Julia Middleton's thoughts on leadership

I attended a revolt recently. Many many middle managers were being asked to think different, stretch, lift, work together, jump fences, go the extra mile. And not a single senior manager was there to do it with them. This was an organisation that must adapt or die, there was not just a burning platform, it [...]

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An investment banker explained the problem of their culture to me. He was not from Goldman but he knew “but for the grace of god…” He said that there was a “deep commitment to intellectual excellence in a bubble”. We went back through the words: Deep, don’t underestimate how deep and in the depth lies [...]

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There is a lot of discussion and commentary at the moment in the UK about boards and governance following the Financial Reporting Council’s publication of the UK Corporate Governance Code (formerly the Combined Code). It’s all about how you ensure that the boards of the future protect us from the disasters over the last couple [...]

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I have always deeply rejected attempts to draw distinctions between how men and women lead. Mostly in defence of my sons. Just because they grow up to trust their instincts, use words with values in them, take the trouble to build relationships with colleagues and judge situations through a feel for people and not just [...]

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When I went on the board of Common Purpose India a fellow trustee sent me a dictionary of Indian terms. There is one that he has to keep re-sending to me because I forget it every time and get all excited. It’s “yes” means “maybe” and “maybe” means “no”.

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I was at a Common Purpose Quest last week. Participants from the UK and Germany went to Essen in the Ruhr to have their prejudices undermined. They expected grim dirty polluted industrial decay and instead – found green regeneration. We were at Zeche Zollverein all day. It used to be the biggest coal refinery in [...]

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With everyone (colleagues, media, stakeholders, customers) asking you for leadership – can you drown in it? So that you become only a reflection of what others want of you? I sat with some students on an MBA last week and the big thing they seemed to be asking me was how not to drown? They [...]

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In the UK, trust in leaders has eroded. It is worth saying that maybe in some ways this is a good thing. If it means we do a double take and think for ourselves. And if it means that leaders don’t over promise.

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I have been doing work recently with people who have huge IQs. I don’t say this lightly. They are faster at all discussions and this is not just about numbers – where they see a sea of numbers and go straight to the wobbly one – it’s about spotting the weakness in a strategy – [...]

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Opening The Times this morning I saw an obituary for Admiral Sir Peter White. Reading it, I would love to say that I was thinking “He was a great man whom I was privileged to know” but in fact I was thinking “Another great man whom I had the privilege to know and whom I [...]

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