Amid the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs informed India Inc that organization which will donate funds to battle/combat Covid 19 pandemic will be considered valid under CSR activities. Funds may be spent on various activities related to COVID-19 such as promotion of healthcare, distribution of food, payment of medical bills of poor, preventive healthcare and sanitation, and disaster management. 

Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Trusts and Chairman Emeritus Tata Sons, pledged Rs 500 crore to protect and empower all affected communities. The money will be spent on personal protective equipment for medical personnel, respiratory systems for treating increasing cases, testing kits to increase per capita testing, setting up modular treatment facilities for infected patients and knowledge management and training of health workers and the general public.

Ambuja Cements and ACC, both part of Swiss cement major LafargeHolcim group, have collectively contributed ₹3.3 crore to three NGOs to support daily-wagers, migrant labour, slum-dwellers and homeless stranded across the country on account of the lockdown. Ambuja Cement and ACC are support Goonj, an NGO on the forefront of disaster relief with expertise in material management; and Praja Foundation and Mumbai Roti Bank, who are working with labourers and daily wage workers who have lost their livelihood on account of the country-wide lockdown to protect against the coronavirus. Together, these organisations are carrying out multi-pronged containment and relief efforts that require immediate attention across the country.

India is struggling with its worst public health crisis. In times like these, collaborative models are required more and are effective in both containment of the disease and support for those whose livelihood and even survival is at risk. Public health services, politically neglected for decades in most Indian states, have proven their irreplaceable value during this crisis. Although despised by the rich and middle classes, they are shouldering the lion’s share of not just preventive and outreach services but also clinical care. Nearly 80%-90% of critical Covid-19 cases were being treated by public health services. States with robust public health systems like Kerala have been far more successful in containing Covid-19, compared to richer states like Maharashtra and Gujarat, which have under-staffed public health systems. Most corporates gave their contributions to these NGOs who were delivering at grass-root relief measures.

State-run Coal India Ltd said it has contributed ₹221 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM Cares) to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Employees of CIL voluntarily contributed one day’s salary, which amounted to ₹ 61 crore, and the miner donated an amount of ₹160 crore from its corporate social responsibility corpus to the ‘PM Cares Fund’. Despite several challenges during the crisis period, the subsidiaries of the Maharatna PSU produced coal. The Maharatna PSU has set a 710 million tonne production target in the current fiscal even though there is a concern over demand. 

The CSR arm called ‘SBI Foundation’, of State Bank of India (SBI), committed ₹ 30 crore to implement various COVID-19 relief measures across the country. The fund will be utilised for providing food to the needy, for consolidating healthcare infrastructure, capacity building of healthcare workers and research on coronavirus-related projects along with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). To implement these initiatives, SBI Foundation set up a new flagship programme on health theme which included distribution of ventilators and personal protective equipment to hospitals and supply of 10,000 freshly cooked meals daily at four centres.

The lockdown crippled the economy for more than seven months which sparked exceptional distress; it turned the so-called lower middle class into the new poor class of the society. Teachers in unaided private schools, office assistants, data entry operators, salespersons, receptionists, beauticians, entertainment industry support workers those who run small mobile phone service and repair shops and other service providers who fall in ₹5,000 to ₹15,000 monthly income group were the badly hit. They grappled to survive. While the nation paid attention to the socially poor and the migrant workers who are faced the brunt of lockdown, we hardly paid any attention to lower middle class families with meagre income due to the society’s lopsided priorities.

The lower middle class is always caught in a dilemma as their dignity holds them back from extending their hands to seek aid. The focus of all aid programmes of both the government and NGOs is people who are traditionally perceived poor and who are indeed poor but the lower middle class, who are also in dire need of assistance are left out.

Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group was among the first corporate leaders to come out with clear commitments. He said that his group will begin work to use existing manufacturing facilities to make ventilators to combat Coronavirus. From converting existing manufacturing plants to make ventilators to giving free fuel to emergency vehicles, Mahindra Group announced a slew of initiatives to help combat the crisis over the coronavirus epidemic. Anand Mahindra said he will donate 100% of his salary to create a fund to help small businesses and self-employed people who are expected to be impacted the most due to the outbreak. He also urged our businesses to also set aside contributions for those who are the hardest hit in their ecosystem.

The Godrej Group announced that it is earmarking a fund of Rs 50 crore for community support and relief initiatives in India. This was an initial spending and the corporate said that it hopes to supplement it over time. It has been buying and supplying medical equipment and protective supplies for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). As a part of the initiative, the group has donated Rs 5 crore to the BMC, donated 115 hospital beds to Maharashtra government hospitals and helped set up a 75-bed quarantine centre at the Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai. Moreover, it has supported the free distribution of 1 million packets of Godrej Protekt Mr. Magic powder-to-liquid hand wash in Maharashtra through partnership with the BMC and Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), partnered with communities linked to their CSR programmes to support 1.12 lakh beneficiaries across 8 states with hand wash, sanitizers and soap, donated sanitizers to the Mumbai police force, begun ramping up capacity to meet the demand for soap, hand wash and sanitizers and initiated outreach through various networks and hand wash education programmes.

As a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, Bosch Group in India immediately donated ₹ five crore to PM CARES Fund and pledged additional Rs 45 crore for various community welfare initiatives, the company said in a statement. Bosch India started various welfare initiatives to help the underprivileged. The company supplied cooked meals from its kitchen in Bidadi plant and through the Art of Living Foundation to about 4,000 migrant workers and other needy individuals, on a daily basis.

ICICI Group announced that it is committed ₹ 100 crore to support the nation in its fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. Of this, the Group pledges to contribute ₹ 80 crore to the ‘PM Cares Fund’ and ₹ 20 crore to state governments and local authorities in their efforts to battle the pandemic. The sum of ₹ 100 crore is being contributed by ICICI Bank and all its subsidiaries.

ReNew Power, India’s largest Independent Power Producer in the renewable energy space, ₹ 20 crore to the central and state governments to aid efforts aimed at combating the Covid-19 pandemic. The company’s endeavour was fixed on helping communities impacted by the lockdown and to bolster the health infrastructure to tackle the pandemic. Sumant Sinha, the Managing Director of ReNew in one of his interviews said that his company believes in helping equip the hospitals and their staff with the right medical equipment will strengthen local efforts in tackling this emergency. The company worked across its sites in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and cover around 140 villages. Additionally, ReNew is adopted a village in Haryana, where around 350 vulnerable households were provided with dry ration and hygiene kits.

In 1963, the free-market philosopher Milton Friedman described corporate social responsibility as “fundamentally subversive”, writing that corporate responsibility is the pursuit to be carried out by individual organizations for understanding the uncontrolled markets. The tough times showed that businesses do not exist in a vacuum but are part of the society and talking to and learning from the people is part and parcel of organizations. 

Frugality is a good word. Being frugal does not mean being miserly or stingy, instead it means being mindful. Frugality makes one less stressful, because one buys what is necessary, therefore he wastes less.   It can’t be termed as a tactic, it is a mindset which makes life more joyful. Frugality is about saving money, financial freedom and creating the long-term life one wants to live; it’s about living a life with simplicity and honesty. It is about personal accomplishments and satisfaction that comes from learning new skills, fixing things, and enjoying all of the gifts we already have. It’s about lessening the junk, it’s about being your own person and not the person society wants you to be.

Successful people have recognized the importance of frugality. Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway prefers living in the same home he bought for $ 31,500 in 1958, his net worth is $69.1 billion.  Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Ltd drives secondhand cars also and he always reminds employees to turn off lights when not required, and his net worth is $ 16.6 billion. So friends, prosperous people have recognized that frugality is environment friendly which simply means having a lifestyle that is healthier and saves the environment. Frugality helps us take small steps towards mother earth so as to make this planet a better place for us and generations to come.

A good way is to start with conserving water, driving less and walking more, consuming less energy, buying recycled products, eating locally grown vegetables etc hence creating less waste.  Frugality means live and let live.  If we do not save and oil, our life might come to a standstill. The world badly needs oil for many purposes: to power its cars, to plant it fields, to operate its oil-powered irrigation pumps, and to act as a raw material for making many kinds of products, including medicines and fabrics. Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company has predicted that the world will face an energy crisis unless investment in fossil fuels production is conserved.

Nearly every frugal strategy doubles as an environmental boon such as driving less, buying new things only when required, not wasting food, and not creating clutter by hoarding more and more. Although frugality can’t solve each environmental problem that modern society has created, it’s a humble start. The beginning is always small.

John Ruskin, an art critic in the 19th century, once wrote, “Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.” He was so right. Think about it. The more materialism we accumulate in life, only adds to our frustration blocking our cupboards and wardrobes, and our energies. Frugality is not about spending less money……….it is how you choose to spend your time and how you choose to conserve other resources in totality. Carols Slim Helu, who is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist was ranked as richest person in world from 2010 to 2013, Slim has lived in his same old house of six bedroom more than forty years. And, Charlie Ergen an American businessman and is the co-founder and current Chairman of the Board, and former President and CEO of Dish Network still packs a brown bag lunch. Brown bag lunch originally referred to the practice of employees bringing a packed lunch from home.  Living frugally means deciding what is most important to you and directing your energy and money towards getting more of whatever you intend to have in your life. It doesn’t mean sacrificing your joy and happiness.

The biggest fact of frugality is, if we live life with simplicity, there is no boredom. It allows you to constantly use your creativity, exploring your hobbies such as cooking, gardening, singing, dancing which involves living a very real, very tangible existence. Frugality allows us to use our hands a lot. We don’t pay for easy solutions. And it relaxes our nerves to a great extent. Mark Zuckerberg may be frowned upon by many traditional investors and self-made millionaires but he is one of the richest people in the world and is undoubtedly more popular than most. Imagine a man who is worth more than thirty billion driving in a saloon car that costs just around twenty thousand. His obsession for grey tees is known and has a ton of those in his wardrobe. He and his wife have shown time and again that you don’t need to spend money needlessly, even if you have a lot of it.

Ratan Tata of Tata Group is regarded as one of the humblest industrialists you would ever meet. He wears affordable suits, drives affordable cars made by his group company and he has never indulged in any so-called needless luxury that is often synonymous with the life of the rich and famous.

Frugality brings peace and simplicity into your life. Evaluate your priorities. Evaluate the words of Edmund Burke – Irish Businessman “frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits”

The human mind is the most powerful tool that we possess. It can do positive as well as negative wonders. The placebo effect is defined as a phenomenon that influences beneficially in illness, failures, despair etc. It is attributable to the brain–mind responses to stimuli we receive from some people or some objects in our life. The placebo effect is more famous in medical context; it is a substance with no known medical effects, such as sterile water, saline solution, or a sugar pill, alternative therapies such as reiki, pranik healing. People follow some Gurus some follow soothsayers because they get Placebo Effect.

The fact is that placebo reduces negative emotions which in turn decrease pain, anxiety and despair. I am talking here about placebo leadership. Leadership is not an easy task; it doesn’t happen just by itself. Placebo leaders are empathetic. Empathetic leaders understand the needs of others; they are aware of people’s feelings.

Nelson Mandela was the first democratically elected President of South Africa. He was the face and leader of the Anti-Apartheid movement, relentlessly fighting against racial discrimination all through his life. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state following the Rivonia Trial. His tremendous focus, determination, and will dismantled the apartheid, Mandela come out as a champion and lead his country into having an equal and free future. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. I call Nelson Mandela a placebo leader.

Placebo leaders make encouraging impact on their people. They maintain communication and show up during periods of uncertainty.  Even when there is not much to say, keeping a regular pulse of communication, especially face to face, provides reassurance and consistency. Visibility of leaders in crucial times is comforting. During the Corona virus pandemic it is observed that women-led countries have tackled the pandemic much better. Seven countries in the world where women are heading the nations, have tackled Covid 19 tactfully.  Their empathetic leadership has cautiously tackled the situation. Those seven countries have lowest numbers of casualties.

Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand could practically wiped out Covid 19 by end of May 2020. She gives the credit to the spirit and discipline followed by her citizens.  Germany, led by Angela Merkel, has lowest death rates than other Euro Nations. Sanna Martin, the young Prime Minister all of 34, of Finland governs with a coalition of four female-led parties, has had fewer than 10 percent as many deaths as compared to Sweden. And, Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan, has presided over one of the most successful efforts in the world at containing the virus, using testing, contact tracing and isolation measures to control infections without a full national lockdown.

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland has successfully brought down the death rate by Covid-19 in Iceland. In Norway, Prime Minister Erna Solberg is using technology to the fullest use to track isolated patients. The patients don’t feel lonely.  The current Prime Minister of Denmark is Mette Frederiksen closed her country’s borders on 13 March. A few days later she closed kindergartens, schools and universities and banned gatherings of more than 10 people. Her decisiveness appears to have spared Denmark the worst of the pandemic: its death toll stands at less than 250, and the number of patients being treated in hospital for Covid-19 is falling drastically. Placebo modulates emotions via verbal information.

The worst effects are seen in such times when rumour mills spread alarming information. But when people get the chance to ask questions themselves to find out what points their leaders are making, when they are asked how they are feeling and when they get regular information and hard facts from the Government agencies they feel comfortable. Possibly the biggest impact of sustained communication is on trust which is a crucial commodity during change. 

I call Ratan Tata also a placebo leader. The 82-year-old leader of Tata Trust donated a massive sum of Rs.500 crores for fighting Covid-19 crisis calling it as ‘one of the toughest challenges that the human race will face’. Ratan Tata is well known for his philanthropy, shared the note from his charitable organisation. He captioned the post, “Tata Trusts and Tata group companies have in the past raised to the needs of the nation. At this moment, the need of the hour is greater than any other time.” On 26 November 2008, in a series of attacks in Mumbai, when Taj Mahal Palace hotel was attacked, destroying the interiors, killing of guests, including the destruction of the hotel’s roof in the shootout, it’s worth a mention here that Mr.Ratan Tata went all out to care for each and every employee of the hotel to help them recoup from the shock. All categories of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated during the time the hotel was closed. During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent by money orders. Employees were treated like family members.

I get tired of hearing about soft skills as most important skills required for effective leadership. Please note that U.S Army Field Manual on Leadership Development is one of the best sources on leadership, insists repeatedly that empathy is essential for competent leadership. Without empathy, one cannot build or nurture followers.  Devoid of compassion one cannot inspire followers or elicit loyalty. Empathy is most essential in negotiations of any kind.

The English idiom “don’t judge a book by its cover” is a metaphorical phrase that means one shouldn’t presume the worth or value of someone/something by its outward appearance alone. Well, for ages we have been hearing this popular English phrase. But, in practice we all do the opposite. We turn someone down easily if the person is not properly attired or is unattractive. “I am not handsome but I can give my hand to someone who needs help… Because beauty is required in heart not in face….” this quote of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam gives such a strong message.

Some of insignificant looking men and women do most significant work in society. The President of Harvard made a mistake by presuming Mr and Mrs. Leland Stanford to be some worthless people and it cost him greatly. A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the president’s outer office. His secretary spoke to them rudely considering them as backwoods country hicks and they were made to feel that they had no business at Harvard and probably didn’t even deserve to be in Cambridge.

For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become dispirited and go away. They didn’t. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted to do. “Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they’ll leave,” she told him. And he signed in exasperation and nodded. The President of Harvard looking at their out appearance was rude and disgraceful towards Stanfords.

The lady told him, “We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus.” The president wasn’t touched; he was shocked. “Madam,” he said gruffly, “We can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.”“Oh, no,” the lady explained quickly, “We don’t want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.”

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, and then exclaimed, “A building! Do you have any possible idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard.” For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. And the lady turned to her husband and said quietly, “Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don’t we just start our own?” Her husband nodded.

The president’s face drooped in confusion and seemed disorientation. And Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, travelling to Palo Alto, California, where they established the Stanford University that bears their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard did not cared about.

The very premise of the tale was completely incredible. Leland Stanford (1824-93) was one of the most prominent men of his time in America: He was a wealthy railroad magnate who built the Central Pacific Railroad (and drove the gold spike to symbolize the completion of the first transcontinental rail line at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869), as well as a Republican Party leader who served as California’s eighth governor (1862-63) and later represented that state in the U.S. Senate (1885-93). He was a striking figure, hardly the type of man to dress in a “homespun threadbare suit,” walk “timidly” into someone’s office without an appointment, and sit cooling his heels “for hours” until someone stooped to see him. Harvard’s president was unaware of Mr. Stanford’s standing in society.

Our society is more fixated on physical appearance; it was not so in past. Few decades ago, people were more graceful and had ethics in treating others with respect. People of great standing and intelligence prefer dressing up simply. Their knowledge, their expertise, their intellect makes them sand out in crowd.

But, these days great care is taken by all celebrities to ensure they look perfect when they are seen and to suppress all pictures of them looking less than ideal. The proliferation of these unreal images is thought to be linked with eating disorders and with many ordinary people’s dissatisfaction with their own appearance. If you see Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Ratan Tata, Elon Musk they are not flashily dressed, they don’t show off their wealth. These people rose from low to high they know the value of money and showing it won’t proliferate their wealth. They don’t flaunt on Instragram. For that matter even Instagram founder is such a simple gentleman and grounded.  Ever noticed that billionaires lead such a simple life why? Because they don’t need to prove people by materialistic things that they are rich they prove by their remarkable contribution like donations, inventions, for betterment of the society.

Our poor understanding of what constitutes attractiveness as opposed to beauty is creased. We concentrate more on our outer beauty than inner beauty. Warmth, kindness and compassion are some qualities that make a person more attractive. However these qualities are quite impalpable and difficult to define, so there is a natural tendency to overestimate the importance of physical good looks which are more easily quantified and readily visible.

Situational Leadership model is a popular model of leadership which is formed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard; this leadership model is based on the idea that effective direction depends on leader’s ability to be flexible as per the requirement of a situation in the organization.

Situational leadership refers to the styles of leadership in an organization which leaders manage as per demand of a situation. They need to show lot of flexibility while managing challenging and difficult situations. They need to command, demand, inspire, prompt, mentor, guide, coach, sell ideas, take part, act, build, and sometimes even reprimand. Often the leadership style may change as per need of the hour. Following are four styles which are common.

Telling and Directing:

James F. Parker, the Ex-Southwest Airlines CEO is a great example of telling & directing leadership. He has earned reputation for always putting the customer first, no matter what the situation. The September 11, 2001 tragedy led to an unmatched situation of forcing all airlines to shut down for days, which led to stranding passengers, pilots and flight attendants at airports across US. While other airlines sat and waited, Southwest employees took the passengers for bowling or to the movies to pass the time. The customer loyalty earned owing to this quick thinking, resourcefulness, and flexibility to make the most out of a bad situation helped Southwest’s popularity soar leaps and bounds. Parker also announced Southwest would not only retain all their employees but also start a profit sharing payment to employees just three days after 9/11, when other airlines were contemplating a 20 percent cut in staffing. Southwest handled the crisis much better than any other airline.

In telling and directing, the leader of the organization makes the decisions and informs others in the organization of the decision; this style of leadership also refers as micro-management because the leader is very involved himself in the crisis or situation and closely supervises the people who are working. The leader calls the shots by getting closely involved and his subordinates follow him with faith.

Selling and Coaching:  

Effective leadership in change process is particularly important because the leader can make great effect during the organizational change process. The leader’s competencies such as emotional intelligence, integrity, drive, leadership motivation, self confidence, intelligence and knowledge of business are essential for effective leadership for transforming organization. Ratan Tata started his career as a chairman to Tata Group of Companies in 1991. He took charge from J.R.D. Tata. India was going through a period of economic reforms such as liberalization, privatization and globalization of business. The constantly changing business environment needed the business leaders like Ratan Tata first to manage the environmental change. Ratan Tata during the nation’s transitional phase led the Tata Group of Companies for 21 years and established Tata as a world brand. He used the various leadership styles such as transformational, transactional. He also used product orientation as well as people orientation concern – selling and coaching. He led the Tata Group with the qualities such as courage, creativity; risk bearing ability, social sense, sense of employee training and development and ultimately having a quality concern about the product. Leaders when they use the selling and coaching style of leadership get   involved in the day-to-day activities as they are aware of critical inputs. However, input is requested from the employees before the decision is implemented. With this style of situational leadership, employees are still supervised but it is in more of a coaching manner rather than a management manner.

Participating and Supporting:

Virgin Airline’s Richard Branson’s informal style and unconventional attitude has earned him fame. His affinity to the hippie movement, particularly of the sixties, simply reflects his knack for being in tune with the feeling of the times. This is one of Branson’s greatest business attributes. This allows him to project the Virgin brand as a “cool” alternative. Besides, Branson is not motivated by money. Money may be a measure of his success, but for him the excitement is in the challenge. Virgin staffs are often paid a little less than market rates yet they are happy to work for Virgin because they enjoy being in the team. In this regard, I will like to draw your attention to the fact that when organizations struggle today on the employee retention issue for Virgin Airline loyal employees are their core competence. Losing skilled and experienced employees is the biggest loss to companies. Branson leads his organization with self-example; he tells his people to do “the impossible possible”. For Branson, the Virgin experience has been a magical mystery tour. That is the reason people can’t resist joining the Virgin adventure. It is a way of life than a job.

The participating and supporting style of situational leadership passes more responsibility to the employers or followers. While the leader still provides some direction, the decisions ultimately lie with the follower. The leader is there to provide feedback and to increase their confidence and motivation with praise and feedback for the tasks completed.

Delegating style:

Delegating leadership requires appointing managers who are competent and do not need day-to-day supervision. Warren Buffett hires executives who are highly skilled and independent and then trusts them to perform. Within this environment, Buffett’s staff is self-assured and driven to achieve. They not only feel they are in charge; they do have full responsibility. Consequently, supervisors are motivated to reach their goals. Buffet believes in the abilities of his employees, but he does not keep that to himself. He communicates his trust and respect to the people he hires. If someone makes a mistake, Buffett often uses it as a learning experience and does not believe in penalizing the worker. Although he does not interfere with his executives’ functions, Buffett is accessible and willing to advice, if he is sought out. He is open and honest in his interpersonal dealings and is willing to acknowledge his own mistakes. Buffet is approachable, because he projects a mixture of modesty, confidence and appreciation.

Delegating is the situational leadership style where the leader is involved the least amount with the employees. The employees are responsible for choosing the tasks and the directions they will take. Although the leader may still be involved for direction or feedback purposes, it is on a much lower level than with other situational leadership styles. With this style of leadership, the employees know their role and perform it with little supervision required.

Conclusion: The Situational Leadership Model suggests that there is no sure-shot solution or “one size fits all” approach to leadership. Depending on the situation, varying styles of leadership is required.  However, leaders must first identify their most important tasks or priorities. Second, leaders must consider the readiness level of their followers by analyzing the group’s ability and readiness. Depending on the level of these variables, leaders must apply the most appropriate leadership style to fit the given situation. Change is pertinent and each change brings along with it different challenges. Leaders are supposed to grasp the situation and use relevant keys to solve problems.