The Surprising Role Altruism Plays in Leadership Right Now
Imagine being the captain of the Titanic, just before your ship crashes into an iceberg. You are on top of the world, in charge of what is supposed to be one of history’s most epic journeys.
Then, the crash, and all of a sudden, everything is different. From one moment to the next, you are no longer the ship’s captain — you are now a crisis manager, and your only concern is: Save whatever can be saved. You are shocked, disoriented, and despaired, but there is no place for these emotions. You need to act, now.
Does this feel familiar? If you have been in a position of leadership in this year of COVID-19, there is a good chance it does.
Like the captain of the Titanic, you probably experienced that same feeling of shock, of being disoriented. Everything is changing, and for a moment, you don’t know what to do.
So how do you deal with this? How do you go from being a leader in normal times, to being a leader in a time of crisis? How do you navigate a world where everything is different, where you don’t have enough information to base your decisions on, and where people expect you to have the answers they need?
The answer may lie in one single word: Altruism, or the tendency to make other people’s needs more important than your own. At The Brave Leaders Project, we like to talk about the Four Universal Traits of Brave Leaders, but in a time of crisis, there is one that clearly stands above the rest: Altruism.
Altruism Enables Quick and Clear Decision-Making
Many governments around the world have struggled to come up with a clear plan in the first weeks of the coronavirus’ global spread. They lost valuable time, and thousands of lives as a result.
“I believe it is our duty—to do all we can to help keep one another safe.”
Other leaders were quick and decisive in their actions.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, imposed strict measures well before a single person in her country had died of COVID-19. As a result, New Zealand’s death toll, as of early May, has been kept to 21.
REI, a U.S. retail chain that sells outdoors equipment, was among the first businesses to announce nationwide store closures. And unlike many other U.S. businesses, they have continued to employ and pay their entire staff.
What helps leaders make decisions like this? REI’s President & CEO, Eric Artz, put it best in his announcement: “I believe it is our duty—to do all we can to help keep one another safe.”
In other words, the concern for other people’s well-being helped these leaders decide what to do. It also helped to save lives and livelihoods.
Altruism Makes it Easier to Be Honest and Humble
“I was wrong” is not something you hear the most visible leaders say very often. But in a crisis, where circumstances change all the time, getting things wrong is unavoidable.
And without admitting you were wrong, how can you improve your course of action?
The simple answer is: You can’t. Being an effective leader requires having the honesty to address circumstances the way they are. It also requires having the humility to admit that you may have been wrong, and that your response needs to change.
This is hard, especially for leaders who think they are expected to be right all the time. But here’s one thing that makes it a whole lot easier: If your concern is more focused on other people’s well-being than on your own, saying “I was wrong” isn’t so hard anymore.
In the coronacrisis, some of Italy’s leaders showed this ability. They were among the first to get it wrong. In the weeks after, Italian politicians, doctors, and journalists were all over the international media, imploring the rest of the world to not repeat their country’s mistakes.
They knew their politicians and citizens had been wrong, and they didn’t try to hide it. They made as much noise about it as they could. And by doing so, they helped to save countless lives in other countries.
Altruistic Values Inspire Collective Action
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern checks in on citizens with live streams on Facebook. Source: Facebook/ Jacinda Ardern. Image cropped.
Getting people to comply with social distancing rules has been key in fighting the spread of the coronavirus. This gets to the core of effective leadership: How do you get people to follow your lead? Several countries have struggled with this; the U.S. and U.K. come to mind, as well as Italy and Spain in the early days of the pandemic.
Many countries that have been most effective at this seem to have something in common. In addition to stressing the importance of following rules, they call upon people’s responsibility towards each other. In other words: They remind people of their own, inherent altruism.
New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern didn’t just impose strict measures, she also shared regular, personal videos, asking people to “Stay Home, Save Lives.” Norway’s prime minster, Erna Solberg, spoke specifically to children, telling them that by staying at home, they helped to protect other people.
Crisis Altruism in Everyday Life
Not all heroes wear capes, and not all brave leaders run countries or companies. The coronavirus, like any other crisis, has inspired altruistic leadership in people from all walks of life.
There’s the Spanish taxi driver — one of many — who took patients to hospitals free of charge. And then there are the hospital workers who gave him a public applause.
There are the 250,000 British people who signed up to volunteer with the National Health Service.
There are people around the world who rally to support neighbors in need.
Each of us has the opportunity to take the initiative to put other people’s needs first. And thanks to social media, each of those initiatives has the power to turn into a movement.
So how to do this in your life? How do you overcome the initial reaction of self-preservation, and make altruism the guiding principle in how you deal with a crisis?
5 Steps to Draw on Altruism in a Crisis
Here are 5 practical steps you can use in your life and leadership, regardless of the position you have:
Recognize your level of shock, and give it some time and space. The worst thing to do in a crisis is be reactionary.
Know that, often, there is no perfect solution. You are likely to make mistakes — and that’s okay, as long as you’re open and honest about it.
Take a step back and ask yourself: What are my personal needs in this crisis? For a politician, this may be getting re-elected. For the average worker, it may be having enough food at the end of the month. Whatever your needs are, it’s important to be aware of them, because they tend to creep into our decision-making. Of course, don’t ignore your needs either, but make sure you aren’t driven by them when making leadership decisions.
Then, take another step back, and ask yourself: What are the needs of those I serve? The answers to this question are the guides that help you make decisions.
Communicate your decision with honesty and humility, and make sure to repeat this process often. Circumstances change, and so do people’s needs — so your course of action should, too.
COVID-19 is not the last crisis we will face. It certainly won’t be the last time we will feel disoriented and unsure of what to do. But if there’s one thing the actions of brave leaders can teach us about how to deal with a crisis, it’s this: Find the courage to put other people’s needs before your own, and you will be able to navigate better in uncharted waters.
To read more inspiring stories of brave leaders, check out our book Brave Leaders: Finding The Guts To Make Meaningful & Lasting Change.