Leading Is Tough Right Now. But You’ve Got This.
It’s not about changing your style—you’ll just need to kick things up a notch
By | Harry M. Kraemer | insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu
The last few years have not been easy on leaders, to say the least. But according to Harry Kraemer, good leadership still looks a lot like it did pre-pandemic.
“The requirements to be a leader have always remained pretty constant. It’s leading yourself, leading others, communicating like crazy, listening carefully, demonstrating you care,” says Kraemer.
So instead of changing your style, what the current moment calls for “is really turning up the volume.”
Kraemer is a clinical professor of leadership at Kellogg and executive partner with the Chicago-based PE firm Madison Dearborn Partners. Before coming to Kellogg, he was CEO of healthcare giant Baxter International.
In a recent webinar for The Insightful Leader Live, he shared how leaders across an organization can amp up their leadership skills to meet crises with grace.
Double Down on Self-Reflection
Before you can lead others through turbulent times, you need to first lead yourself—which of course requires understanding yourself.
This is pretty much always good advice. Kraemer has long advised leaders to set aside a few minutes each day to self-reflect on what they intended to do, what they actually did, and what they might have done differently—both at work and in other areas of their life. (You can read a full list of his favorite prompts for self-reflection here.)
