**1. Introduction**

We are currently experiencing continuous and complex crises impacting every sector worldwide. In this article, we explore the many ways in which women leaders were

**Citation:** Cartwright, C.T.; Harrington, M.; Orr, S.S.; Sutton, T. Women's Leadership and COVID-19 Pandemic: Navigating Crises through the Application of Connective Leadership. *Merits* **2023**, *3*, 583–603. https://doi.org/10.3390/ merits3030035

Academic Editors: Randal Joy Thompson, Chrys Egan, Tina Wu and Wendy M. Purcell

Received: 1 June 2023 Revised: 17 August 2023 Accepted: 25 August 2023 Published: 7 September 2023

**Copyright:** © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

challenged by internal and external forces brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and who have pivoted, adapted, and ultimately transformed their leadership practice to best serve their constituencies [1]. The authors acknowledge the persistent pursuit of understanding the distinctions between women and men concerning biologically influenced and socially constructed factors, particularly leadership styles. The participants in this study identify as women, and the writers embrace hybrid neologisms like "gender/sex" [2] and use these terms interchangeably. The interest in studying COVID-19- s impact on women arises from the recognition that the pandemic has highlighted specific challenges and disparities faced by women, emphasizing the need for behavior frameworks to promote fluidity in leadership roles [3].

The authors have conducted a mixed-method analysis of women's leadership from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through our own experiences in our respective fields of work, we were acutely aware that COVID-19 dramatically impacted women in multiple areas of their lives. We specifically wanted to understand better how women's leadership behavioral profiles have been reinvented during this difficult period. By examining the challenges and experiences of women across sectors through the lens of the Connective Leadership Model [1], we can shed light on the dynamic circumstances they faced during the crisis and how those circumstances influenced their personal and work relationships.

We employed the Meta-Leadership Model for crisis leadership [4] as a basis to better understand how leaders and their organizations can manage a crisis and become stronger, as well as how the dynamics of change can lead to the timely and adaptive modification of leadership behaviors. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the leadership and work life of women in this study who serve on the front lines in various sectors such as education, health, government, and nonprofit organizations was profound and worthy of study.

In this article, we explore how these women mustered the courage to look deeply within themselves, understand the people they serve, and the context in which they serve to determine adaptations that were authentic to who they are and what they bring to their constituents. They chose to be more accessible and accountable to those who needed them and in new ways, previously outside their arenas of work and life. The crisis became a force to better understand that we live in times where "inclusion is critical and connection is inevitable" [1] (p. xiii).

International and national crises often highlight behavioral patterns in the labor market that illustrate women's courage and adaptability in challenging times. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting changes in the workplace due to social distancing, remote work, and tele-communications protocols showcased women's power of authenticity and accessibility (interpersonal and personalized experiences) to engage with their constituents effectively [5–10]. Novotney [3] underscores the importance of studying the impact of COVID-19 on women, which catalyzed this research [3,11]. The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light specific challenges and disparities women faced in the workplace [8]. Eagly asserts that women leaders substantially benefit businesses and organizations [12–14]. Decades of research reveal that women leaders enhance productivity, foster collaboration, inspire dedication, and promote fairness in the workplace [12–14]. Moreover, Eagly's [12] research has significantly contributed to understanding the challenges women leaders face due to the cultural incongruity between societal expectations of women as communal and leaders as agentic [13,14].

Even with the best of plans for how to routinely address problems, crisis moments will happen, which call for complex problem-solving skills—ones that require the leader to move well beyond their customary sphere of authority and influence—to evaluate impact, determine how to handle a variety of situations effectively, facilitate adaptive responses, and be resilient [3,9,10]. How a leader thinks, behaves, and acts will determine the outcome. A crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic demands that the leader have at their disposal a

repertoire of leadership behaviors to engage and deploy resources and connections critical to how the crisis will be defused and managed.

The emotional impact of the pandemic on women and their work is another crucial area to study. Exploring the psychological and emotional toll the pandemic has taken on women in the workplace will help us to understand the long-term effects and the importance of supporting their mental well-being [11]. This emotional toll can include discussing the challenges of balancing personal and professional responsibilities, coping with increased workloads, increased caregiving responsibilities, and managing stress, such as "Zoom fatigue" and burnout [12,13].

Kolga discussed how the change from physical locations to a virtual "online platform" required creating "new ways of working within which the balance of home life and organizational priorities became challenging" [15] (p. 406). Carli was prescient in her sense that rather than a temporary solution, telecommuting "may place an even greater burden on women who have more domestic responsibilities than men and may face more difficulties balancing paid work and family obligations while telecommuting" [14] (p. 647).

Conversely, there are also new levels of balance and resiliency that can only be realized after emerging from a crucible experience, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Our women leaders describe how they transformed themselves and their leadership model despite the extraordinary challenges they faced. "Fulfilling your potential as a leader requires a keen awareness and understanding of how your personal experiences—your decisions, stumbles, and triumphs—got you to where you are now. Each prepares you for the moment when 'you're it" [8] (p. 3).

In our mixed-method analysis of women's leadership from before and during the pandemic, we describe how women leaders have used the power of acknowledgement and humility in their communications both within and outside of their immediate team or community of people—communications of consequence that are all important in turbulent times [16].

Periods of crisis often lead to women being called upon to serve our communities in roles formerly reserved for men. Wars, pandemics, and environmental and natural disasters have all caused women to step up and step into leadership roles that they were frequently forced to surrender as peace and order were reestablished [17]. The COVID-19 pandemic had a similar impact on our women leaders.

We launch our article with a brief description of connective leadership [1], followed by tenets of crisis leadership, and then share our findings. This study was presented at the International Leadership Association's 6th Women and Leadership Conference in Portsmouth, UK, in June 2022. We were encouraged to publish our findings and offer this article to meet that expectation.

### *1.1. Connective Leadership*

The genesis of the Connective Leadership Model [1] was the appointment by the Carter administration of Dr. Jean Lipman-Blumen to a federal government role to study the reasons why women were not being promoted to leadership roles in the U.S. government. Through this initial investigation, Dr. Lipman-Blumen discovered that women often led by mentoring others, and she called this the vicarious leadership style [18]. From this first discovery, a broader, more comprehensive set of leadership behavioral styles emerged [19], along with the realization that women differed from men in how they prioritized their leadership styles. This work has continued to support scholars and practitioners in understanding the behaviors that leaders use and provided access to the broadest set of leadership profiles over the past 45 years. What emerges in this study is that the agility needed to adapt to new leadership challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic is essential to our participants' resiliency through the crisis.

To understand the foundation of our study, we will offer a brief overview of the Connective Leadership Model [1] (CL) and the leadership behaviors that are measured through the Achieving Styles Inventory (ASI) that have been developed from this model.

A "connective leader" is any individual who uses the appropriate knowledge, skills, and temperament to lead other individuals who differ according to various dimensions (e.g., gender, age, race, nationality, religion, political persuasion, as well as educational and/or occupational background) to work together effectively. Connective leaders understand the complex, broad-based diversity, and technology-enhanced interconnections of their constituents. In a world where interconnectivity has rapidly become global, connective leaders are adept at guiding groups of individuals who differ significantly in myriad ways. The authors of this study felt that the CL model as ideal for research on ways in which women leaders respond to crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Connective Leadership/Achieving Styles Model is based on the premise that these leadership styles are learned behaviors which can be used in various combinations. Moreover, training helps individuals to understand which behaviors are most appropriate for any given situation. Both training and practice also enable individuals to improve their skills in using these best-suited styles. The participants in this study were all educated in the CL model prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and had taken the ASI at that time.

To enable groups of diverse individuals to work together effectively, connective leaders call upon a nine-fold repertoire of behavioral strategies ("achieving styles") to achieve their tasks and accomplish their goals. These achieving styles were studied and described in the 1980s [19] and have been studied across international boundaries, with cultural influences affecting the frequency, strength, and circumstances under which these nine behaviors are implemented [20].

Connective leaders draw upon the entire nine-fold repertoire of achieving styles, in each case depending upon their interpretation of situational cues and their expectation that certain styles will increase their odds of success. By contrast, most other leaders, as well as individuals generally, rely primarily upon their past successes, calling mostly upon a relatively limited subset of previously effective achieving styles.
