LIKE?

Back in September my blog included comment on the UK being just about to leave the EU (https://www.kbotraining.com/blog/a-time-for-force-and-vision). As it happened, we didn’t, but after something of a landmark general election on the 12th of December 2019, we sure as hell are going to do now! One of the most remarkable elements of the last three years of deadlock is the man that now resides in Number 10 Downing Street. It’s worth having a brief recap.

This is the bloke that despite being (allegedly) a remainer at heart, whipped up the UK into a frenzy of jingo-ism. With the assistance of a bright red bus, with some still unproven construct about getting £350m a month back into the NHS, he was instrumental in swinging a vote sufficiently to an outcome which for better or worse, will profoundly affect British citizens for decades to come.

Then, with David Cameron ‘doing the decent thing’ and resigning as PM, Boris is faced with a fantastic opportunity to rip through on the wave of euphoria and join the selection process for the next leader of the Kingdom. What does he do? In a contrite and brief speech, he declares that he is not the person for the job!

And so we ended up with Teresa May, whose legacy may never truly be undone. During this time, Boris became a rather ‘unique’ Foreign Secretary. Accusations of dishonesty, cronyism, elitism, racism, sexism, and homophobism added to the mix, along with a widely reported incident at his home address involving an argument where the police were called. So you’d have thought by now, any trust that might have ever been extant would have evaporated. But when May finally saw sense and stood down herself, Johnson suddenly ascends as the ‘great white hope’. Against a backdrop of ‘Get Brexit done’, he is elected as Prime Minister with a sizeable endorsement by his peers.

And then he promised to get Brexit done by the 31st October with his ‘oven-ready’ deal. But he didn’t. And then he called a general election. And despite ‘all the above’, failing to attend key debates and interviews, and parodying some schmaltzy film, he is not only re-elected, but takes the Conservatives to their biggest election victory since the time of Thatcher. Above everything else, despite his very real flaws, people simply saw Boris as ‘likeable’. This man is now the leader of the United Kingdom, with the most incredible mandate. He wasn’t promoted by some higher authority; he sits where he is today because of the will of the people. Despite all that back story, they chose him.  

The point of all this is quite important. We often hear about leaders who are ‘not here to be liked’. It’s almost like a badge of honour with some who pride themselves in managing with a flawed personality, creating mayhem along the way. And we know the absolute importance of trust in our leaders, and continually lobby them to strive to be trusted. But here we are, led by a bloke whose back catalogue of gaffes and questionable actions are not what might be expected of the leader of the sixth largest economy in the world.

He is there today, because ultimately, he is liked. Time will tell whether he becomes loved by his people or is consigned to history as one of the biggest disappointments in living history. My questions are thus; Does this provide an alternative theory for leadership? Is ‘being liked’ at least equal to, if not greater than being ‘trusted’?

There is however, one clear lesson for us all; Never discount those that are different. They might just surprise you…

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR