| | DECEMBER 20208WRITING THE NEW LEADERSHIP BOOKBy Anamika Sahu, Managing EditorIt isn't the first time the world faces a pandemic, nor will it be the last. Prior to COVID-19, the world has strongly and successfully evolved from pandemics like influenza, cholera, bubon-ic plague, and more. Though such contagions change the rules and world order, and even break the back-bone of the strongest of the economies, it is the lead-ers who see past the smoked-windows and quickly adapt to the situation upskilling themselves to take on the bull by its horns. Such economies thrive and emerge successful, thus changing the world order.All the leadership traits spoken and written are falling flat on its face. No business leader can escape this impact. Hence every one of them must rise to the occasion, mitigate the immediate damage while craft strategies that will lead their organization back to prosperity. In the future, COVID-19 will not be the only calamity that leaders will have to deal with. So leaders have to prepare themselves for a future where such disruptions will be the new norm.The rule book is changing and the traits are being rewritten. The winning leaders must wear new capes. Here are some must-have traits that leaders of tomor-row must possess.A Master of Data & AnalysisData isn't the new oil, but it is the most important oil that will drive the future growth of organizations. Productivity now demands more aggressive and actionable measures. Leaders should know how to swim across the sea of data and find meaningful con-versations within these data points to make decisions. S/he should be strong enough to even go against the public opinion and make data-based decisions inde-pendent of any influence, fear or panic.Data can even help leaders streamline their busi-ness functionality. How? Leveraging today's im-proved dashboards, leaders can know which teams best add value to which department/process. But dur-ing such times when every rule is changing, how can companies define what a `best performance' is? The answer is again `data'. With data, leaders can separate tasks that can be automated and let machines handle it, while make space and time for the employees to engage in more creative and research driven work.Water-Tight Monetary StrategiesThis pandemic brought in sudden economic shut-down, which sort of decimated cash flow thus slowing revenue. Hence any cash leakage in the current times will bite you like a stingray right where it should not. Thus leaders should look at streamlining cash flow to where it's needed and not cut the oxygen supply to kill the business. Most importantly, when the dust settles, leaders should get obsessed with checking their cash positions almost frequently. They need to create a cash reservoir to sustain any such untoward circumstances so that business can sustain for six months to a year during any such future crisis.Strengthening Digital InfrastructureJust six months ago if someone would have said that the entire workforce of an organization will work from home, we would have laughed at him/her. Work from home, which was once a passing thought for many organizations, have become today's reality. And when the companies were thrown at this situation all of a sudden, not all were prepared to tackle it. The one who couldn't handle it are probably out of the game. We should comprehend that this pandemic IN FOCUS
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