​​Nurturing leaders to manage Through Covid-19 in our VUCA world

Since early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has been putting extra pressure on organisations’ senior leadership teams. And that has been made worse by other factors such as political and socio-economic polarisation. In short, we have found ourselves in a thoroughly VUCA world. Indeed, each VUCA characteristic is typical of the challenges we face resulting from Covid:

• Volatility: Fast, unpredictable and dramatic changes are taking place every day 
• Uncertainty: No authorities can forecast with confidence
• Complexity: The pandemic has influenced various aspects of life (health care, business, the economy and social life) in complicated ways.
• Ambiguity: Organisations are not sure how to manage the challenges caused by the pandemic

As we emerge from the immediate challenges of Covid, leaders and employees have started asking far-ranging questions about the future too, including what the legacy of the pandemic will be and what kinds of leadership skills we will need to navigate the post-Covid world successfully.

CEMS–Global Alliance in Management Education’s recent Guide to Leadership in a Post Covid-19 World sets out to answer some of these questions. It features a number of stimulating, actionable insights and recommendations for succeeding in this ‘new normal’, starting with how the challenges that leaders can expect to face will change over the coming months and years, and the actions leaders can take to address them. Here are some of the highlights.