Some Things Are Just Wrong

Is it right to ban people from travelling because they were born in a certain country?  Surely the answer to that question is no.  Apparently not, if you are a member of Her Majesty’s Government.  We will look for exceptions to the rule for British citizens, so that’s alright then - except it isn’t.  In espousing to uphold British values our Government has failed in its feeble and supine response to the US visa ban.

There is a moral vacuum at the centre of our Government; there are no principles left, just a need to make alliances for the purposes of trade.  Our special relationship counts for nothing if we are unable to publicly say to our closest ally that the ban is wrong.  Even in the murky world of foreign policy there are moments when we have to say no.  One of them was yesterday and our Government failed to do its job.

The next time a Government minister steps out to berate a regime for impinging on freedom or human rights the TV ticker tape should read “Hypocrite makes bland statement no-one will believe”.

Leadership Qualities

330,000 people were asked to rank 16 leadership competencies (www.inc.com/peter-economy/top-10-skills-every-great-leader-needs-to-succeed.htm)

Here are some that I think apply to our politicians and how some of our current leaders (in my opinion) fare against the criteria

Inspire and motivate others

Boris Johnson did this during the campaign, barnstorming around the country to the delight of crowds everywhere.  He has now disappeared from view has only been heard from via a newspaper column he is paid to write.  Inspirational stuff.

Nigel Farage seems to have inspired and motivated lots of people, sadly the results are unedifying and likely to take years to unpick, so thanks for that.    

Jeremy Corbyn is inspiring his party to self-destruct, which is likely to leave us without a functioning opposition party, almost as inspirational as Boris.

Solves problems and analyses issues

Boris is a very clever man, who seems to expend a lot of time and energy convincing people he is a bit daft.  He has focussed on the wrong problem (how does he become PM) rather than the real issue (what is best of the country) and so his analysis has proved faulty, which is rather a shame for the rest of us.

Nigel takes a simple and clear approach to all problems – everything is the fault of the EU and the rising tide of immigration.  Not sure this shows any highly advanced analytical powers, but unfortunately the approach works for him.

Jeremy has a lot of problems (172 of them), but he has analysed the situation and the only answer is for him to stay as leader - which is an interesting if not overly practical conclusion to reach.

Drives for results

Top marks for Boris and Nigel who are driving for results, although maybe not the right ones.  Jeremy is at the bottom of the class as he is just driving his party into an irrelevant future.

Communicates powerfully and prolifically

Boris did during the campaign.  Now he only communicates if paid £5k a week to do so through his newspaper column – nice work if you can get it.  

Nigel can’t stop communicating and in fact we wish he’d shut up every now and then.  

Jeremy is talking at the same time as the rest of his party and they are not having the same conversation.  There is a prolific amount of powerful communication, most of it insults and statements about the arcane rules of the Labour party – who cares?

Builds relationships

Boris has a history here….he rather enjoys building relationships, not many of them last very long though, which should be food for thought for the Tory MPs over the coming weeks.

Nigel distrusts all relationships and tries to knock them down, even when we need to talk to people to agree our exit from the EU - excellent work Nigel!

Jeremy is struggling to talk to the people who work inside the same political party as him, so a bit of work needed here – this may help (How to Make Friends and Influence People – amazon.co.uk)

Displays high integrity and honesty

Boris – hmm, let’s move on.  

Nigel - hmm, let’s move on.  

Jeremy we are told has both of these, but not sure his current stance of clinging to the appearance of power whilst his party pulls itself apart is showing him in the best light.

Displays technical or professional expertise

Boris…there are no words…

Nigel…there are no words…

Jeremy…there are no words…

Displays a strategic perspective

Boris…there are no words…

Nigel…there are no words…

Jeremy…there are no words…

Conclusion

Not much in the way of leadership qualities on show here, perhaps they could take some pointers from that Nicola Sturgeon she seems to be doing leader like things at the moment.

Take Back Control - Open Letter to Johnson, Gove and Stuart

Dear Boris, Michael and Gisela,

You asked to take back control and the result went your way.  Since some brief platitudes on Friday the country has heard nothing from you.  Now is a crucial time for the country and for leading politicians to show their leadership qualities.  All you have done is show us the backs of your head as you left the stage on Friday lunchtime.

Leadership is more than attending rallies with people hanging off your every word, or a couple of hours debating the arguments with other politicians.  It is about dealing with hard complex problems and having difficult conversations.  This country now has hard complex problems to answer and needs leaders who can have the difficult conversations, both within the nation and with the rest of Europe.

Our country needs leaders now, not after the party conferences or leadership campaigns.  If you are not the people who can come up with a workable plan for what this country does next - say so now so we can ignore you and get on with fixing our nation.

Yours,

A concerned voter.

Who Won?

All Vote Leave supporters voted to “Take Back Control”, but what does that mean?

Does it mean no law-making body above the British Parliament?  

Does it mean controlling immigration; which a lot of voters interpreted as significantly reducing the number of immigrants.

Does it mean hundreds of millions of additional funding per week for the NHS?

Or does it mean none of those things, in the way the voters understand them?

After campaigns with messages that have been interpreted in clear black and white terms by the real, ordinary and decent people, we now enter the nuanced language of politicians and diplomats.

How are the campaign messages turned into realisable policies, whilst healing divisions, keeping the Union together and averting an economic downturn?  This is certainly the political version of alchemy.

Not everything people believe has been promised can be delivered.  We are already being told there is no rush to start negotiating the exit from the EU, we need to determine exactly what it is that we are seeking and in what timescale.  I think voters will ask why the politicians didn’t know what they were seeking before calling the referendum.

We are in danger of heading into the familiar territory of politicians promising much and delivering something significantly less than people expected.  The ordinary and decent voters will not take kindly to being treated so shabbily yet again.

Use a Compass

I don't believe there is one system that will unlock the secrets of management and leadership for all of us aspiring titans of industry (or small corner of the public sector in my case).  There is plenty (too much?) information for us to absorb on the art of management and leadership in the form of books and workshops, apps, podcasts etc, etc.  Combine this with all the other calls on our time:

• Emails
• "I just need to pick your brains for 5 minutes..." (losing you at least half an hour out of your day)
• Endless soul sucking meetings
• "We need to complete this spreadsheet, but it won't take long..." (yes it will)

With all these pressures it is easy to just stay in the fire fighting, reactive problem solving junkie mode.  It is comfortable, I don't have to think too hard, I can feed my urgency addiction through keeping busy and I feel that all these competing calls on my time mean I am needed.  Trouble is I am not actually achieving much, I am working through a to do list and keeping my in-box ticking over, but not really being productive.  I can find myself becoming very good a ticking things of a list and missing the more important stuff.

I need a compass to help me steer my way through all the information, emails, meetings and general busy stuff and help me to see if I am still on course with what I think are the important elements of my roles as manager and leader.

Each day I like to reflect on what I actually did as a manager and leader, rather than as a fire-fighting, problem solving junkie.  I do this by asking myself some questions about the areas I need to cover/stay on top of to function properly as a manager and leader.

Organised:

Do I know what I need to do and what the priorities are for my team?

Do I know where my boss is going to be and what his or her priorities are for the week?

Do I have a balance of urgent and important vs important, but not urgent tasks?

Disciplined:

Did I get on with the priorities or fall into busy work and the email trap?

Open:

Was I open to suggestions from my team and colleagues?

Did I ask questions first or jump in with a solution?

Honest:

Did I give constructive and honest responses?

Did I speak up or keep my mouth shut during difficult meetings and conversations?

Clear and Consistent:

Did I give a clear and consistent vision to my staff and colleagues?

Were my actions consistent with my words?

Was I positive in my interactions or a whingy timeserver?

Available:

Was I available for questions and support?

Did I balance that with the need to get work done?

Health:

Did I exercise today?

Did I meditate today?

Creativity:

Did I write today?

I know that I will not do all of these things perfectly each day, but knowing how I am doing, helps me to spot recurring negative traits and it is slowly pulling me away from wallowing in the fire-fighting, problem-solving junkie mode, and give more of my attention to supporting my staff and colleagues in achieving the organisation's objectives.

What compass do you use?

Management Guides and Systems - The Conspiracy

The bookshelves are full of books promising to make me a better manager, a more organised manager, a more effective manager, person and/or partner.  My inbox is often peppered with invites to seminars and workshops on how to lead, coach, inspire or other ways of influencing people to listen to me during business hours.

These two phenomenon are linked.  I think management guides and systems were cooked up by the publishing industry and the hoteliers to make money out of us keen to learn managers.  On the one hand the publishers get a constant stream of money from stressed out managers wanting a way to make the work problems disappear and when the books don't work the hotelier can squeeze us into windowless conference rooms and feed us tepid coffee and danish pastries whilst we get taught how to become a better, more effective, efficient, balanced, focussed principle driven manager/leader/coach.

Because if there was one way to become the best manager you possibly could be, there would be one book and one course and we would all get our companies to pay for it and bingo! we are all the best possible managers we could ever hope to be.

Except for life isn't like that.

It is obviously not that straightforward if you can fill shelves upon shelves in bookshops with "how to guides" and pearls of wisdom from business icons vying for space on said shelves.  And then there are the apps - countless dozens of them, all offering similar, but different takes on how to organise that pesky to do list or all those projects you have on the go.

So perhaps there isn't one system that can solve all your management ills in one go.  Perhaps all those books are wrong and you don't need to spend another afternoon in Basingstoke watching a Powerpoint presentation on the 5 (or is it 6?) key leadership skills every manager needs.  Perhaps you just need to find a way to adhere to some straightforward principles and check how many you adhere to each day or week?

Then you can borrow what you want from any of the systems on offer without having to subscribe to the Facebook group or write comments on blogs about management.

What to do With My Time at Work

We are all struggling with not having enough time.  If we had enough time as a manager and leader what would you do with it.  Here are my suggestions:

Now all I have to do is clear my diary of unnecessary meetings and stop emails sucking time from my day and the rest is easy!