Julia Middleton's Thoughts on Leadership

I was in Frankfurt on Monday – in the pouring, sheeting, drenching, rain – talking to a big company about leadership. I sat in the airport on my way back and watched all the world leaders doing their talks (in the rain) about the wall coming down on the other side of Germany. They all looked as tired as I felt at the end of a long day in an airport…washed out!

Strange to think that the moment they were celebrating was, despite being so momentous (certainly for my generation), almost a leaderless one, done without those of us who talk about leadership or claim to do it. The Fall of the Wall was a revolution without leaders (at least as I understand it). Many people had had enough; they felt the moment was right and they just did it. Many others simply decided to step out of the way, or couldn’t quite get their act together to get in the way.

I suppose that’s one way to see it.

Maybe the other is that you finally got a big outbreak of leadership in lots and lots of people at the same glorious moment – mass leadership.

It would be good to see more outbreaks happening. I hope the tired leaders would welcome it, or at least not get in the way.