Leadership Beyond Corona

Sometime in March, I began to question if Corona will change the way Behavourial Science scripts new chapters. Chapters that may change the way how the science is applied to understand and relate to people and societies. 

Thinking more about how Corona may impact our public behaviour, I began to recognise that we may relate to people based on so many newer factors. The gentleman or the lady were more likely to be noticed in the public washrooms for their nobility in the way they use the tap at the washbasin, or, by the way they respect others’ rights to their spaces, as well. The high notes of pedigreed public behaviour may be used as a benchmark to judge people in general. 

That is when I developed a presentation: Success Beyond Corona - Responsible Leadership; and, later spoke how Corona may change the way leadership is understood or appreciated. Interacting with the industry communities, and, the academicia, I did not quite realise the depth of the newer public order is likely to develop, as Covid impacts more people, all of 2020. 

Are we civilised enough to respect individuality at another level altogether? The grace will now definitely be in respecting the privacy of space for someone sitting next to you on the dining table. The nails, the cuffs, the sneeze or the hiccups will be observed so much more. The restaurants may change the way seating is spaced around a table. The expansive spacing will so disrupt the budgets of every business where people come together. That's the economics of it. However, how on earth do I make my guest at home feel cosier over a meal? 

Should the more welcoming dining table at my home be 10x6 feet for only six to seat? Would my hospitality be more welcomed if I do not invite more than a couple of friends over an evening so that a sofa is left between two persons in my living room? 

As we go along the apprehensions are sharply turning real. I am getting more definitive that we are not too loud in our imaginations. As more people remain uncertain how soon Corona will go out of our lives, its imprints continue to make us fear and be anxious about public behaviour. 

Sensitivity towards people has suddenly emerged as a responsibility. A growing social responsibility. 

People are not likely to be limited to judge leadership based on initiatives, achievements or accomplishments. Leaders are likely to be viewed a whole lot more in the way they maintain protocols in the public. Not necessarily on the go, over the phone and the video conferences as well. 

Are they hygienic enough? A very personal sense of responsible citizenship is likely to be under the scanner by people, publicly. 

Do they understand that I have my rights to keep my hands in my pocket? Do they realise that exchanging visiting cards may not be the most responsible practice? 

How distant is polite? How erudite is someone over the video conference? 

The biggest challenge of it all, how do I reach out, being at a distance? 

They are just a few of the entirely new dimensions of the post Covid public behaviour. 

The witness to the impacts of Corona will be more real, when we get back to normal lives as we lived until 2019. People may have outlived the reassurance of a warm handshake. They have not been hugged enough by people outside their families. People have not met people enough. How do you address such people so distant from humanity for so long a time?

That is when I am likely to see ways of breaking the barriers of emotions, while I respect strictly the barriers of discipline. How testing will the experience be? 

How do I reflect warmth, trust and confidence amidst isolated environments? Would I find the body language of people whom I have known closer, now incomprehensible, when I meet them, like I met them before March? 

Human sensitivities long lost in the race for leadership positions seems to have suddenly awakened. From the neighbour to the grocer, to the staff at work, or the customer, they are all now worthy of respectful distance with a sense of privacy. 

In keeping the distance, the real leaders will emerge to inspire. To set examples. Raise the levels of human behaviour. As the outstanding will be observed, respected and trusted.