When it seems that we can no longer talk about post-COVID leadership, but leadership with COVID, a space for reflection opens up on how leaders need to draw the reconstruction of an uncertain future and how that approach will condition all of humanity.

There’s no leadership without results, that’s for sure. At a complex economic moment, companies need to ensure the viability of their operations and focus on efficiency and risk control. A key role for the CEO and the Board is risk assessment and a leader, in response to urgency, should not set aside what is important, which should remain the compass that guides the CEO’s agenda. And here we enter into the key to today’s leadership: responsibility.

Responsible leaders achieve results in a sustainable way. They create value based on financial capital but without neglecting human capital and social capital. All three axes are just as necessary. We have forgotten that capital is more than just the simple numbers we analyze weekly to see how our company is doing. We must also take into account other aspects, and the creation of sustainable value must be the purpose that guides all the operations of a company.

“Responsible leaders achieve results in a sustainable way. They create value based on financial capital but without neglecting human capital and social capital.”

The responsible leader has increased their level of awareness of the impact their leadership has on the entire stakeholder system. They are a leader with a clear purpose who seeks to make things better. They are an inclusive leader, who values and defends diversity and has gone from self-centered to being connected to others. They have made a conscious choice of service to the ecosystem out of their own interest. They are an ethical and human leader who in the pandemic has had to become an apprentice and lead beyond their expert technical knowledge.

Responsible leaders stand out for showing large doses of empathy in the vital situations that have been experienced in recent months. It has been shown that in an emergency there are many formulas that work to perform the same work that was previously done in person. Today, what makes the most sense is to remain focused on goal direction, but giving the team confidence to organize, giving freedom for every professional to work according to their circumstances. A responsible leader is aware that the company suffers when its professionals do so and the search for a healthy environment is another concern.

Leadership is essentially doing the right thing at all times and this is a key feature of the responsible leader. There is personal involvement and activism committed to issues of concern to society. Leadership is responsible for the entire ecosystem. You have to stop thinking about customers, consumers and employees and think about global, people, cities and societies. Sustainability must be the driving force that generates profound transformation.

“Leadership is essentially doing the right thing at all times and this is a key feature of the responsible leader.”

Values and purpose become key concepts, we recover the idea of collective solidarity. We’ve realized that we’re vulnerable and that we really need each other.

Leaders should analyze their day-to-day lives and see how they can be agents of real change to improve the lives of others. There’s a lot of talk, but it’s less done. The team of leaders must take action to transform a amortized and unfair system through innovation with purpose and meaning, which corrects inequalities.

The opportunity we have right now is not to navigate to the new normal, but to create a new reality through a responsible, sustainable, inclusive, green and digital model. Companies and societies are better when responsible leadership is given – with compassion, inclusion, honesty and a vocation for service – based on innovation capacity and sustainable vision. There are very good examples that have emerged in this pandemic, you just have to stop hearing the noise that pollutes and really listen, we play a lot. Only then will we achieve results, but with sustainability.