Lessons for leadership in times of crisis

Written by Florence Riako Anam

Recent global events have thrown everyone into chaos, disruptions, and a fight for survival that will require great leadership to see beyond the mist of the disruptions of world politics in our everyday life.

Yet it is in such times that leaders are called upon to rise above the chaos and distress and see opportunities where others see threats and provide solutions where things seem utterly difficult. Good leaders are made through this foundry of burning furnaces, affirming the age-old notions that leaders are made and not born.

A leader is someone who guides, influences, and inspires others towards a common goal. Leadership is defined as the ability to set the vision, provide direction, make decisions, and motivate individuals or teams to achieve objectives towards the set vision.

I Co-lead the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), an organization that supports grassroots organizations through grant-making with country and regional networks of people living with and most impacted by HIV. You can imagine how many organizations in our networks have been impacted by the decision to shut down USAID.

Even though the order was temporarily frozen, the move has forced many organizations in our sector to rationalize their workforce, restructure, and reassess their entire operational models to remain sustainable and continue providing care to those affected.

Great change in leadership

Over the last year GNP has had to undergo a similar process, a radical restructuring of how we were operating. Together with my Co-ED Sbongile Nkosi, we led a rigorous change management process at GNP+ to make sure staff are clear on the organizational vision and are leading at the various levels in the organization towards it.

It took us time, but during our staff meeting in January, we noted how all our staff are now aligned. We know what our vision is, we know what our work costs and we all know which part of the organizational strategic plan each one of us is contributing to. My Co-Ed Sbo and I are proud of this achievement.

On Friday I had a chance to reflect on how this period shaped my idea of leadership and why this is important. As part of my Toastmasters International level 2 project 1 of my Visionary Communications pathway, I was required to understand my leadership style.

For someone who believes leaders are made and not born perhaps it is a contradiction that I believed I was the leader of my three siblings, just because I was born eight months, three years and 6years years ahead of them.

I was elected as the head girl in high school confirming my suspicion and as if to confirm this bias, my daughter was also sort of born a leader and has gone ahead to lead her school as President. She is so good at what she does that the parent/teacher council has requested her to extend her term. She makes me proud.

Leading by example

But perhaps it is a cultural thing. An African firstborn girl is born a leader, in fact, all firstborns universally deserve all the avocados in the world and a special place in the afterlife. I had no choice, I was born a leader and I took on the role of parenting my siblings seriously.

As a young girl, it was made very clear to me that I am an example. I must show a good example, what a huge responsibility! My parents however made sure I earned my role, teaching me to show direction rather than order my younger siblings around like an overlord.

I discovered rather quickly that every time I would report any of my siblings for not completing tasks I assigned them or for any form of disrespect or truancy, I would get a beating right alongside them.

I had to innovate in leading them. I would like to believe this is where I honed my democratic, affiliative and altruistic leadership skills. Shooting from the hip wasn’t going to work here so out went my attempts at being authoritative and in came the diplomat. I negotiated and manipulated my way to victory.

Ingrained lessons

In high school sort of reverted back to being iron fist when our then then-deputy headmistress put a huge responsibility on my back – Yes, I went to school when we had them, but I digress. The Deputy, explained that I was to handle all matters with the students' indiscipline at my level. “if any matter gets to my office, then it will be an outright suspension”

If you went to school in my time, you know suspensions would last up to two weeks after which one would need to return back to school accompanied by their parents and carrying with them a roll of barbed wire or chainlink fence depending on the gravity of your mistakes.

I did not want to see people go home. I wondered for a bit how I would have to deal with my fellow students. As if to help with my dilemma, she said. “Florence, being a leader is like being in a football pitch. When the footballer is on the pitch running with the ball, everyone has an idea of what they must do. Just remember, the only person who knows what must be done, is the one in the pitch with the ball on his feet”.

If my memory serves me right I tend to think I turned authoritarian as a leader in high school. I mean what else I’m I to make of people running away whenever I passed by, or dissapearing to get their tasks done just by my looks? I was clear with my student council on what we needed to achieve, during my tenure, there would be- None or as few suspensions as possible. That and high discipline.

But apparently, my lessons on coaching in addition to being an affiliative and altruistic leader from childhood had sunk in. Whenever I meet my former schoolmates they say I was kind, the best leader they ever had. I will take that!

Managing change

These lessons proved crucial when I became a Co-Executive Director GNP+ in 2023 a role of a non-conventional change leader, at a period that required embracing radical changes to retrofit the organization’s sustainability.

There are two incredible and unconventional events that ground this period of my leadership season. One, I am in a Co-Leadership. For those who may not know, being in a Co-ED Is being two people, sharing power and decision-making executive functions of the organization while reporting to a board. For those who have served in this level, being an ED or CEO is its own warped game of thrones. Now imagine two people at the top.

The second unconventional thing is my organization for the first time has two African women from and leading while living in Africa. GNP+ was founded in the United states in 1986 and now situated in the Netherlands. Many Global Organizations, are adopting Co-leadership models but still prefer to have one leader from the Global North, and one from South; also prefered is one leader male and one female. This is not our case.

These two realities have significantly shaped the leader I am now. First, I have learned to share something so hard to share, POWER. I have learned to trust and work hard to be trusted. Second, as our joint legacy is built on the intent to dismantle power and build leadership across our organization and with the community of People Living with HIV who we serve and represent, I am coaching and motivating leadership from all around me.

I find that I am making some very hard decisions that are usually predominant in leading organizational change. Being visionary, communicating clearly, authoritatively making decisions, shooting from the hip in both words and deeds while being human, giving room for democratic decision-making and innovative ways of getting what we needed to achieve define this moment.

I am known to say things like, “we are not interested in perfect here, we need people to move and fail as there is nothing that is too hard for our leadership to fix.” Or “Please do not bring problems, speak with colleagues and share what your possible solutions are, lets all lead” We are building out of our team, LEADERS.

Vince Lombardi, the legendary American football coach and former executive of the American Footbal League (NFL) once said: “Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. Which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”