Leadership: Leaders, Followers, Environments

Crises and normal times

The interactions between leaders and followers are different during emergencies from those in “normal” times. While this discussion is also a part of the following chapter on organizational contexts, it is useful to focus briefly on how crises and uncertain times alter the back-and-forth and the behaviors. As Dutch psychoanalyst Kets de Vries observes in the context of toxic leaders:

The reason that followers are most prone to tyrannical rule in times of crisis is that anxiety and confusion make people more susceptible to regressive pull. Feeling lost, they give in to the lowest common denominator of emotional impression. Caught up in that emotional whirlwind, they become less selective in both thought and action; in short, they become more gullible. When social and cultural institutions are disintegrating, the illusions of powerful leadership are tempting.⁷⁷

Crises by definition are sudden, unexpected, and uncertain events that threaten and disrupt the current system, the status quo, as well as its objectives and goals. Under such conditions, anxiety, unpredictability, and confusion are prevalent. Followers turn their power over to leaders because things are too complex and changing too rapidly for normal processes to go on. The power relationships change dramatically, even if only temporarily.⁷⁸ They want leaders to handle it. These patterns are well recognized and can apply to entire nations, as during a war or sudden attack, or to private and public ...