My wife and I recently spent a week in London, and we had a fabulous time! We both attended our first Premier League football match (Arsenal vs. Manchester City), and we toured almost all of the major venues. My favorites were St. Paul's Cathedral (amazing!), Windsor Castle, and the Roman baths in the city of Bath. Being a history buff, I also enjoyed our "behind the glass" tour of the Winston Churchill War Rooms (it was actually the second time I've been to the War Rooms). We also toured Parliament, which was very interesting. As we walked out through the Gift Shop, I noticed a book by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century. As soon as we got back to our hotel, I ordered the book through our local public library back at home.
If I were being honest, I thought that Blair provided some important insights on what it means to be a leader. However, I was slightly disappointed that he focused, at times, on how to be a leader in government (which is a main focus for his institute, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change). In an interview with Raju Narisetti (McKinsey & Company) for the book, Blair said, "There are lots of books about how to be a better CEO or a better football coach. But no one, as far as I know, who's been in a senior position in government has written a book that's literally just simply about the challenges of governing."
Blair draws extensively from his own political career to illustrate many of the concepts that he feels are important to being a good Leader (he emphasizes that being in the position of leader is not the same thing as being a Leader, and he always capitalizes the word Leader throughout the book to emphasize that concept). While there are certainly some key insights that can be applied to leadership in general, he always talks about how to apply these principles to being a Leader in politics.
The book's description on Amazon.com is very specific:
Sir Tony Blair learnt the precepts of governing the hard way: by leading a country for over ten years. In that time he came to understand that there were certain key characteristics of successful government that he wished he had known when he started. Now Sir Tony Blair has written the manual on political leadership that he would have wanted back in 1997...
I would be remiss if I didn't at least credit Blair for providing some general leadership principles that can be applied to being a good Leader more generally (and outside of the world of politics). First, Blair emphasizes the importance of vision, communication, and decisiveness. These three characteristics are definitely important foundational principles for leadership. He also spends a lot of time talking about the need for adaptability (and a little patience), especially in times of change. Given the turbulent world we live in today, Blair also talks about the need for Leaders to find the appropriate balance between holding firm beliefs (and staying true to their own values), while being open to new ideas. Throughout the book, he highlights the importance of building teams, connecting with and inspiring others, and making tough choices, while managing both risks and responsibilities. .
There are some additional key insights that I would also like to highlight. Perhaps most importantly, Blair provides a very good discussion on what is meant by leadership. He describes leadership as follow:
Standing in front of a crowd that is expecting to be pleased but instead being prepared to displease it. Spelling out the truth rather than the shibboleth. Persuading, not placating, the audience that is not naturally on your side. Addressing the head and not the heart of those who are. The willingness to take not just the mantle but what goes with it should that mantle be worn seriously: the criticism as well as the adulation, the necessity of a decision and not simply debate; of substance as well as shine; of advancing and not just being; of action and not mere analysis; to resolve the problem and not simply articulate it. And to keep going even when it looks like defeat is as plausible an outcome as victory; to retreat tactically, but never strategically. This is leadership. And to realise that giving people what they want is not the goal of leadership.
Blair also talks about how difficult it is to be a Leader in today's world. He writes, "Leaders have the courage not to go with the flow. They speak up when others stay silent. They act when others hesitate. They take the risk, not because they fail to identify it as risk but because they believe a higher purpose means the risk should be taken." He mentions a quote by Chinggis (or Genghis) Khan, who said about leadership that, "Conquering the world on horseback was easy; the hard part was when you had to dismount and govern."
As I mentioned above, Blair talks about three key principles that are the bedrock to leadership - having a vision, communicating well, and being decisive. Remember that a vision is the ultimate goal or idea that leaders have for the direction of their organization. The ultimate goal or idea becomes the basis of a strategy, which plans how the organization can reach its vision. Blair writes, "The word strategy derives from the Greek strategia - meaning generalship. Without it, there is no leadership...Its presence does not guarantee success; but its absence pretty much guarantees failure."
Blair dedicated an entire chapter to the importance of technology. For example, he talks about leaders who are hesitant about the application of technology (I'm thinking in particular of artificial intelligence) versus those who see technology as an important part of the future of an organization that should be embraced. I mentioned the Luddites in my post "The Glass Cage". Blair mentions the Luddites in his chapter on technology, writing:
If there's another lesson to be learnt from the Industrial Revolution in particular, and history in general, it's that such things [referring to technological advances, like artificial intelligence], once invented by human ingenuity, are never disinvented by human anxiety. The machine-breaking Luddites of the early nineteenth century tried to hold back the tide of change. They failed.
Blair then suggests what leaders can and should do, writing:
The answer, therefore, is not to resist or deny the revolution, but to understand it fully, to access its opportunities and mitigate its risks. Don't let fear or the inevitable campaigns against this revolution create hesitation. Let the sense of the opportunities energise the spirit of change.
Blair believes that rather than creating more problems and hassles for Leaders, technology is going to vastly improve leadership. He goes on to suggest that, because of the technological advances that are occurring, it is indeed a great time to be in leadership. These words are reassuring to me, especially given all of the challenges that we, as leaders, have faced in the last couple of years.
There are some other points that Blair mentioned in his book that I will likely re-visit in future posts. For now, I will end this post, as I frequently do, with a quote. In this case, the quote (by Tony Blair) perfectly encapsulates what it means to be a Leader in today's world. Blair said, "The art of leadership is saying no, not yes."
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