Tony Blair on Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century summarizes what Tony has learned as prime minister of the UK from 1997 to 2007 and consulting with leaders in many other countries as head of the Tony Blair Institute. Although this book is written for aspiring politicians, I believe that each short chapter contains timeless lessons for leaders and potential leaders in any field.

Introduction

• When leaders take over, most listen carefully as they know they have a lot to learn. The second stage occurs when they have become acclimated and start to think they know everything. In the final stage, they realize that what they know is not the sum total of the necessary knowledge associated with their leadership scope.
• Tony has concluded that the key attributes of leadership are the same whatever the leadership position. While politics has its place, it isn’t the same as leadership. Giving people what they want is not always what they need. Leaders need to do what is in the best interests of the lives they touch.

Part I: Taking Power – 1. Be the Leader with the Plan

• You must have a plan. It needs to contain your destination, milestones, and priorities and accurately describe the essentials of what you want to achieve. Priorities are essential as if you try to do everything, you just might do nothing. Change takes time and you will need to consider mid-course corrections as you move along. Not all of what you plan is likely to work as intended.

2. Make the Center Strong

• The skill set you need as a leader is not the same as the skill set that gets you the job. A strong center is needed to initiate and carry though on a change. The most important person is the one who runs your schedule. Leaders are constantly being asked for their time and if they can’t say no, they need someone who can. Meetings and events can be real time suckers. Leave them as soon as you can. Be sure to make time for yourself to recharge and time for your family.

3. Prioritization: Try to Do Everything and You Will Likely Do Nothing

• Once you get your leadership position, ask what you would like to accomplish the most. You can work back from these items to set your priorities. Tony sees five as a good number. Your followers will all have their pet projects. While they may not be at the top of your list, they don’t need to know that. Priorities have to be doable. Be sure to perform a feasibility check on each one. This process may not be easy, but it deserves your attention along with all of the uplifting rhetoric of hope you can summon.

4. Good Policy Is (Nearly) Always Good Politics

• Always put policy first and politics second. Avoid maters of ideology and convenience when crafting policy. Policy should be evidence-based. Work hard to do research so you know what you are talking about. Always think about a topic as if you were the person most impacted. Good policy strives to make change that will last rather than a quick splash. Be sure to look outside of your organization (country/school) for bright ideas and be sure to think ahead.

5. It’s All About the People

• The people Tony refers to here are the people who directly report to you. They need to be smart, hard working, loyal to you and to each other, and able to handle stress. Internal debate is healthy, not disruptive. Don’t reject someone just because they are smarter than you. Be sure to promote your most talented people. They are more likely to challenge you if you don’t. Effort you put in to finding the right people may be the most important thing you do..

6. Curb Your Bureaucracy by Cultivating It

• As a leader, you will have a bureaucracy to deal with so you need to get to know what it does and doesn’t do. bureaucracies tend to be permanent while the leader tends to be temporary. They are not known for creativity or innovation. Be clear about results, delivery, and on getting things done and the system will adjust. Look for opportunities to re-skill and retrain it. Don’t expect it to be a substitute for a leader and a team.

Part II: Delivery – 7. Democracy or Not, It’s All About Delivery

• As a leader, your success will be judged by what you deliver. The real test of government is making change that works, which is delivery. If you can deliver a higher quality of life with improved health care, education, and security, you should be reelected. Governments turnover due to instability, which is caused by the failure to deliver. People sometimes accept a strong man because the know that something will get done. Corruption is the enemy of delivery.

8. The Supreme Importance of Strategy

• Strategy assists in the long-term fulfillment of your overall plan. Without a strategy, failure is likely. Tactics are the smaller decisions that you make on a daily basis. It’s important that they align with your long-term strategy. You have to reconcile your day-to-day tactics to your core strategy. When fundamental facts change, but sure to see if you need to adjust your strategy. You should seldom discard it altogether.

9. Be a Change-Maker, Not a Place-Holder

• The world is changing fast. If you are standing still, you get left behind. If you are an elected leader, you probably got elected by promising to make some changes. Appointed leaders may have the same expectations. You need to create a constituency for your change so you have some support. Consider how you can break big changes into a series of smaller ones and take them incrementally. Consider how changes will benefit the consumers rather than the providers.

10. Le Suivi: Delivering

• Two things are necessary here. The priorities you choose must be measurable and you must be able to harvest reliable data so you can show that you accomplished your priority. When it comes to delivery, the leader needs to be actively involved. The leader need not do all of the work, but the leader must know what’s happening.

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