A Time for Force and Vision?

Few will deny that Sir Winston Churchill was an exceptional, situational leader. He was the ‘man for his time’, and anyone who wishes to understand the whole journey should make time to read ‘Churchill, Walking with Destiny’, by Andrew Roberts. The build up to his leadership of the Country in its darkest hour, is an incredible story in itself, but the intensity and complexity of the war years was on another plane.

One thing Churchill was clear on, was that nothing was off limits. Britain was starting from a position of immense disadvantage, and the country needed a radical approach if it were to outwit a foe of the measure of the Third Reich.

Britain was a nation of conservatism. Manners, discipline, and tradition were very much the order of the day. Whilst valuing these behaviours, Churchill realised they may well work against progress and innovation in the hour of need. Appointing the right people for the job was going to be of critical importance if the tide was to be turned.

Churchill wished to appoint Major-General Sir Percy Hobart (pronounced ‘Hubbard’, apparently?) to train the 11th Armoured Division. It wasn’t a view shared by many others. Amongst other criticism, he was seen as ‘difficult to serve with’. In his robust argument for his appointment, Churchill wrote;

“We cannot afford to confine appointments to persons who have excited no hostile comments in their career...This is a time to try men of force and vision, and not to be exclusively confined to those who are judged safe by conventional standards”

Now I don’t subscribe for one moment that the current challenges that face the UK are anything like on the scale of those that took lives in their millions. But for the first time since the Cold War, when we lived under the spectre of nuclear annihilation, the Government is issuing ‘Preparedness’ advice for Brexit. Operation Yellowhammer paints a pretty bleak ‘worst case’ scenario for a society which has become used to a high degree of comfort over the last fifty years.

So how ready are we? Sure, both public and private organisations have done all the conventional planning, making sure the paperwork is right, the stocks are topped up and there is an ability to at least step into the darkness with new batteries in the lantern.

But what happens then? The absolute truth is that nobody knows. Brexit may be a path to the sunlit uplands, or a rapid slide down a rocky slope into an inhospitable valley. We can hope for the former, but should be ready for the latter. And on today’s battlefield of business, the weapon of choice must be to give people both the freedom, and permission, to think!

You may already have an engaged workforce, a clear strategy, noble vision and a strong set of values. These are a perfect set of tactical parameters, but without skilled guidance they can suppress the creativity and innovation your people need to move you across the painful fields and seize the day.

If you haven’t yet invested in executive coaching for your leaders, or perhaps have let a previous programme lapse, maybe now is the time to tap into that force and vision it can catalyse in those you charge with the responsibility?

Derek Flint Cert. Ed, MCIPR