Member-only story
The Virtues of Leadership in Crisis
How literature reveals the leadership our communities need most.
By Mark Heisten
I read Albert Camus’ The Plague as an undergraduate not because it was required reading. It wasn’t for me as an English major. No.
I was drawn to it because, like all Camus novels and essays, he combined philosophy and literature and political science into cohesive work of art. And as a young student looking for answers for my future, his writings provided me a sense of what universal truth sounded like.
This morning I read a piece on snack rationing in a time of pandemic. The writer was trying to be funny; the article wasn’t written to suggest the gravity of the situation is anything less than dire. And a couple of weeks ago, the New York Times published an article by Tom Ford on how to look good for digital meetings that included among recommendations about lighting and camera placement and backgrounds, the use of powder.
It’s healthy to laugh.
Yet, beneath the levity, I know many leaders who are deeply concerned about how they show up to their organizations and teams and families during times of like these. They are committed to supporting very real needs through a voice that is empathic and sincere, unifying and strong.
