Question

Crises are best managed through effective leadership. The current COVID-19 pandemic is an unusual and significant crisis in its breadth and importance to our well-being, now and in the future.

Many leaders are emerging to resolve this crisis. These leaders can represent different walks of life including but not limited to:

• politics
• academics
• healthcare organizations
• celebrities
• social media influencers

Your goal is to select and identify one leader that you are familiar with in this crisis. He or she can have any role and not necessarily the most authority among their peers. Your task in answering this question is to:

• explain their role or involvement
• decide if you think they are being a good leader or not
• answer the above by giving one example of the leadership theory they use and three attributes of effective leadership they demonstrate

Alternatively, you may choose any leader that you admire. Identify them, explain the leadership situation they are in or have been in and answer the same questions as above for the COVID-19 scenario.

Answer 1

New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern is a leader who fights the pandemic problem very successfully. The country could reduce the number of active cases to a great extend. She could lead her country in controlling the pandemic outbreak especially in the context where most of the nations in the world are struggling to come out of the crisis. She could act swiftly during the crisis period. Moreover, she has expressed sincere empathy towards those who have lost their lives or jobs as a result of the pandemic. She showcased strong leadership during the pandemic period. She could also consistently follow up on her pandemic control strategy.

The leadership theory applicable to Jacinda Ardern in this matter is the situational theory of leadership. This theory says that a true leader will be a leader who is capable of adapting to a situation. Here the situation is the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak where Jacinda Ardern could come up with strategies that suit the situation. The following are the three attributes of Jacinda Ardern's leadership.

• She was very empathetic towards the citizens of the nation during the crisis period.
• She could reinstate hope over fear through her powerful words and actions.
• She was considered as a very authentic leader by the masses.

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