How to navigate through a crisis

Leaders of theaters, galleries and museums have faced unprecedented challenges in the past year. Michael Day asked them what qualities they needed to help them through.

Leaders of cultural organizations have faced extraordinary difficulties in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as an existential threat, they have had to contend with re-framing strategy, managing personal insecurities and trying to communicate effectively without always knowing the answers. In a series of interviews, I asked them what were the most important qualities needed to enable organizational survival. To ensure confidentiality, all the quotes are anonymized.

Leaders make choices continuously (although by no means always self-consciously) about what they do every day and how they do it. The sum of these usually small choices creates an impression for their people of the kind of leader they are, and in turn determines whether or not they will be respected and followed. The pandemic brought…