Uncertainty, Change, and New Normal happened to be an unavoidable challenge for the organization over months ago. Any organization that had a talented leader, could overcome uncertainty and still maintained a strong and solid team. Well, what should an ideal leader be?

1.Embracing the New Normal

During the COVID-19 crisis and the New Normal times, the leader should build trust with employees. Throughout the New Normal, things have been taken place differently than before but differences should not be afraid of. The openness to new changes will enable leaders to set a new position in the organization. For example, adjusting strategies to gain trust from employees, customers, and investors and be able to restart business plans or reset objectives aligning with new changes.

2.Learning by sharing

Before the crisis, all leaders must defeat competitors. All new ideas, tests, and strategies were treated confidentially. However, when situations have changed, the same businesses faced similar problems. The best thing that a leader can do at the moment is to change the strategy from defeating competitors to building partners in order to retrieve all businesses in general. Cooperative learning by sharing information, statistics, research, tests, and recovery strategies will drive brainstorming good ideas from many organizations in the same business group. In the end, all parties can deal with challenges in the shortest possible time. And once problems are solved, the solution will bring mutual benefits to all organizations.

3.Over-communicating

Communication played a much more important role over the crisis times. Leaders have to communicate more effectively with employees; informing them about new practices, following work progress, brainstorming about strategies, reporting crisis, hygiene measures, and employee safety, and updating the organization's situation. Concerns and questions always rise in all crises. Leaders must be able to evaluate those concerns and find out the answers to build trust with employees. More, communication is a method to form a bond and connection between leaders and employees, especially when each other works in different locations.

4.Being positive, but not sugarcoating

In any situation, leaders should always have a positive attitude. This qualification helps build trust with the organization to overcome obstacles and lead to organizational success. Anyway, a positive attitude doesn’t mean to fool yourself or mislead employees. Leaders must accept the truth of all incidents that happened in the past and current, realize good and bad results, learn from mistakes, and believe that there’s an opportunity to move forward to achieve goals.

5.Empowering people

In all crises, full cooperation in the organization is priceless. Thus, leaders should encourage and support employees to share their thoughts and take part in problem-solving. Paying attention to employee suggestions demonstrates that leaders respect all ideas and make their employees feel valued. This may inspire courage in other employees for more participation. Besides, allowing employees to play a part in making decisions towards their assignments, shows that leaders have trust in employees. Trust is highly essential, especially working under the New Normal which trust and reliability are the foundation.

6.Shifting in perspective

Leaders must be courageous to change their perspectives by start looking at themselves and doing self-evaluation honestly. Their perspectives will be wider if they’re brave to face and cope with tough situations while managing challenging emotions along the way. More importantly, leaders should prepare a backup plan in advance in case there’s an unexpected situation.

The future is unpredictable, especially the COVID-19 crisis that has forced everyone to change overnight. As this uncertainty is still carrying on and seems never-ending, preparation is one thing we can do. If leaders acquire all those qualifications, this guarantees that they’re well-prepared and ready to handle all future challenges.