Today’s book signing has been cancelled, subject to further notice. Book signing? I mean the one that Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, was due to be holding today at a large book store on Piccadilly in the heart of London. (His party at the Tate Modern art gallery, scheduled for this afternoon, has been “postponed”, too.)
It is a pretty extraordinary state of affairs. Mr Blair, who led the country for 10 years between 1997 and 2007, is concerned that his presence in a central London bookshop would have caused unnecessary “hassle” to the police. Now there’s some fine British understatement for you. The protests on the streets outside would probably have been very noisy. Bad pictures for the evening news bulletins.
This hostile response to the former PM, who was once seen as such a dazzling star in his home country, is instructive for leaders everywhere. In case you hadn’t realised it, popularity is unlikely to last forever. The hype you enjoy on the way up may well be matched by disdain, and worse, on the way down. Leaders need to be distrustful of excessive adulation, just as they need to be hardened against unfair criticism.
But there is a bigger lesson to be drawn here. It is that leadership has to evolve. The style and tone that helped you get to the top may no longer work so well once you have got there.
Thirty years ago next month, another former British prime minister made a speech which has influenced thinking on leadership ever since. At the Conservative party’s annual conference in Brighton on the south coast, Margaret Thatcher faced down critics who were urging her to consider a change in economic policy.
But Maggie was defiant. “To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning!”
And so, back in 1980, a leadership paradigm was born, which has remained dominant till this day. According to this paradigm, strong leaders do not back down. They have “no reverse gear”, as Mr Blair was to say in a later speech. They welcome criticism and even hostility as a sign that they are bringing about necessary if painful change. U-turns (or, as they say in the US, flip-flops) are for wimps.
But this sort of determined rigidity causes problems. If you are heading full speed ahead for the rocks it is time to change direction. “When the facts change,” the economist JM Keynes said, “I change my mind.” Good leaders adapt to changed circumstances, and admit it when they have made a mistake. Mrs Thatcher and Mr Blair both brought misfortune (and their ultimate political demise) down on their heads by being unwilling or unable to change. They became convinced that opposition had to be ignored and even crushed, and certainly not listened to.
By all means be a strong, assertive, confident leader. Know your own mind. Be decisive. But recognise, also, when it is time to shift your position. And the penalty for not doing so? One day you are the great new hope, being cheered by crowds of adoring followers. The next you can’t even stage a book-signing in your capital city for fear of the destructive chaos your presence might provoke.
