Learning From Our Darkest Days
Lessons on leadership from the Afghanistan crisis
by Preeti Prayag
4 minutes read
On a bleak Sunday morning, on August 15th, as India awoke to celebrate 75 years of Independence, another country was reeling from an invasion unlike any other; Afghanistan jolted awake to a rapid and decisive collapse of their government and a complete takeover by the Taliban. Since then, a humanitarian crisis of unparalleled proportions has gripped the nation, leaving Afghan civilians and expats in turmoil.
Even as I write this blog, events are unfolding at a rapid pace. But the purpose of this blog is not to provide a narrative on the events, or even explore why the situation has arisen in the first place. The situation is far too complicated for one person to truly grasp the entirety of it and I defer that responsibility to those more qualified than me.
The purpose of this blog is to understand what leadership lessons we can extract from how the events have unfolded so far.
Before we begin, here’s a quick, 30 second recap for those of you who may not be in the know:
1996: Taliban takes over Afghanistan
2001: The Twin Towers are attacked and USA launches an offensive against Taliban in Afghanistan
2021: US adheres to the deadline set by previous administrations to exit Afghanistan on their 20th year there. The exit leaves a power vacuum which Taliban uses to take back control, shattering 20 years of efforts to rebuild the nation with modern values of equality, progress and development, in one masterstroke.
Now with that out of the way, let’s try to understand what key leadership lessons can be gleaned from this decades-long engagement between nations and cultures.
Localizing your approach
As a leader working across national and cultural borders, it’s important to understand local nuances. People, along with their cultures, traditions and lifestyles, can vary widely and applying a single, rigid approach to leadership rarely works well for everyone.
Collaboration and inclusion are the pillars of success
There are largely two distinct types of leadership — authoritative and collaborative. While there are some rare situations where authoritative leadership is needed to drive results, an overwhelming majority vouch for collaborative leadership. By driving inclusion and inviting varied opinions from your team, they take on co-ownership of achieving the goal and you set your team up for success.
We can’t predict the future, but…
Foresight is critical to effective decision making. To look at the past, analyse how situations unfolded and then taking an informed approach to anticipating future events might seem like the obvious approach. But too many leaders fall into the trap of thinking it will work differently for them. By breaking down the situation with clear, rational reasoning, a leader can take better decisions to improve the outcome for the team.
Trust is the currency of good leadership
As we all know, every team puts their trust in their leader. A leader should never repay this trust by turning his or her back to their team in a time of need. Standing by your team to weather the worst of storms together builds the leader’s character and nurtures the team’s trust and respect for their leader.
Devil in the details
No situation can be accurately analysed from a 35,000 ft view. A leader must get into the thick of things and truly understand the nuances before taking action.
Teach them to fish
A leader must always strive to upskill the team. Grooming your team to hone their skills and their thinking is as much a part of leadership as is sitting in board meetings. Many leaders tend to focus on short-term results and sometimes put their team’s upskilling on the backburner. But when push-comes-to-shove, the team that was well groomed by their leaders is the one that can stand their ground and push for success.
Empathy is a critical part of leadership
When you lead a team, they put their faith in you each day as they come to work. Most effective teams share a collective vision, formed through the consistent efforts of the team leader. To successfully drive a collective vision, a leader must empathise with each of his team members, their backgrounds, and the context in which they work.
“It was my fault and I take complete responsibility”
Sometimes, things go south even after the most thorough planning and the best of intentions. At times like this, the leader must be able to say these difficult words and take ownership of the situation. With the power of decision making, comes the responsibility of owning the outcomes that stem from those decisions. Some bad decisions might set you back in your career, but taking responsibility for them helps you grow into a better leader.
It’s incredible to think that this once proud nation will be overtaken by the forces that were driven out in early 2002. But there is much to be learnt from our failures and learning from them will help us grow into better leaders. Sometimes, all it takes is a small change to make a big impact. Start your change today.
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PREETI PRAYAG
Preeti Prayag is the co-founder of Mentoring Matters, a platform for businesses and individuals across industries to drive holistic professional growth across mid and senior-level positions through dedicated coaching by certified professionals.