Six tips for managing in uncertain times, from Baroness Minouche Shafik

In our latest Leadership Lounge event, CMI chief executive Ann Francke OBE CMgr CCMI sat down with Baroness Minouche Shafik DBE, the new chair of the Victoria & Albert Museum, who shared her experiences of senior leadership in traditionally male-dominated spaces – from the Bank of England to the London School of Economics (LSE) and Columbia University. 

Ann asked Minouche what she’d say to managers tasked with making decisions today, when uncertainty is shaping everything from politics and the economy to technology and the environment. 

Watch the event in full

Here are six key tips…

1. Plan for contingencies

Minouche recalled working at the Bank of England at the time of the Brexit referendum, a period that taught her “a lot about crisis management”. 

The minute she saw the result, she rushed to the bank at 4am, ready for the markets to open in Asia. Despite a result that took many by surprise, she recalled an air of calm, because they’d planned for a range of outcomes.

“I went into the trading room and watched sterling collapse in the Asian markets, but it was orderly,” she said. “We were ready. The markets adjusted to the new price and no bank fell over. 

“The governor [of the Bank of England] was able to stand up and say we had £250bn ready to go if anybody needed it, but nobody did because we were there. It really taught me a lot. Preparation is everything.”

2. Keep new information coming in

Minouche has also been present at the Cabinet Office’s crisis management COBRA meetings. Here, she learned the importance of maintaining a flow of fresh data through uncertain situations, when things are changing all the time. 

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“The first item on every agenda is to establish the new data – what we’ve learned today,” she explained. “The second is how this new data affects all the decisions we made on the previous day.”

3. Treat your team – and yourself – kindly

Early in her tenure at the Department for International Development, Minouche had to respond to the tsunami in East Asia, working with relief teams moving supplies across borders. You can't let people work more than eight hours a day, she said of that situation. 

As well as treating others kindly, she’s built a recipe for keeping herself resilient under pressure: surround yourself with good people, rest, eat well and exercise where you can.   

“You can’t sustain and make good judgments if you’re exhausted,” she said. “The other thing I always have around is chocolate. It makes people happy.”