Everyone Has a Part to Play

With the COVID-19 pandemic upon us, many of us are looking for true leadership and dependable information. We are looking for a confidence from our local, state and national leaders, but we are also looking to community leaders, healthcare professionals and private industry to display a sense of confident leadership. We understand and appreciate that not everyone has all the right answers, but we also need to be able to look to those who have been given the role of "leader," to lead. Every leader, regardless of position or type of organization, has a role to play.

This can be challenging depending on the type of leader you are. As many of you know, I am steeped in the Core Values Index (CVI) assessment and its incredible insight. So, naturally, I lean on the CVI at this critical time. The leadership style required in "peace" times is not the type required to lead an organization/community through the crisis that many are facing right now. This doesn't require a leadership change at the top of the organization, but an appreciation of what is required for leadership through this time and the humility to leverage that crisis leader to assist in leading not just the organization, but the surrounding community through this.

I have done a lot of work in healthcare over the past two decades, and using the CVI I have encountered a number of leaders within that space that are Merchant-Innovators, which is great at a time of "peace", but in this season of instability there may be more of a need for Builder core value energy. This energy can be decisive, focused on actions and results and getting things done. These types of leaders are ready to make the hard decisions that many do not want to make. This is exactly what we need at this time. Along those lines we also need the methodical leaders that can take measured steps in the areas where that is required to assist us in addressing the challenge that lies before us. These individuals are people who can have solid access to their Innovator and Banker core value energies. This is required to go through the steps needed to find the best drug to address symptoms, the potential vaccine or the opportunity of using antibodies to help those in need.

The challenge that all leaders will face is the inability to appreciate the limitations of their Core Value contributions and to allow those that better fit what needs to be done to step into those roles at least temporarily. The biggest roadblock for leaders and individuals here is that we all see the world through our Core Values profile lens. I personally see the world through my Merchant lens and thus will always think that the Innovators and Bankers of the world take too long to decide how to move forward with a potential solution. Personally, I can't appreciate why it would take 12 to 18 months to develop a vaccine. As a Merchant, I feel that it is irresponsible to state that it will take that long if there are ways we can shorten that timeline. My Merchant-Builder self thinks we can get a vaccine out much faster, while at the same time I don't know all the steps required to develop a vaccine and shouldn't be opining on its development. I can assist, however, in viewing the process differently and having the ability to recognize patterns about how we can potentially do things differently. We need to provide any resource required to shorten the vaccine timeline if that is the primary way to ease the bite of COVID-19. The entire world is focused on finding the fastest and safest solution to end this pandemic. We should be willing to take advantage of this shared focused.

This is where the idea that everyone has a part to play comes in. The ability to leverage everyone's contribution requires leaders to understand how people are hardwired and to set aside egos to access everyone's contribution. Furthermore, we need to all appreciate everyone's ability to contribute, to respect and honor their primary contribution and trust that the wisdom of the crowd will, in fact, produce the highest and best outcome. If we continue to try to apply 'peacetime' solutions to the battle against this viral foe, we will lose more lives than we would if we better leveraged everyone's highest and best.