Leadership in the time of crisis

Responding in our various roles as health professionals to COVID-19 is, without doubt, the most challenging time of our careers. I write this, following a week of planning that has stressed and stretched us, and the daily national updates relating to the demands for UK healthcare, indicate that our plans need to be further stretched. I'm writing this at the weekend–its Mother's Day today, schools closed on Friday as did our theatres, gyms, restaurants and pubs. It is probably the last ‘weekend’ as we know it for some time, and by the time this article is read, the situation will have changed again.

On a personal level the pressure feels high, I feel scared, but proud multiple times per day, a very stressful set of emotions. I have taken an hour out to reflect on what leaders need to do in a crisis and put pen to paper. Hall (2020) breaks the situation down into how employees consider ‘whether you're up to snuff as a leader’. This is how Hall (2020) says they will decide: