The critical move most leaders miss after a crisis

"Times of uncertainty call for fast executive decision-making with limited information, "good enough" risk assessment, and repeated pivots. I know this because I led a global philanthropy network while the world shut down in 2020. During those initial months, I relied less on staff input to determine our direction, despite deeply valuing a culture of co-ownership. My choices as an executive during this period had to be fast and decisive to keep us afloat, but also had significant ramifications."

"While I was able to effectively pivot to help our organization survive the crisis, I noticed that the staff who previously had driven programs now lacked ownership and motivation to move things forward. They deferred to me when I needed them to own their expertise. They didn't have audacious goals that matched our big North Star. They didn't bring ideas to brainstorms on how we could further innovate."

The last five years have brought extreme volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity driven by political, economic, and technological disruptions. Crises require fast executive decision-making with limited information, "good enough" risk assessment, and frequent pivots. Top-down choices during emergency response can erode staff ownership and motivation, causing program teams to defer decisions and stop producing audacious goals or innovative ideas. Organizations rarely revert automatically to distributed leadership after crisis because teams become conditioned to defer. Leaders must actively and quickly reinvigorate distributed leadership and co-ownership to restore agency, accountability, and innovation.

Read at Fast Company