Matthew Parris, a political writer for the London Times, challenged politicians this weekend to step up to the plate of leadership. His contention was that in recent years, under the guise of consultation, we have replaced true leadership with a gaggle of focus groups, discussion papers, concept documents and surveys.

His argument is not against listening or dialogue, nor genuine consultation, but rather what he perceives to be the current pandemic of ‘opinion addiction’ which seems to plague the political process. He states, “we should not tip bucket loads of participation over every group and quest”.

Of course, for the political world, in one sense as our delegated representatives, their job is very clearly to represent our views and so an amount of listening is entirely appropriate. However, we also appoint them to lead.

What Parris identifies in the political realm also has a mirror image within the corporate space. There has been a huge increase in consulting the workforce and wider management team around important decisions that affect life within the company. And these opinions have helpfully shaped numerous issues, particularly around employee welfare and development.

However, I do share some of Parris’ concerns about the shift which seems to be taking place in some arenas, whereby leaders hide behind a consultation process or survey findings, rather than pitching up and providing leadership. In many organisations this has become a survival tactic as a significant blame culture exists, often modelled from the top. The price of actually taking responsibility for genuine leadership and taking the risk of sticking your neck above the parapet is a very high one indeed. The ‘cover my back’ culture, which, at a superficial level copies the world and his dog into an email, but at a much deeper level often procrastinates and ducks and dives around important decisions, damages many organisations and the people within them. The uncertainty of such a policy and the insecurity it breeds is the mark of a truly unhealthy organisation.

There is a sense in many areas that in these days of focused-group frenzy that people are hungry for genuine leadership. It is not a desire for failed models of charismatic benevolent dictators. As leadership guru Jim Collins asserts organisations need to recover from the impact of such individuals. Rather it is a reminder that at the heart of true leadership lies the ability to manage the complexity of decision-making in very challenging environments and to have the courage to make tough calls. People don’t want to be ignored and controlled, but they do want to be listened to, led and engaged. For at the end of the day what is true in politics is true in business. People’s choice to follow is an entirely voluntary one.

The existence of retention strategies in many corporations affirms once again the critical importance of providing authentic leadership. Whilst politicians have a 4 year period of grace, corporate leaders would do well to remember that the people they lead go to the ballot box every day.

Phil Wall
CEO