Like the transience of snowfall, Covid19 will eventually pass and warmer, brighter days will return

There is something almost magical about waking up to find it has snowed overnight. When I lived just outside Manchester, looking out of the window and seeing the snow-covered vista was always wonderful. Albeit, I knew that I would have a couple of hours work to dig myself out of our 500-yard long drive before I could get to the road. Having moved to the Fylde coast a couple of years ago, one of the things we have both missed is waking up to a snow-covered landscape. In the week leading up to Christmas, it seemed everywhere around us had snow except us. Then, like some kind of Christmas miracle, on the very last day of 2020, I looked out of the bedroom window to see it had snowed, just enough to cover the ground and turn everything sparkling white. It was beautiful, but sadly the snow didn’t last long.

Of course, snow wasn’t the only thing I missed during 2020. Being with people, doing ordinary things together would come high up on my list. There is something special about being in the company of others that is difficult to replicate using Teams or Zoom; although I sense that in the future many people will be reluctant to return to ‘the office’ full time. As might be expected, I will not miss the pain, sorrow, misery and harm Covid-19 brought to so many during 2020. Unexpectedly perhaps, the pandemic did bring into clear view the important role we all have in keeping ourselves and others safe. It wasn’t just the scientists, nurses, doctors and carers we recognised, but the bus drivers, shop workers, refuse collectors, schoolteachers and faith leaders who we finally rightly acknowledged as being essential and key workers too. We clapped them all for the vital work they continued to do, and despaired that such resilience and determination wasn’t matched in the actions of our inconsistent (and some might say, incompetent) political leaders.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to once again try and steer clear of politics in my blogs, so please forgive me when I say that I find it hard to celebrate Brexit. I shall miss the freedoms and opportunities that being part of the European community has allowed me to enjoy for most of my adult life. In a world where increasingly, we have come to depend on each other for so much, ‘sovereignty’ seems such a redundant concept. Whilst I may not be able to look forward and see a bright and rosy future for the UK outside of the EU, on the third day of this new year, I do believe 2021 will bring with it many opportunities to do things differently and to really make a difference to others in so many ways.

I think seizing these opportunities and addressing the challenges is going to require a different kind of leader. For many years I have written about the importance of transcendental leadership, which has sometimes been called servant leadership. Servant leaders give to others; they don’t take. They put the interests of others above their own, and encourage flexibility, creativity and innovation in the people who work with them. They don’t just think about people being an organisation’s greatest resource, but recognise that people are the organisation. In a world which can increasingly feel very precarious in so many ways, (staying employed, having somewhere to live and food on the table), servant leaders work to ensure stability, confidence and help people gain a sense of making a contribution to a cause that is larger than the job they might do.

Whilst the pandemic has shown us that many traditional jobs and ways of working will fall by the wayside, developing newer roles and different ways of working will be critical in repositioning our normal. It’s not just individuals who might need to find a new career pathway, whole organisations need to as well. The NHS is leading the way in showing how, in the public sector, more collaboration can provide greater benefits to a wider number of people and their communities than continuing as individual organisations trying to be all things to everyone. It simply is not sustainable, economically possible or even desirable. Working together to tackle inequalities is the most effective way to ensure good health and wellbeing are experienced by all.

Another kind of sustainability grew in people’s awareness as the pandemic challenged the beliefs we had about the predictable physical and social world we inhabit. The inextricable links between our ‘taken for granted’ global travels, the desire for ever more cheaper foods, with favourite varieties being available all the year round, have driven large-scale agriculture, deforestation, climate change and global warming. The impact of the choices we have made, (and continue to make) will see even more damage being done to our planet. However, there are literally green shoots of changing behaviours, consumer preferences and political commitment. Whether these will be enough remains to be seen. As the Director General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said recently, ‘there is no vaccine for poverty, hunger, climate change or inequality’.

Whilst the Government has a critical role in improving population health (see here), there is always going to be an interdependent relationship between the health of the individual and the health of the wider population. See here for a wonderful example of this in the story of Tolu from this paper published some 13 years ago. Interestingly, (well for me at least) the paper also cites the work of Amartya Sen, the economist and philosopher. He noted that health represents both functioning (that already achieved) and capability (the achievable). Health, therefore, is a means to realising an individual’s ambitions and personal goals as well as an end in itself. 

Covid-19 has exposed our vulnerability as a human race to something neither contemplated nor encountered before on such a scale. And it’s not going away any time soon. Indeed, as I write this, the early morning news is full of the impact the new Covid variant, Christmas and the increasing shortage of health and care professionals is having on our ability to manage the pandemic. Whilst I believe there is a brighter future for us all, I also believe right now the best we can do is to live within the various Tier rules, accept the vaccine when called and look out for those around us who may be struggling. Like the transience of snowfall, Covid19 will eventually pass and warmer, brighter days will return.