and seeking directions and as a young leader, you need to understand how to help. The pandemic has caused a lot of emotional traumas, you must understand the emotional state of your followers.
Having that ‘pandemic emotional intelligence’ requires that you understand the grief and loss people go through. Also, you must understand the stages of grief and loss, which are:
- At the first stage, people most likely believe and say that these things are not happening to them.
- The second stage is where the masking effects of denial and isolation begin to wear. The reality and its pain re-emerge.
- In the third stage, they make some statements with ‘if only’. This is an attempt to bargain.
- Then they realize everything seems to be true and they get depressed.
- In the fifth stage, they accept it is happening to them. This is followed by withdrawal and calm.
There is a lot of information being spread around the world during the pandemic; use that information to guide yourself in the way you think and relate with others in the environment. A lot of people lost their jobs, people are suffering financially. You need to understand people’s emotions, know how they feel, understand their pain, and know what they need. To remain relevant post-COVID, you need to be empathetic and offer solutions that’ll help people bounce back.
Learn Deep Rooted Personal Effectiveness
You cannot give out what you don’t have. As a young leader, you need to work on yourself, to show your followers ways to get results and be effective personally.
Personal effectiveness begins with self-knowledge – where you’re able to understand yourself and perform effectively.
It requires you to identify who you are, what you want, your core values, the use of your time, and priorities. If you want results, you need to take time out to reflect and see where you are currently and where you want to be. These will help you get results. In a time like this, you need to be effective in your business and all other areas of your life.
For you to show credibility and trust in your field, you need to show your followers how to grow, despite the challenges and hardships. You must be consistent and competent in whatever you do. You should have, and stick to, a daily routine.
Be Creative With Your Message
You need to look for ways to get your followers involved in creative thinking, through constant check-ups and tips on how to stay mentally healthy. You need a creative mind shift to put your messages out there, in a way that will help others think beyond the challenges of the pandemic.
You’re limitless, you have the ability, think about those ideas that can be useful for humanity. Let your messages resonate with what people are going through presently, suggest ways that’ll help them scale up and step up in a challenging time like this, and present it to them in a creative way.
The pandemic requires new dimensions to be able to fit in. It is time to turn your ideas into reality. Be creative and be shameless about it.
Go Digital-wide with your message
You need to learn and be conversant with diverse digital skills. COVID-19 has brought individuals and businesses down to near isolation. Almost everyone is now using technology to connect.
Learn how to connect with businesses and individuals using technology. Since your leadership messages can’t fly traditionally to people, let it fly to them digitally. Reach out to millions using the digital space.
You need to be able to use digital tools – websites, emails, educational videos, social media handles, etc – to manage your followers from a distance, achieve your message objectives and drive its core values. If you have been using your digital assets, it is time to use them more often, more effectively, and more productively. Your ability to make use of digital tools and skills, post-COVID, will greatly determine your relevancy in this period.
