Tony Blair on Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

The problem with long-term changes is that they are long-term. The people you lead may not be patient enough to wait for such changes to kick it. For that reason you need one or more quick wins. You need to find something you can do fast that will lead to improvement in the lives of the people you lead.

You might think you know what’s going to happen regarding some matter, but you could be wrong. Be prepared when things don’t go as expected. As for polls or information you get from followers, keep in mind that people might tell you what they think you want to hear or might be afraid to tell you a truth that they think you don’t want to hear.

This is true weather you lead a country or a school. As principal it was my job to make sure the doors were all locked and that visitors were properly vetted and escorted. I also had to make sure that out-of-control students were properly restrained. Country leaders need to ensure safety and order if they expect the country to prosper. People don’t visit countries with a reputation of out-of-control crime.

Politicians are only as successful as the economy they manage and there are many tips here for politicians. Other advice here is more general. Finding good people is vital and letting them work without micromanagement deserves top priority. The top people in developing countries usually leave so be sure to look for and consider them. Make sure that your system allows for flexibility, innovation, and growth. To do this you need to eliminate bureaucratic interference and needless rules.

Developed countries have laws that are mostly followed, and people who don’t follow the laws are punished. Undeveloped countries lack the rule of law, which results in rampant corruption. With faith in the law, people can plan, think ahead, be ambitious, and be more creative. Outside of politics, organizations where the rules are followed are more likely to be successful.

Competing political ideologies are typically liberal, aligned with socialism, and conservative, aligned with capitalism. They often feature rigid, fixed attitudes and provide a lens for seeing all issues. They are at odds with being practical. To be successful, you need to know when to discard your ideology in favor of a practical answer. (Doug: An example of how this works in education features the competing ideologies regarding how you should teach reading.

Leaders need to understand that technological innovations aren’t going away. They need to work to understand them and figure out how they can be used to make things more efficient. Generative AI applications like ChatGPT and similar software are here to stay. You need to dive in and see what they can do if you want to be an effective leader.

In this chapter Tony provides a brief history of computer technology with some possible looks ahead. The main idea here is that leaders have to go back to school so they at least have some idea of where technology might be going. This will allow them to better lead the way forward.

With new technology like AI on the way, leaders need to have conversations and attend conferences in order to know what’s best for the organization they lead. Tony sites examples from a number of industries. When he comes to education, he points out that AI can produce student-specific tutors that will allow the type of differentiation that principals have only dreamt about. If every student can move at their own pace and at their own level, schools will do a much ore effective job.

All leaders will need to partner with organizations outside of the one the lead. Do your homework when choosing partners. Ideally you can do trials before you make large commitments. Make sure that regulations that you can control allow for innovations. If you have to choose between a big organization that has been around for awhile and a younger innovative organization, keep in mind that if a new company can successfully compete with and established one, they just might be better.