I have recently read Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell’s Johnson at 10: The inside story.[1] It’s an entertaining, if unsettling , read, about the chaos at the heart of government between 2019 and 2021.
The book has caused me to reflect on the nature of leadership, and the essential qualities for those who make decisions affecting the lives of others. I’ve also found myself wondering about the impact on all of us of being led by people of poor character for whom honesty, boundaries and general ‘moral seriousness’ are non-concepts. I have never been in government – my experience of leadership has been confined to voluntary sector settings where the choices made by those in charge impact service users and staff, their families and, indirectly, the communities around them. What I have seen in these contexts has suggested potential parallels between the toxic turmoil in Johnson’s Number 10 and leadership in less exulted organisations.
What makes a good leader? Having a vision and the ability to communicate it are important, of course; the capacity to inspire the ‘buy in’ of others is an extremely useful skill. Sustained successful leadership comes down to character, though. Integrity is key – the authentic desire to do what you believe is right, even when it is difficult or when no one is watching; but it is not just the drive to do the right thing that counts – it’s the ability to recognise what is right when it doesn’t align with your personal interests; from what I have seen, this is not a skill that can be learned, it’s an innate quality, without which effective leadership is impossible. For Johnson, the right thing amounts to the thing that is easiest for him in the moment, and, according to Seldon and Newell, as Prime Minister this was coloured by a range of competing elements, including the opinions of forceful personalities surrounding him, such as Dominic Cummings and Carrie Symonds. A strong and effective leader needs the intellectual and emotional capacity to weigh the various factors against their own biases and interests, and come to a decision which is right in the context of their responsibilities; this is a complex and strenuous process.
Seldon and Newell refer to Johnson’s ‘all-consuming self-absorption and self-belief’ as character traits which were fundamental in Johnson’s rise and his fall; I can relate this to experiences in my own professional life. A successful leader needs to be confident, optimistic and resilient. Pathological optimism driven by a tendency to believe that everything that happens should revolve around what exercises a charismatic leader in any given moment is not helpful; it leads to trauma in the emotional fabric of the organisation, in Johnson’s case the nation. An organisation (or a government) led in this way will not have sustainable growth, in the moral, emotional or material sense; its activities will lack focus and ethical authenticity; eventually capable and committed people will leave and be replaced by those who are ambitious and/or vulnerable; the organisation may continue, but it will never thrive and grow.
Is it possible that the consistent drip-feed of incompetence and obvious lies from those in government has inured some of us to its noxious impact? Have some poor leaders become increasingly persuaded that they have a licence to make decisions with impunity providing their own interests are served? I don’t know, but, having gasped at the tales of Johnson at number 10, I am allowing myself to speculate …
[1] Johnson at 10: The inside story, Seldon A, Newell R, London, 2023
