Do we need a Wartime leader, Peacetime leader, or both?
We’ve seen it in the military. We’ve seen it during significant CEO transitions within the tech industry. And we’ve even seen it during the movie the Godfather. Long lives the debate about which kind of leader is needed for which kind of moment in time.
We know we are experiencing an ‘unprecedented’ moment in history, but would it be characterized as wartime or peacetime? And does that then determine which kind of leader we need?
Let’s take a look at the characteristics describing wartime and peacetime in business. In Ben Horowitz’s famous blog post, he describes peactime as a focus on growth and wartime as a focus on survival. During peacetime businesses have a large advantage vs. the competition and are looking to expand their markets. Whereas during wartime businesses are managing imminent threat. We don’t have to look too far to find businesses operating under both periods of time. For instance, RV sales have skyrocketed since the pandemic and on the other hand several gyms have had to shut their doors and officially close their business.
So where is your business and what kind of leader do you need?
The long standing belief has been that if a business is in wartime, then a wartime leader is needed and if a business is in peacetime, then a peactime leader is needed.
But is it that simple?
Wartime leaders are described as administering a strict adherence to the mission and having a strong focus on cost containment, and peacetime leaders are described as focusing on the big picture and building creativity and contribution through empowerment. The belief seems to be that a dictator is needed during wartime and a nurturer is needed during peacetime.
So what do you do when your business is in survival mode and your people are experiencing a high level of anxiety and uncertainty? Do you lean in to dictatorship regardless of the personal hardships experienced by your people? But what about the business? The employees will be even worse off if the business does not survive. So what is a leader to do?
I would imagine that this is a good depiction of the circling thougts going on in many leaders minds at the moment, and particularly those experiencing some of the wartime characteristics. When things seem to be in the grey zone I always like to take us back to science. Let’s do a reconnect on how the brain functions during times of extreme uncertainty which I described in my series on Leading in a Crisis. When we are experiencing uncertainty or threat, our brain goes in to “fight or flight” mode and our ability to make clear, rational, and creative decisions decreases significantly. We know from the research by Dr. David Rock that our brains crave wanting to feel valued, a sense of clarity, autonomy, belonging, and fairness. When we are not able to satisfy those cravings the brain does not function at its best, and therefore we are not getting the most from our people. This drives down productivity which eventually impacts profitability.
The facts and the science say that we need to satisfy these brain cravings to get the results we want. So which leader is better suited, a wartime leader or a peacetime leader?
If you are still thinking that the answer is as simple as we need a wartime leader if we are in survival mode and a peacetime leader if we are in growth mode, consider that perhaps your thinking of if x, then y is a bit too transactional and linear for a complex and non-linear world.
What if we can have a strict adherence to the mission while also empowering our people? What if we can dictate and nurture? What if we can drive creative contributions for cost containment? What if we can be both a wartime and a peacetime leader at once?
We need to get more comfortable with these polarities. The pendulum swings from one pole to another when we try to problem solve the tensions that exist in polarities like wartime and peacetime. We must embrace the truths of both polarities and manage the tension vs. try to solve it by swinging the pendulum back and forth (or continuing to replace leaders based on the moment vs. letting the leader grow in both areas).
Consider the moment your business is in and try Barry Johnson’s technique of mapping the polarities of wartime and peacetime leadership:
- How will we gain or maintain positive results from focusing on peacetime leadership? What indicators will let us know that we are overdoing peacetime leadership?
- How will we gain or maintain positive results from wartime leadership? What indicators will let us know that we are overdoing wartime leadership?
- Why balance wartime and peacetime leadership?
Regardless of the moment you are in or which type of leader you may feel more comfortable as, you must focus on what is needed from both wartime and peacetime leadership to drive engagement, productivity, and eventually profitability for your business.
