Julia Middleton's thoughts on leadership

I did a talk on Leading Beyond Authority in Budapest today. Then had a dinner and walked back to my hotel along the Danube in beautiful weather. A young woman who had been in the audience ran after me. She was intelligent, thoughtful, together, direct, talented; I liked her immediately. She said she was from [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

Appointed leaders know, but so often forget, how different it is for elected leaders. How normal behaviour resumes months after an election and ends months before one. Listening to a friend reminded me why China seems to have halted in a trajectory just at the moment. It’s the ninth year, next year is the tenth [...]

[Read more →]

Leaders are going mad. Mad with systems. Systems to check systems. Then systems to monitor the checking of systems. Everyone assumes the public sector is the guilty one in the UK. I am not sure it’s about sectors – more about size. Was visiting a huge global company, talking to the MD of a UK [...]

[Read more →]

I am more and more interested in how good senior leaders are at inspiring younger people. Or rather how many are not good at it. Is the generation gap getting bigger these days? Probably not. Am I getting older and so more aware of this? Probably yes. Are young people less prepared nowadays to give [...]

[Read more →]

Made a pitch this morning to an international  organisation. The pitch team regrouped to give each other feedback. Very helpful reminder from a colleague “Julia never say anything negative .” Even if its only one negative point amongst plenty of positive ones. For some leaders negative points are signs of weakness; not being on side. [...]

[Read more →]

When the old can’t talk to the young, you just smile and say it was ever thus. When they fail to capture attention, fail to resonate, when the old and young pass in the night..it’s just the way it is and always will be and could even be a pre condition for progress. The young [...]

[Read more →]

All I wanted to do was get my plane. But the security people at Frankfurt airport pulled me out for a search then dragged me to a room. The woman asked me to lean against a table and ran her metal detector over my stocking feet and legs. The metal detector bleeped and screeched and [...]

[Read more →]

Someone drew a parallel for me between royal leaders and leaders of huge corporations and organisations. I don’t know if its true but it has made me think. He talked about how kings and queens are aware of their position and how there is a clear, if invisible, line that you cannot cross when you [...]

[Read more →]

Small acts. Small unexpected acts. Small unexpected quiet acts. They have a huge impact. I seldom do anything as “Mrs. Middleton”. Over Christmas I attended something alongside my husband as “the wife”. It was a carol service and he did the final reading. As he spoke most of us in the congregation followed him on [...]

[Read more →]