Julia Middleton's thoughts on leadership

Should you encourage leaders for being brave? It rather highlights to them the reality that they are having to be brave.

I went to the House of Lords last night in my role as a trustee of the Media Standards Trust to support the launch of Hacked Off, a campaign to get a proper enquiry into phone hacking. The meeting was set up a while ago so you could say that after the announcement yesterday it was no longer needed, but of course that’s not true. It’s not just about getting an enquiry, it’s about getting the right enquiry, with the right brief and the right time scale. We can’t wait two years!

There were some great people there who have stood out from others in their bravery. And its real bravery – if the media does not like you, life can be very tough. But as we congratulated Chris Bryant, Max Mosley, John Prescott, Norman Fowler and many others, you could see some looking around nervously. Hugh Grant was there too, catapulting himself into this – I hope he keeps on being brave. I hope they all do.

This is about people in institutions losing sight of what they are about, people trying to act above the law, people doing unforgivable things to others, people who as leaders refuse to accept responsibility for what happens around them. If we duck this, and don’t help the brave to be brave, we are in trouble.