Leadership during times of Crises

Hardly one year has passed since the global banking system stood at the edge of financial ruin. Only a ludicrous multimillion-dollar rescue package financed by taxpayers money was able to provide a safety net for what could have been a fatal crash, making it clear that the world financial crisis had us all in its clutches. Since then nothing has changed. In the news each day we are confronted with the reality of how nothing is like it used to be. And, whether it is General Motors or Lehman Brothers in the United States, Opel or Arcandor in Germany, or Austrian Airlines and Sky Europe in Austria, just a few of many examples, we see how it is currently a trend for managers to crash their corporations into a wall while shamelessly cashing in their salaries and bonuses. Moreover, such actions seem to have no consequences, for such super-managers are still at the helm and yet seem to have learned absolutely nothing.

Is that all leadership is today? During such a crisis, can management no longer deal with the current challenges? Is it simply their insatiable desire for money and power that has led managers to run amok? Or has management simply forgotten the simplest of rules, or worse, not learned them at all?

Read the complete article in the Arts Management Newsletter No. 94, ready to download in the newsletter archive at this website.