Julia Middleton's Thoughts on Leadership

Making Good Society is the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland, published by the Carnegie UK Trust this month.

I think the report speaks to some strong points, but I do take issue with some of the content.

Alarm bells go off for me when civil society starts setting objectives. I really do think that if there’s an agenda point to be set, an open forum should be used to voice the view that it’s an important one. If people listen, it has resonance.  My idea of encouraging civil society is far more ‘bottom up’, and I really thought that this report was about encouraging a groundswell of participation.

The report also pushes the private sector out. In the foreword by Geoff Mulgan, it’s openly stated that: ‘For a century or more it has been pushed to the margins by commerce and the state, which have claimed the lion’s share of resources and power’. ‘It’ being civil society.

That may well be true, and I understand when you focus on civil society you focus on citizens acting together, not in state or market. But there is a big difference between the market and the private sector. It is crucial that we get the private sector to see itself as part of civil society – as citizens. That doesn’t simply translate to painting walls for community projects, or celebrating worship, or communication on the web, or arts and sports projects and campaigns. It needs to translate to how people work – and how they lead.

It’s this schizophrenia that young people and those in the early stages of their career that come on our courses find so hard to understand. They know that at work they are part of building society if they are in the private sector – even if they are just making money to pay taxes that pay for community development. Just ask people in India – they are very aware they are nation building there.

The report also explores the need for transparency – and specifically looks at the financial sector. I do fail to see how we can  say that civil society is not about the private sector, and then in the same breath tell the private sector that they must be transparent and behave like responsible citizens. But I take the point that we need strong institutions, and for institutions to be strong, they need sound leadership and to remain principled about their aims and purpose – which should ensure that they do not stifle transparency through bureaucracy.

One of the biggest, if not the biggest, barrier to tempting people into civil society is the intrusive and inaccurate nature of a higher profile. Don’t get me wrong – transparency is crucial – but when untruths and invasions on one’s personal life become the recompense for standing up it is understandable that many many people refuse to enter civic space. But this is where courage is needed – one of the tenents of good leadership…and civil society cannot be without strong leaders.

Where growing participatory and deliberative democracy is concerned – well – that’s never a bad thing…for all the reasons the report outlines. But I would urge that even in the healthiest participative democracy, we still need leaders to stand up and rally voices and action.

As part of our Leaders’ Questions in London, I interviewed Nigel Morris Jones and 11 other leaders. He pointed out that in 2009 the UK saw quite a bit of crisis management but not a great deal of leadership. I agree, and I disagree.

Good crisis management is a part of good leadership. I don’t think you can have one without the other – and I think in that sense, leadership has two halves.

Crisis management is half the game. You need to be a leader to manage a crisis – just try a crisis without leadership and you will see what I mean.

The textbook definition is that crisis management is a strategic and tactical response to a specific situation. But really, it’s about courage. It’s the courage to make incomplete decisions at speed. It’s having the stamina to keep going, to at least appear to keep a cool head under fire, to make fine-line calls rather than clear decisions and to stay the course irrespective of the harsh judgements. And they will be harsh.

Crisis management is no mean feat. It’s a tough job, and you need to be a good leader to get it done – let alone to get it done well. It’s still only one half of the job of a leader – no matter how admirable it is.

The better leader you are, the better prepared your team is for a crisis. In fact, sometimes the true test of leadership is the quiet times – when there isn’t the adrenaline but you still have to have the drive to build something dynamic, robust and crisis proof. This is the second half of the leadership equation.

Painting a picture for the future sounds fabulously positive and indulgent. I’ve often heard cynics say that anyone can be a visionary. I really don’t think that’s true. It’s quite frightening to take on the responsibility for building vision – but you absolutely cannot lead without it.

I was always taught to keep my eyes on the hills and my feet on the ground. In a crisis, too many leaders do neither, and some only keep their feet on the ground…but they take their eyes off the hills.

Right now I appreciate that keeping your feet on the ground is essential, and it’s hard work. I’m just urging you to look up once in a while.

If you are keen to see what 12 UK leaders have to say on what they learned about leadership in 2009, what the challenges are now and opportunities going forward, watch our latest film on YouTube. You can also access these on the Common Purpose website.

I’m not one for fashion, let alone outlandish runway designs. I can admire the structural engineering that goes into creating these textile sculptures, but (and I know I’m missing the point here) they seem highly impractical to wear.

My attitude to this, which will no doubt cause the eye-roll of many a fashion doyenne, by no means blunted my sadness to read of Alexander McQueen’s death last week. I was particularly touched to read the Montreal Gazette’s quote about him, which recalled that he said: “at the end of the day, it’s just clothes”.

I know his clothing design is what wowed everyone, but I can see from the legacy he left behind that his leadership qualities extended beyond ‘just clothes’.

This is a guy who stepped over the social barriers of living on a council estate in east London in the 1970s. Those barriers would have been quite imposing. He was a taxi driver’s son, and one of six children. So I’m imagining resources were scarce. He didn’t exactly fit the mould of a conventional ‘boy’ with his sketches of gowns and designs of clothes for his sisters, and I can’t imagine he was surrounded by a progressive understanding of sexual preferences. His academic record at school also sounds like it was pretty poor.

None of that stopped him asserting himself and getting a job on Savile Row, then moving through some of the leading brands in fashion to eventually be appointed a CBE and named International Designer of the Year.

There’s been plenty of press about him since his death. He has left behind an amazing legacy at such a young age…far too young to die.

It’s unusual that I would read the fashion pages, but this one really lingered. It lingered because of the numerous reports of people who said that anyone who worked with him would give 200 per cent because he was such an inspiration. I don’t doubt it. Anyone with the kind of drive and vision that saw him rise from rags to riches would be nothing short of inspiring.

I never met the man and I probably couldn’t identify his trademark designs if I tried, but he sounds like he was a great leader.

This week I read an article by Robert Bruce in Financial Director that highlighted the need for some plain speaking honesty from financial directors. It really hit the nail on the head for me when I think how arrogant and self-important ‘closed shop’ speak can be, and how flawed the communications skills of many leaders still are.

The article was published two days before the World Economic Forum buzz (or indeed lack thereof for those that stayed away). It’s also been the week of President Obama’s State of the Union address – kind of a spoken annual review, but with many more hand gestures and a serious campaign to go down in history as one of the world’s greatest orators.

Excuse my cynicism. I’m just a little tired of the puffery.

Robert Bruce has hit upon something. The public – these leaders’ publics – are baffled. And they deserve an explanation.

Like all professions, directors of finance have their language – ‘financese’. Removing the ‘puff’ from it would mean making the story of what they do accessible to others, and there’s a fear that this would devalue what highly paid professionals do. They’re not alone.

The thing is, I don’t believe they think of themselves as leaders – and they are. They’re often seen as the boring number crunchers, not the story tellers.

But this year they have such a key role to play – and an important story to tell. They have an even greater responsibility to rebuild the trust in business. It takes numbers to do this, absolutely, but there’s a story here too. It’s a story that should not be reserved for other finance directors or investors – though the stake in communicating to these people is quite clear, and mutually beneficial. But these leaders need to communicate to other people.

See, the numbers don’t lie – they’re just confusing. But the numbers do provide a clear means of telling an organisation’s story. All you need is an accompanying narrative and a clear and straightforward consideration of who needs to hear it. Surely that’s not beyond the capabilities of a financial director (although they might need the services of translators)? And if it is beyond their capabilities, it shouldn’t be.

This year’s story might not have a happy ending, but if we have learned one thing over the past year it is that leaders need to tell the truth because that is what people yearn for above all else – whether it’s good or bad.

In fact, I don’t think that’s limited to the private sector at all. Finance directors across sectors would be wise to redefine themselves as leaders on this issue if they haven’t already done so.

I say congratulations to ICAS for putting together a guide on ‘Making Corporate Reports Readable’. The next step is that leaders within organisations need to tell the story to their people clearly and honestly. They need to write it. They need to speak it. And they need to ensure that it is understood by all their stakeholders.

Stories that end in shock and awe, or that twist and turn are nice for suspense thrillers. Not when your job or the economic stability of your employer or country is at stake. Your people do deserve a straightforward story. And leaders are responsible – at the very least – for telling it well.

Other places where you can read up on this topic include:

• The Times
• Personal Computer World

Today at the World Economic Forum there will be a session on ‘Global Industry Outlook: Finance, Services and Media’, and yesterday there was a session on ‘New Corporate Governance in the Post-Crisis World’.

You can view the programme at Davos here, and view the media coverage here - or refer to the Common Purpose blog to see what our teams are reading.

In amongst all the noise from Davos – and I’m only concerned that there is so much to listen to that people will switch off – but it is lovely to hear from a banker in this film who actually did do a great job in 2009.

What comes across when he speaks about the World Economic Forum is his humility and his thoughtfulness – and his hands.

As I post this, leaders at Davos are emerging from a morning session on ‘Rebuilding Trust in Business Leadership’.

I do think that as we look back on 2009 – when a lot of trust was lost – Stephen Green is there. He isn’t terribly exciting as a speaker, but I would follow him for his humility and success.

There are some other items on trust that I think are helpful and very interesting:

• From the Institute of Leadership & Management – the 2009 Index of Leadership Trust
• From the Reith Lectures, 2002: Onora O’Neill on Trust
• From the World Economic Forum in 2005 (even before the crash)

Last week Common Purpose held an event called Leaders’ Questions in the UK. We asked around 40 leaders to discuss with some great speakers what the leadership challenges were in 2009, what they’ve learned, and how they will now face the challenges and the opportunities in 2010.

By the end of the day we were exhausted. Which is fitting – because our concluding discussion revealed a sense of fatigue.

It seems our leaders might be caught in a spiral. They’re over stretched. They’re not dealing with much positive news. They’re stressed. The fatigue is impacting on teams, who are then not ‘speaking out’ on how they can innovate. So how do you break the cycle?

Think about the rest

Leaders are tired – and they have been for a while. They have been making very tough calls all year. Some of these calls have been about other people’s lives – especially if you have had to make a call on redundancies. And at this time, when nothing feels stable or clear, and your colleagues want you to be visible and positive – even if you don’t feel like being so at all.

This whole year has been about facing realities – or ‘naming the beast’, as I pointed out to the Birmingham Post in May last year.

You have probably been having less sleep and leaders are working harder to achieve less. And then you come home, were you may have kids, and they know they’re not going to find jobs easily. Or you might have a partner, and they may be facing the same issues at work. Or you have both.

What are you going to do? Here are some top tips that emerged from our Leaders’ Questions event:

• You need to get enough sleep.
• Don’t load it all on yourself – it’s the leaders who share some of the burden with their teams who will keep going.
• Remember that everyone is frightened – and there’s nothing wrong with being frightened unless it freezes you.
• Resist the temptation to share all the load and try to keep positive. You can feel the fear, but if you reveal all the burden, you might just unsettle your colleagues  - and that really will load the burden on you.
• Take a step away. If you don’t look outwards you won’t see the next thing coming – and you never know, it could be an unbelievable opportunity.
• Focus on strengths and shelve the distractions. It’s not ‘getting back to basics’, it is doing what you do best as a priority.

Many also felt that there was a positive change in old boundaries disappearing. Unlikely conversations are taking place – and that’s great. It is also important that leaders ask different people in their organisations for perspective or suggestions on innovations. People you think are leaders and those other people look to as leaders are not necessarily the same people.

This is no time to be timid. But to be brave, you need to sustain your strength.

I shared with our participants at Leaders’ Questions that it had been suggested to me that it would take a cataclysmic event to provide the springboard for positive change and new ways of leading. I’m thinking economic collapse and a complete shift in international relations is a fairly big signpost.

Here’s hoping our 2,500 world leaders at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, which starts today, are brave. As they look to ‘Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild’ – they will need to be.

I read an article in the Guardian last Saturday that I disagreed with. It was an analysis of the recent research conducted by The Work Foundation called ‘Exceeding Expectation: the principles of outstanding leadership’.
The analysis in the Guardian is looking to distinguish and almost set at odds either target-driven or people-focused approaches – when there will always be a mesh of the two and any experienced leader will tell you that.

No one can lead with targets if that’s what they think targets lead to – eliminating a focus on people. Good leaders need to listen to other people so that they know what the targets should be, when they should have been achieved, and when the targets need changing. If you don’t have targets you can’t delegate or work in collaboration, or indeed, strive for achievement at all. So how is it that having targets, or not, is even up for question?

Outstanding leaders focus on people as their top priority – they always have…and they also set them targets. I hardly think this is a blinding insight. One-to-one meetings are when you review targets. If ‘effective leaders should not just delegate… but should stay in touch with staff members afterwards, asking how they got on and talking through any problems’ – isn’t this the basis of a one-to-one? Not only to review tasks and goals and but wider development issues? There is also nothing more rewarding for people than achieving success, being supported to achieve it, and having that recognised.

And of course leadership can be taught – and everyone needs to be developed to realise their leadership potential, whether their job title is going to say they are a leader or not.

Leadership is complex and it is always a balancing act of hard and soft styles – and sometimes that means implementing an ‘iron touch’, which has probably never been more needed than it is now. Knowing which is appropriate is dependent on culture and circumstances, people, time, tasks and various other factors. Getting the balance right is the challenge and discussing this in terms of black and white I believe is highly irresponsible and sends people into a spectrum of extremes rather than giving inspiration on how to achieve a fusion of all these qualities, which is what defines great leaders.

Last week Mary O’Hara wrote an interesting piece in the Guardian about Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative.

It’s a good piece.

It’s sad when experienced leaders complete their formal career and expect ‘that call’. If it never comes, they retreat to the golf course. But the call doesn’t always happen because they have been so absorbed in the world that they know well that they have not planned or prepared for the next phase. They certainly have not thought of their careers as citizens.

With luck, a career as a citizen has been running in parallel to their formal career all the time, but for many it’s a new thing.

Leaders have a journey as a citizen that outstrips their time at work. But a citizenship career requires as much planning as you put into your formal career. All that educating yourself, getting hired, getting involved in interesting projects, expanding our networks and thinking, putting your skills to the best possible use, and learning to work with new people – it all applies.

There is no retirement age for citizens. But if it’s left as an afterthought of ‘what I’ll do when I leave here’, the danger is that when you do no one much wants you…because you have become only really effective ‘here’.

And even if you don’t revert, or evolve to golf, if you don’t plan things properly you become a volunteer. Now, I know I get in trouble for knocking volunteering, but let me clarify.

Reading with kids in schools or distributing books in a hospital are strong starts as they root you in reality and come with huge individual satisfaction. But to me, if you have been a successful leader all your life, surely these skills need to be used to change things so that reading is – for example – better taught in schools? So after you’re done reading, maybe it’s time to become a school governor? Or to join an NHS board?

We run a course for leaders at this stage – and by this I mean preferably a few years before the end of your formal career – to consider the multitude of options and figure out what has to change in you if you are to avoid the gold banishment.

We also run a campaign called About Time. This is for leaders who want to take on big board opportunities. I speak on both courses every year because it is so exciting opening up new worlds to people who have the time, commitment and potential ability to change things.

I speak on Frontrunner too – our course for university students – so that our future leaders think about their careers as citizens from the start.

As ever, Christmas and the holiday season has crept up – even more so now that I don’t have small children’s nativity plays to go to, which used to get you in the mood. Now, before I know it, I’m panicking about food and presents and wondering where the year went.

This year its not just the end of a year but of the first decade of what was  the eagerly anticipated New Millennium. And what a decade it has been – a great anti-climax. All those big aspirations and bold targets just didn’t hold water. The worst of it for me has been the collapse of trust in leadership at a rate that makes climate change look like it’s dawdling.

I am now wondering what leaders will need to think about, the challenges they will face and the triumphs they will celebrate in the coming decade.

So I would like to hear your views. What is your wish list is for our leaders as we welcome 2010. Will they need to be…

1.    Brave?
2.    Enlightened?
3.    Bold?
4.    Humble?
5.    Networked?
6.    Entreprising?
7.    Ruthless?
8.    Collaborative?
9.    Cautious?
10.    Authoritative?

Tell me which one is the most important and why in the comments below.

And have a very happy holiday season and New Year.

I am on the flight to Mumbai, home of Bollywood, celebrity and fame.

The last few days have been about deciding the business plan with the board and my colleagues in India. We have been working through which of the multitude of opportunities here we are going to do first. And there are almost infinite opportunities now that we have shown what can be achieved in Bangalore and Chennai. India, growing at such breakneck speed is demanding so much of its leaders – and particularly that they work together – that Common Purpose is spot on, the right idea at the right time. So we have had to be controlled and serious and determined so that our discussions prioritise cleverly.

And then we get on this plane and my colleagues suddenly start squealing, jumping up and down, flapping their arms. Giggling like little girls. He’s coming, I saw him on the stairs, he’s coming, its him, I can’t believe it, its him. He is the Big B (Amitabh Bachchan…I hear the name!). I shall always be amazed by the unbelievable power of celebrity. Reducing leaders – in moments – to drooling squealing groupies!

And now they are trying to explain to me just what a mega star he is.

I have spoken to him now – we went up into first class through the curtains – he has huge physical presence and says nothing. He blanks questions no doubt in the fear of being quoted. But he is for real, he is a star, and a business man, and a politician and a survivor because he has had huge ups and down in all three worlds.

So our start up in Mumbai will be wonderful now, we have been touched!