moved by what appears to be glittering.
Not all that glitters is gold.
If you do not take the time to build a solid
foundation for your business and you
drive the business on hype, your corona
day will come. The storms came to both.
It was the ultimate test of foundations. If
your foundations are destroyed, you are
finished. You may have survived this wave
of disruption but you need to know that it
never stops. This is why the investment in
a solid foundation is not just a good idea.
It is the only way.
So, besides bridging the social distance
between people, one of the side effects
of Coronavirus as we have seen is that
it has exposed the defects in nations.
It has also revealed and separated the
leaders from the office holders. In the
post-corona era leaders will be judged
by their performance during this period.
They are going to be defined by how they
responded to the virus and handled the
myriad of complexities that came with it.
It is indeed the truest and toughest test of
leadership many will face in their lifetime.
Everything is going to be evaluated - their
composure under fire, their thinking, their
ability to communicate, their ability to
build the right partnerships, their ability
to negotiate and much more.
Now why this is very interesting is that
these are the same skills that a lot of
leaders shunned when invited for training
on such in the past. They never imagined
that a day will come when their entire
leadership will come down to those skills.
People in leadership positions shun
many attempts to get them to attend
training that will prepare them for this
level of crisis and yet it is not that the
training and knowledge was not there. It
is that the leaders operated in a bubble
like the captain of the Titanic who was
convinced that even God could not sink
his ship. Such people are blinded by their
success and they limit their thinking to
what is known. They never imagined
that their disruption was going to come
from something for which no one had an
answer.
Besides the medics and scientists, it is
persons with the ability to effectively
reach out to people and inspire hope in
hopeless times, alleviate fear in the most
fearful of times, show confidence even in
their understanding and grasping of the
real issues - these are the people that will
As the famous Tusker slogan once pro-
claimed, Coronavirus ‘Makes Us Equal,
Has No Equal! For the first time the world
is faced with a virus that has no respect
for anything. No respect for money, no re-
spect for titles, no respect for religion, no
respect for positions.Royalty are falling
victim like your everyday people along
the streets. The distance between the rich
and the poor has been dramatically short-
ened.
be considered as leaders when this is over.
The people who are able to think differently
and change their entire business models,
they are the ones that will remain relevant
in the post-corona era. to the votes from Florida where the then
candidate George Bushs' brother was
governor. So, he started with a very tough
task ahead of him and that was to prove
his legitimacy.
In my book, Mental Independence, I
wrote about what I call the Wale Triangle
which is a triangle with the three tips
called The Known, The Obvious and The
Comfortable. Most people make decisions
within the context of what is known,
what is comfortable or what is obvious.
Innovation however never comes from
within that context and neither does
disruption. Then, the terror attacks happened.
Many will never forget the image of the
President of the United States standing
on the rubble holding a megaphone and
telling the people that he heard them and
that the terrorists who launched the attack
would also hear from the United States.
Many agree that this was the turning
point for him as a leader.
As bad as some people may claim
this season to be economically, some
organizations are experiencing the best
time of their lives. The point is that
conventional thinking cannot prepare you
for unconventional seasons and a lot of the
pre-corona era champions will have paid
the ultimate price in the post-corona era.
They will be out of business.
In essence, what we are going through
around the world right now, is a global
reset. A new world order will emerge after
this and people who were considered to
be leaders in the pre-corona world will
be dismissed in the minds of many and
become irrelevant (even if they still hold
offices). Similarly this is the season when
new leaders will emerge.
Fresh in the minds of many are the events
of September 11, 2001. The presidency of
George W Bush was still trying to find its
feet after a very hotly contested election
sharply divided the nation. Many did
not like the fact that it all boiled down
History is rife with so many people whose
leadership qualities were revealed during
a crisis. Remember however that for
something to be revealed it meant it was
already there somewhere. It just needed
the right environment to bring it out.
Everyone prepares for war in times of
peace. If you wait for the war to begin to
learn how to fight, it is too late. Similarly,
if you wait for the crisis before you start
learning how to deal with issues like
corona, then it is too late. Are you a leader
or an office holder? Corona will reveal!
Dr. Akinyemi is the Chief
Transformation Officer, PowerTalks
Corporate & Personal Development
Consultants. You can commune
with him on this or related matters
via email at: [email protected].