Life skills for resilient leadership during pandemic times: the current and ancient Indian perspectives

Introduction

In the present pandemic times, as the business landscape becomes increasingly complex, chaotic and volatile, it challenges the conventional business paradigms and compels the organizations to align their strategy with the market and technology shifts. Many successful companies, which have been vigilant about competitive moves, catered astutely to their customers, and invested aggressively in new technologies, still lose market dominance and eventually fail and die relatively young (Christensen, 1997). According to a study conducted by McKinsey, the average life span of companies listed in Standard & Poor’s 500 was 61 years in 1958, and it was less than 18 years in 2016. With the same trend, 75 percent of the companies currently quoted on the S&P 500 will disappear by 2027 (Garelli, 2016), possible reasons for which could be wasted potential, resources, and adverse effect on individuals, communities and economies. Amidst such turbulent and disruptive business environment, leaders of organizations strive hard to build a sustainable organization which is adaptive to the dynamic forces and able to seize opportunities.

Scherr and Jensen (2007) stated that a leader is a person with a commitment towards the achievement of results. This definition, more often than not, speaks of a result-oriented leader and drifts towards the myopic short-term results and could imperil the long-term sustainable growth of the organization, as the organizational success is highly susceptible to the power of leadership behavior (Kets de Vries et al., 2009). This predicament can be broken by having a concerted effort towards organizational renewal from the leaders. Hence, there is a need to identify the attributes that can define a leader and leadership in a more holistic manner.

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most treasured and prominent Indian ancient philosophical and spiritual scriptures. It dispenses the sapient advice rendered by Krishna to Arjuna – two eminent leaders of Mahabharata, the epic of the feud between two clans – the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. In that battlefield, Arjuna, on observing his own kinsmen lined up against him, became anxious at the thought of fighting with them. Krishna then counselled Arjuna, and the dialogue between the two was presented in the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad Gita.

Bhagavad Gita has been studied through the ages with great interest in the contexts of philosophy, theology and literature. However, the ancient scripture has seldom been researched in the context of leadership. The wisdom imparted in the Bhagavad Gita encompasses many leadership lessons analogous to contemporary leadership theories and practices. This is because the Bhagavad Gita is a profound and holistic treatise embracing a long-term action-oriented vision rather than a myopic result-oriented goal. It encompasses ethical conduct, performance of actions in accordance with one’s nature, skills and talents (svadharma) without worrying about results and performance metrics (karma yoga), leadership by example, stress management, maintenance of equanimity, diversity, motivation, self-improvement, and so on. Many intellectuals like Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau have echoed the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita in their compositions. The Holy Scripture has been quoted by Senge (2006), one of the leading management thinkers, in his books The Fifth Discipline and Presence. The leadership lessons in Bhagavad Gita are analogous to the concurrent leadership theories and practices. Bhagavad Gita advocated about work and knowledge thousands of years before Frederick Taylor and Peter Drucker, and also about character, integrity, emotional intelligence before the theories on these aspects came into being.

Literature review

Conventionally described as an art of getting things done, management is an integral component of daily life, both personal and professional. The management process involves planning, organizing, staffing and controlling, with human efforts to achieve desired goals. It also aims at resolving the physical, technical and behavioral crisis through optimum utilization of the available resources. Lack of proper management induces disorder, turmoil, wastage, depression and stress. Men, Money and Material, the proverbial 3 of the 5Ms, if managed well, will lead to the illimitable success of an organization (Omoregie, 2015). Various fields of study, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, economics and finance have endowed the field of management (Muniapan, 2008). Inter-disciplinary research on management have associated it with several fields of humanities, but morals and virtues, till recently, had been forsaken. Consequently, despite many organizations devising unprecedented business models and bringing about best practices, scams and insolvencies continue to plague businesses. Several companies, such as Lehman Brothers, AIG, Bank of America, General Motors, Circuit City, etc., which embodied the use of best practices in the industry have problems owing to the failure in creating morally and ethically sound practices, with majority of decisions being based on “profit” alone. It is a fallacy that management science saw the light of the day in the West and pioneered the proverbial wheel of development all around the world and that the East was bereft of management. In fact, India has its own management principles, deeply entrenched in its rich ancient scriptures, culture and heritage, which guides its people during times of upheaval and uncertainty. In the last couple of years, the world has validated a resilient India, better equipped to manage the global crisis. Several Indian giant corporations like Tata, Bharat Forge, and Ranbaxy have demonstrated resilience and adaptive agility like no other, and few prime Indian companies are heading towards bankruptcy. Managerial effectiveness, thus, is of paramount importance in today’s incessantly capricious and volatile business environment and is vital for organizations to first generate and then endure their competitive edge (Samson and Daft, 2009).

According to Mintzberg (1973), leaders have to perform ten roles to augment their effectiveness, broadly categorized into interpersonal, informational and decisional roles. To portray these roles effectively, managers require technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills, which are required in different combinations across various levels of hierarchy, with lower levels needing more of technical skills as against leaders at higher levels requiring intense conceptual skills. Since leaders work with people, they ought to have excellent interpersonal skills for communication, motivation and delegation to the workforce (Muniappan, 2008).

During difficult times and dilemmas, one may feel that the lone path to prevent oneself from being overwhelmed by emotions is to avoid those emotions. Sentiments which make one feel fearful and anxious tend to precipitate the defense mechanism of the body, which sabotage one’s ability to exert resilience – communication gets distorted, coordination erodes, and the final outcome turns out to be more adversity. On that account, resilience requires tackling the emotional aspects promptly, and using ‘relational pauses’ by shifting the focal point from team’s output of work to its feelings (Barton and Kahn, 2019). The corporations that have an outlook towards employee welfare and spirituality outperform with regard to practicality and creating value (Belwalkar and Vohra, 2016). Teams should be counseled to discuss their emotional turmoil, while listening energetically to others, demonstrating compassion and validating the feelings of all. Resilient teams perceive adversity to be that of the entire team, thus facilitating the diffusion of the emotional strain and creating the scope of acknowledging and repairing all the dysfunctional interpersonal patterns precipitated by anxiety. Such relational pauses increase the likelihood of survival of teams during crises and build relational resilience for the future.

In times of a global crisis, resilience also entails rapid learning and understanding the business environment (Barton et al., 2020), and developing an effective response, by redesigning and reframing prevailing routines, roles, reallocation of resources, knowledge and idea sharing, and acknowledging emotions. Teams and leaders around the world recognize that everyone can benefit from sharing their learning and simultaneous edification through others’ experience as opposed to banking upon ‘trial and error’ (Myers, 2018), thus helping in dissemination of best practices and building a resilient global community.

Bhagavad Gita, the ancient Indian scripture is known throughout the world for profoundly enumerating the constituents of resilient leadership in a holistic manner. Bhagavad Gita’s verses 29 and 5 of Chapter 6 pragmatically revolve around a democratic and resilient leader who is able to lead his followers in extremely critical situations and assert that the democratic and resilient leadership is closely intertwined with the leader’s personality in terms of his physical, mental and spiritual development, having a sense of tranquility and believing in the philosophy of interdependence (Nayak, 2018).

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an atypical global stressor affecting every aspect of life and lifestyle. It changed the world swiftly and pushed organizations and people towards uncertainty and fear. Thankfully, the wealth of wisdom in ancient scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita aids in building psychological resilience. This study is conducted to understand the life skills relevant to leadership in the present and post pandemic times and to showcase the alignment of the ancient Indian wisdom with the current leadership requirements. Furthermore, it endeavors to identify the leadership aspects, leadership styles and failure management as part of resilient leadership.

Research methodology

In addition to collection of secondary information from the ancient Indian scripture Bhagavad Gita, 15 interviews were conducted with employees at the mid-senior and senior leadership levels in the age group of 40 to 60 working in software/computer, aviation, education technology, healthcare, lifestyle, automotive and insurance sectors. During August 2021, telephone interviews were conducted as suggested by the respondents due to the pandemic protocol. Besides questions about their work profile and type of organization, four questions were asked with the objective of gathering the viewpoints of these employee leaders who are at the centre of leadership experience. The questions were as follows:

• 1. With the Coronavirus outbreak and its plethora of unpleasant side effects, multiple dilemmas and anxieties, what life skills do you feel are of utmost demand in the leaders around the world today?

• 2. Leadership being a behaviour based role, what aspects of leadership will be gaining popularity in the post pandemic world?

• 3. What can the leaders of today do to manage the personal as well as professional failures, for themselves as well as their employees in the present situation?

• 4. According to you, what will be the new workable leadership style(s) in the present and post pandemic times?

The responses to the questions dotted with experiences provided clear understanding of leader opinion and the common thread running across varied industries in terms of leadership. Each interview lasted until information reached saturation, became repetitive and ceased to contribute towards new information (Byrne, 2001).

Data analysis

All interviews were recorded and manually transcribed to minimize the errors. The data were then recorded manually on MS Excel. Table 1 provides an overview of the responses.

Thematic analysis of the responses was implemented using NVivo 7 software. This included several readings of the transcripts, formation of preliminary codes built on response data followed by assemblage and conversion into specific themes which were further classified into two categories of Leadership Life Skills and Resilient Leadership. The Thematic Maps I and II are diagrammatic representations of the same which provide clear graphic guidance (Sharkey and Caska, 2019) while alleviating repetitive review of themes.

Findings

The first category of Leadership Life Skills, as depicted in Figure 1, includes the seven themes of Empathy, Interpersonal/Team Skills, Communication, Time Management, Adaptive Agility, Decision Making and Problem Solving which come across as mandatory skills in the present and post pandemic continuum. What surfaces is a strong amalgamation of empathy, “personal connection with team members” be it physical teams or “hundred percent remote teams distributed across time zones”, time management to cater to “no work life balance due to work from home” with the adaptive agility in terms of survival, solution and people orientation extended to inclusive decisions. These become the requisites for “balancing company growth objectives with people morale objectives” leading to organizational sustenance and relational resilience.

Similarly, Figure 2 illustrates the second category of resilient leadership, as comprising of three themes:

Leadership elements where values, empathy, “clear vision” and farsightedness handhold to navigate through uncertainty and prompt the willingness to adapt to technology or change, manage stress and ensure “prioritization of health and wellness and work life balance of self and staff” so as to balance profit and people.

Failure management which includes acceptance of “self and employee failure and moving on”, rectification, alternate plan readiness “to spring back”, collaboration through “online tools training”, employee empowerment and development “to take on bigger roles” and vicarious learning or “learning from others’ mistakes” to understand best practices and foster collective resilience.

Leadership styles where leader responses take centre stage with a shift towards time management and not micromanagement, team and individual task balance, delegation with responsibility, positive error handling, collaborative/transformational, assertive/participative and the oft repeated decisive authoritarian with friendliness and empathy. What comes across clearly is a stress on the twin ability to manage productivity and motivation as well as a profit - employee- shareholder focus, a paradigm shift from “profit only to people also”. Moreover, some respondents were of the opinion that “leadership models may not be new, but the job models are surely altered”. To cater for this, what is required is a new leadership orientation with a focus on human capital and long term development.

Discussion - situational shift and walking the talk

The coronavirus pandemic has been a touchstone for decision and disposition of leaders across the globe. Over and above wrecking havoc in people’s lives, the economic upheaval caused by it is significant and radical, precipitating an unparalleled change. As a result, the health of businesses is amalgamated with the well being of its workforces and the entire ecosystem like never before. This has urged the companies to revamp swiftly and recognize creative, alternative mechanisms for survival. Today’s leaders have to confront the demands of both the professional as well as personal fronts, while playing a pivotal role in steering their organizations across the impediment of the COVID-19 crisis. During difficult conditions, the leaders will influence the overall culture of the organisation (Uygun and Gupta, 2020) as the colleagues will look up to them to emulate.

yad yad ācharati śhreṣhṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate II3.21II

Whatever actions great persons perform, common people follow. Whatever standards they set, all the world pursues.

With the turbulent changes in the business world in the post pandemic era, the conventional leadership skills will be outmoded. Leaders need to fortify the critical shifts in their own established sets of attitudes as well as that of their workforce. Self awareness and introspection of the leader’s capacities, traits, values and needs, when mapped with the reflected indicative capacities, competencies, external actions, and behaviours provide positive reverberations for them (Narayanan and Vijayalakshmi, 2020). The cardinal step towards recovery of organizations would be to rediscover its purpose. Many companies and their leaders are now looking forward to grabbing a niche to bounce back and change their business models. As per one leader respondent, “The need of the hour is more transparency, better communication, more empathy, more balance between profits, better employee welfare and shareholder benefits, and an inclusive voice of employee in decision making.”

niyatam kuru karma tvam karma jyayo hyakarmanah sharira-yatrapi cha te na prasiddhyed akarmanah II3.8II

You should thus perform your prescribed duties since action is superior to inaction. By ceasing activity, even your bodily maintenance will not be possible.

In lieu of narrowing down their focus, resilient leaders should disengage themselves from bleak thoughts and move towards the ancient Indian wisdom and guiding principles to furnish positive resonances to their followers. The current social milieu should be exploited for the situational shift of discovering opportunities amidst crisis through unconventional utilization of their resources to steer their organization towards stability. Many organizations, during the present pandemic got involved in corporate social responsibility activities and took to the manufacturing and distribution of face masks, sanitisers and other personal protective equipments (Dwivedi and Kumar, 2021). At this juncture, this shift has to be from short-term contingency planning to mid- and long-term economic and scenario planning, ensuring the alignment of financial resources to revamp the business. Business continuity models wherein alternative work procedures utilizing new prototypes like social distancing, flexible workplace, and sanitization, along with the best use of technology need to be set up. In the post pandemic era, automation and state of the art technology should be regarded as inextricable components of business resilience instead of a mere cost-saving mechanism.

People-centric approach and better interpersonal relationships:

tmaupamyena sarvatra samam pashyati yo ’rjuna sukham va yadi va duhkham sa yogi paramo matah” II6.32II

I regard them to be perfect yogis who see the true equality of all living beings and respond to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were their own.

For leaders, the miniscule gesture of providing more support to one’s employees just like his own, with the lone aim of lending a helping hand and to steer them through the crisis will help reap big dividends. While resuming businesses, leaders must consider and provide for the physical as well as the mental well-being of their employees. Resilient leaders would be expected to be kind and compassionate towards their employees with a focus on creating a sanguine and healthy ecosystem, enabling their employees to thrive. A stronger belief in Aparigraha or the feeling of non-possessiveness, and generosity, when practiced, has a positive impact on group performance (Bali et al., 2019). Decisive leadership styles will gain more and more prominence as it is needed to push business in an uncertain world, but the leader will also need to display utmost friendliness and empathy towards the workforce, irrespective of the levels and social standing.

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini śhuni chaiva śhva-pāke cha paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśhinaḥ II5.18II

The truly learned, with the eyes of divine knowledge, see with equal vision a Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater.

The frontrunner companies, known for being customer centric, attentive towards competitive moves, new technologies lose market leadership and perish prematurely. Similarly, the result-oriented leaders exhibit myopic focus on short term results and fail to keep an eye on long term sustainable organizational growth. New business models and best practices notwithstanding, the real icons fail primarily due to profit alone decision making and lack of ethically sound practices. What emerges is a major shift from micromanaging to macro concern for team turmoil and demonstrating compassion. The team in turn tends to respond in terms of efforts towards productivity and countering crisis. Adversity then belongs to the entire team which leads to stress diffusion, emotional repair, and survival through crisis. This resilient leadership also brings rapid learning of business environment, vicarious learning from others’ mistakes, sharing relevant best practices while simultaneously building collective resilience.

Therefore, according to another leader respondent, “the twin ability to manage productivity and motivation for 100 percent remote teams distributed across time zones, and time management has become a big challenge with no work life balance due to work from home” and the solution seems to be “building personal connection with team members, showing understanding and empathy with the impacted people and balancing company growth objectives with people morale objectives”. The single thread traversing the leadership firmament seems to be the human element being as important as the growth factor in present times as was consistently vouched by ancient proposition of Vasudhaivkutumbakam (the whole world as one family), which was buried under the debris of only profit chasing relegating people contribution and well being to the background.

Conclusion

COVID-19 is a global issue and excellent leadership is required to navigate through this crisis which provides leaders with the scope to bring about enhanced team coherence and solidarity. Businesses henceforth will continue to face drastic changes and business leaders must ensure that they devise and implement strategies foreseeing the future dynamics, which equip them with indispensable business agility to enhance productivity and gain success in the post-COVID world. The significance of resilient leadership is not just for the continuity of business operations, but also for being both people- and result-centric. It is important as COVID-19 may not be a temporary crisis but perhaps a continuous hazard which therefore places a huge demand on resilient leadership, business agility to navigate uncertainty and progressive yet demanding alteration in organizational mindsets. A typical crisis, according to Deloitte (n.d.), plays out over three time frames:

• Respond - react with the present situation, prepare and manage continuity

• Recover - learn and emerge stronger

• Thrive - the ability to confidently prepare for the next normal

Encapsulated in few sentences, the strong interconnectedness between the ancient Indian wisdom, as propagated by the Bhagavad Gita continues to bring paradigm shifts in the way today’s leaders bring a renewed and enriching perspective towards improving ecological consciousness, communitarian roots and compassion at workplace among others. Leaders today have the significant responsibility to skillfully consider all the three time frames concurrently and work accordingly on resource allocation to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and help their organizations strive and grow.

armaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi II2.47II

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.

This extensively celebrated and frequently quoted verse from the Gita expounds the direction of actions towards a goal, without the consternation of the outcome of those actions. Actions get converted into passion when they are free from the subjugation of results, and passion is eternal. With such a perspective, the crisis has the likelihood of providing a huge scope to trudge ahead and add greater value and pragmatic impact on society, instead of just bouncing back to the status quo.