23 MAGAZINE This period in time is rife with extraordinary circumstances. In the near future, we will surely look back and reexamine everything from multiple angles, ensuring we learn lessons wherever we can. In a few years time, many ideas and theories will surely be developed, but there will be one key shortcoming: A lack of direct experience. Nothing can replace first-hand interaction with the raw nature of our unbelievable and harrowing circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic has several distinct elements that make it exceptional: It is global, it is closely connected to people’s health, it spurs interest in the common good, and it has completely transformed our social and professional environment. The single most important factor for any organization’s crisis response and evolutionary success is its leadership profile. Thus, all companies’ main concerns should now include the following question: At any given time, how effective is our leadership profile on each organizational level? The difficulty is that this question cannot be answered easily with a needle on a gauge or number on a tracker. Today’s exceptional circumstances have forced us to constantly reinvent all existing crisis management mechanisms, urgently and unavoidably. For example, the pandemic’s global nature has led to consistent difficulty focusing efforts on specific geographical or functional areas. Significant resource dispersal is therefore necessary, leading to the sudden and impactful decentralization of management. This crisis is a perfect storm, necessitating frequent and prompt responses from leaders at all levels of the organization. It is up to them to chart a course for transformation And that course is harder to chart than ever due to serious public health concerns. People’s health, as well as their anxieties regarding their future health, are constantly in flux, only worsened by incomplete information regarding the virus. As a result, standard protocol for economic rationality assessment requires speedy recalibration, at the risk of losing accuracy to complicating, subjective elements. In recent times, a series of social restrictions have only complicated the task of transforming work environments. Lockdowns, feelings of social claustrophobia, new and intensified pressure from teleworking, and widespread uncertainty and fear about the future all run rampant, creating an atmosphere in which emotional responses can influence decision making more strongly than ever. José Manuel Revuelta Country manager of Grupo Enel / Peru The single most important factor for any organization’s crisis response and evolutionary success is its leadership profile