This article was originally published by Lee Hecht Harrison here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world on its head. It’s clear that leaders need to step up and act quickly to find new ways of doing business. There is much we don’t know about what happens next; but what we do know is that outdated leadership approaches won’t work in this new world.

There is no escaping the painful truth that going into this pandemic, leadership was not where it should be. We’re still stuck in outmoded mindsets, re-enforced by outdated development models. Our leaders are not resilient enough, not creative enough and not inspiring enough. The consequences of bad leadership are starkly evident.

A 2016 Gallup survey found that 82% of managers are ineffective at leading people. This pairs well with another often-cited Gallup survey that found half of all people who voluntarily left a job did so to get away from a bad manager.

Leaders are not unaware of their shortcomings. A 2019 Gartner survey of 2,800 business leaders found that only half believe they are “well-equipped to lead their organization into the future.”

The arrival of the pandemic is now shining a harsh light on leadership shortfalls and where leaders need to improve.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University, suggested that crises like the COVID-19 pandemic make it much easier to identify bad leaders. “While poor leadership choices may go unpunished—or even unnoticed—when times are good (minimizing the potential damage that clueless leaders have on their groups and societies), bad times will not only expose, but also amplify, the harmful effects of incompetent leadership.”

A crisis can clarify the changes we need to make in leadership philosophy and application. If, as Chamorro-Premuzic noted, a crisis amplifies the harmful effects of weak leadership, then it should also help to identify the new approaches we need to take.

Let’s look at the outdated theories and approaches to leadership and how they need to evolve to address current and future challenges.

Changing Mindsets