Leaders I Admire: Leaders I Don’t…
George RR Martin would have been proud of the scene.
Late on Monday afternoon Liz Truss finally walked into the Commons. To jeers from the Opposition, to MPs on her own side who wouldn’t look at her, to the Daily Star speculating on whether she’d last longer than a 60p lettuce.
Most importantly, to Jeremy Hunt – feeding her plan for growth, tax cut by tax cut, into the Parliamentary shredder.
As public humiliations go, it was the equal of anything in Game of Thrones.
Monday morning had started with the predictable headlines. The Guardian: ‘Truss fights for survival.’ The Times: ‘Tories hold secret talks on crowning new leader.’ The Mail. ‘Plot to topple Truss this week.’
By the time you read this one of the plots may have been successful. Rishi Sunak or Ben Wallace could be the new PM. Jeremy Hunt may have had an even shorter tenure as Chancellor than Kwasi Kwarteng, triumphantly packing his pyjamas and moving in next door.
As the MD of TAB UK I’m not hugely happy. Corporation tax up to 25%: businesses due to face hugely increased costs for gas and electricity next year and – once again – the Government seems to have no understanding of the problems facing SMEs.
As one comment on the Guido Fawkes blog put it: ‘the hospitality industry could be decimated by energy costs this winter. But hey, let’s whack their taxes up in April just in case any of them survive.’
City AM reported yesterday morning that 50,000 SMEs have collapsed in London. Whatever Jeremy Hunt saved on Monday afternoon, he may just have lost a significant slice of it in Bounce Back loans that won’t be repaid.
But even more than the economics, it’s the complete absence of leadership that annoys me: the constant moving of the goalposts. Two weeks ago I wrote that the Government was asking us to build our metaphorical houses on sand: as far as SMEs are concerned it now looks more like quicksand…
But let’s turn our attention to something positive. I’ve criticised the Government for a lack of leadership – so what leaders do I admire? And do those leaders have any lessons for the beleaguered – and temporary – occupants of Downing Street?
Let me choose three. And the first one will come as no surprise.
‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man.’ The phrase apparently dates back to 1948 and English bowler Cliff Gladwin in a test against South Africa. Seventy years is nothing for a quotation, but I suspect we could use it for 700 years and not find a better example than Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
You all know the story. Famous for playing the President of Ukraine in a TV comedy, he got the job for real in 2019, winning 73% of the second-round vote on an anti-establishment, anti-corruption platform.
As the drones rain down on Kyiv there he is: front, centre and unafraid. And, I think, providing the best mission statement (for want of a better phrase) I have ever read:
Without gas or without you? Without you. Without light or without you? Without you. Without water or without you? Without you. Without food or without you? Without you.
Cold, hunger, darkness and thirst are not as scary and deadly for us as your ‘friendship and brotherhood.’ But history will put everything in its place. And we will be with gas, light, water and food… and WITHOUT you.
Let me add an honourable mention to Vitali Klitschko as well. Yesterday the Mayor of Kyiv was once again among the rubble – and looking like he could shift most of it on his own. Like Zelenskyy, he hasn’t hidden, hasn’t taken the easy – or the safe – option.
My second choice might surprise some of you. It’s easy to think that Michelle Obama wasn’t a leader in the conventional sense of the word. Except that she carved a role for herself. The ‘Mom-in-Chief’ ranged across issues from children’s education to the needs of military families. She launched the Let Girls Learn initiative to fund girls’ education and tackle everything from poverty to… yes, leadership. In my view she’s the perfect mix of character, compassion and just the right amount of self-confidence.
My third choice may not surprise some of you. Edward John Frank Howe, manager of Newcastle United. When Eddie Howe got the job there were some doubts: after all, his one managerial foray away from the south coast – at Burnley – lasted just 18 months.
…And he was calm, reasoned, logical. Did he have the passion that the Geordie fans were craving?
The answer is on the pitch. What Eddie Howe does – and why I admire him so much – is communicate brilliantly. With the fans, the media, the players and – I’ve no doubt – with the owners.
There are plenty more leaders I admire – many of them within TAB UK and the wider TAB family. The three I’ve highlighted have a blend of qualities – courage, compassion, character and communication – that we can all emulate and learn from. But everyone reading this blog could come up with three different leaders: I’d be intrigued to hear your thoughts…
Resignation Footnote: I started writing on Tuesday morning. Work dictates that I must finish early on Thursday. As yet, we don’t have a new PM – although the Star reports that the lettuce is still favourite to outlast her. We do, though, have a new Home Secretary. The sands continue to shift…
