I was recently reading a book called “Making the Impossible Possible” by Daisaku Ikeda. He wrote, “The word organization tends to bring to mind an image of a monolithic and impersonal structure. However, in Soka Gakkai people are valued first and foremost.”

In times of great uncertainty like the one we face today leadership is extremely important. People are anxious for their family and own health and financial well-being and most leaders have never dealt with the type of crisis we are seeing today. So, what type of leadership do we need in this new normal?

1. The New Normal will need Compassionate Leadership, leaders who inspire people through encouragement and hope. This is a time to bring together the people behind the organization structures and lead by example. Many companies may not survive this storm, and the strong ones may come out less strong. In either case people would be impacted. Being compassionate towards their challenges means doing what you can to help them through these times and take personal responsibility as a leader to lead them through this storm.

2. Another quote from the book that was thought provoking was “Watch Me! Watch my Actions!” In tough times people want leaders that they can look up, who show the way in spite of personal struggles. Today we are all in the same situation, staying at home and dealing with the reality of an unfolding crisis that we don’t know the final impact of.

But what we can do as leaders is lead by example. This would mean not only staying at home and staying safe, but also taking the impact of this crisis on ourselves as much as the people in our organization.

In my personal experience whenever I’ve faced great external challenges while leading a company I’ve been surprised by the compassion and understanding shown to me by the people working with me. If people see you understand their struggles, help them to the best of your ability and be open to them about why you need to take tough decisions, they only respect you more as a leader.

This is a time to come together as humanity, neighbors, organizations and nations to show compassionate leadership at all levels. Whether it is in your neighborhood, your teams or your communities. We need more new leaders in this new normal.