NGO Soul + Strategy 047. Crisis leadership skills during war: Pact's Alyona Gerasimova in Ukraine
Summary
Leadership in crisis contexts.
Many NGOs regularly work in contexts of crisis, or war. The war in Ukraine was one of those contexts, and it led quite a few NGOs to reallocate programming resources toward the Ukrainian population.
PACT is a US-founded NGO which has worked in Ukraine for many years. In this podcast episode, I took the opportunity to ask Alyona Gerasimova, its Country Director, a number of things related to leadership skills, behaviors and actions in crisis.
What leadership aspects are most important in such circumstances?
How do you maintain your own individual sanity, while trying to keep your team motivated as well as safe?
Does your leadership style vary, depending on what lens you use towards the crisis? There is some research that indicates whether a crisis is expected versus a surprise, or whether there is some time to respond, or not, impacts how leaders respond, who they consult to get to good decision-making, etc.
You are in for a remarkable conversation.
Alyona’s Bio:
- Country Director of Pact Ukraine
- Independent consultant for Organisation Development/ Organisational Change
- Country Director of Holt International Children’s Service
We discuss:
- How work can be a coping mechanism when everything else in the context is out of control – but you have to watch out for its downsides
- The power of gratitude for the little things when in crisis
- The need to switch between short-term, medium-term, and long-term time horizons and perspectives and planning, all the time
- In volatile contexts, you need to frequently change your decision-making. This does not necessarily reflect bad decision-making, but just the need to be agile
- Personality type-wise, some thrive in crisis; some can switch from a planful to an adaptive style, and some have difficulty functioning or making decisions in crisis
- Some opportunities for change, learning and innovation, which organizations learned during crisis are things they may want to hold on to after the crisis is over
Quotes:
“This is more than a crisis, this is a war. War consists of multiple crises”
“Interestingly enough, the humanitarian sector was slow to respond in Ukraine, while the development sector was more agile in switching to humanitarian work”
Resources:
Youtube video of this podcast
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