Politics has a way of winnowing out strengths and weaknesses. Motherhood and apple pie have proved they are not enough and conviction politics are too much.
Leadership lesson 1, from history; leaders are forever destined to end up against the buffers; remembered for the things that went wrong. Blair Iraq, Brown the economy, Cameron Brexit.
Banning smoking in the workplace, galvanising an international response to financial meltdown, same sex marriage... forgotten.
Leadership lesson 2, from the referendum... it is easier to mislead people than it is to persuade them they have been misled.
Leadership lesson 3, from experience... of all the qualities required, courage is the number one. You can study leadership, put it under the microscope, write another dissertation about it but I tell you, it boils down to these two factors...
- Leaders are visible, have a vision and share it often.
- Leaders create the time and space for good people to do great things.
... but it takes courage to be visible; that often means exposed, courage to have a vision, not just to explain it but share it and defend it against the nay-sayers and the awkward squad.
Courage to stand back knowing even the best people will make a mistake, fail and let you down. Courage to pick them up and give them confidence to try again, no matter how turbulent the times.
... and we are in for some turbulent times... and we will all need courage.
Here's the problem in a nutshell. There ain't no money. The Chancellor has ended his pursuit of balance and a surplus. He can't deliver against the turbulence ahead. The Treasury, terrified of a post-Brexit recession, are all but running public services and if you think it's tough now....
Today's ADASS Budget survey tells us;
"... the immediate prospects for the social care system, on which older and disabled people depend, are grave and deteriorating. The diminishing confidence that local authorities can meet their most basic legal duties to provide care for the most vulnerable citizens should be a huge source of public concern.
It is clear ... the social care precept and the Better Care Fund are an inadequate response to the widening gulf between need and resources."
There is no room for plastic leaders; the likes of Gove, Farage and Johnson. Squabbling, running, dissembling, disavowing.
The time, now, is for the type of leadership that runs towards trouble, builds harmony and takes ownership of difficult issues.
Commissioners, commission services, Trusts plan them, doctors, nurses and AHPs deliver them, finance departments pay for them, estates provide the places to do the work and catering feeds everyone. Who is responsible for the patient?
The answer; everyone.
We are at a time where the external motivators that once rewarded and encouraged us have become engulfed in the sheer struggle of the day-to-day. Now is the time for the inner-leader in us all.
Morale is linked to performance, performance linked to expectations, expectations are linked to morale. The circle is complete.
Leadership is not abstract, it is not philosophical, not something reserved for the top floor. It is live, real and personal. Everyone has a unique set of experiences that can help lead the NHS through the turbulence to come.
If you were ready, prepped for your operation; lying on the operating table, who is the last person you want to see? I'd guess, the chief executive, the so-called leader?
If you are hungry, in pain, need a wheelchair, help to get to the loo. Do you want to see the so-called leader? No...
The reputation, the success, the vision for the organisation is in the hands of the person, at that moment, who is doing their bit.
The time has come to realise leadership is not a position. It's a mind-set.
