Leadership in Crisis: Markers of sustained influence for societal mobilisation in response to COVID-19

COVID-19 posed an intense and prolonged threat to many aspects of societal life. Its global reach and impact was truly remarkable. This situation demanded a response that went beyond that of social mobilisation in “normal” times: it required the rapid deployment of the aggregation of an entire population and its resources to fight against this threat to their common existence. Societal mobilisation in this sense, was thus critical to an effective response to COVID-19 at any level of society – local, national, regional and global. This work argues that societal mobilisation presupposes an existing leadership infrastructure that places a given society at a vantage point to respond effectively during crisis with all its resources – human, social and economic. Ultimately, leadership was the striking difference between societies that responded effectively to the outbreak of COVID-19 and those that were less effective. In this paper, Leadership infrastructure refers to a combination of the formal institutional elements of governing across realms (the hardware of leadership infrastructure); and the foundational relationships, shared values and expectations that underpin and reinforce these institutions across society (the software of leadership infrastructure). The paper discusses the role and implications of this infrastructure in shaping government and society responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, in relation, also, to the alternative leadership infrastructure that might support societal mobilisation outside of government frameworks; and the collective memory of previous pandemics. The paper argues that COVID-19 laid bare the strengths and weaknesses of societies and leaders. New leaders and alternative repositories of trust emerged; and there was no hiding place for those who failed to live up to the challenges of the moment. This paper provides a conceptual framework for subsequent research to take place.