This is not a blog about politics.
Whether you’re a Labour, Conservative, SNP supporter, or one of the 309 people who voted for a man dressed as a fish finger, that’s your choice (who doesn’t love a good fish finger sandwich though, right?).
This blog is about Theresa May’s leadership in the last six weeks, 3 mistakes she made in the election, and what we can all learn from them.
I will refer to Daniel Goleman’s ideas around Emotional Intelligence (EI), his research shows that having high levels of EI creates high performing leaders and successful organisations.
Whether you’re the leader of a country, large public organisation, FTSE 250 company, or a mid-level manager in a 6-month-old start-up, leadership broadly requires the same set of skills and competencies. These are the emotional intelligence domains and competencies that Goleman outlines:
Let’s relate these to Theresa May's 3 big mistakes around the general election:
1.) Involving others
Numerous sources have reported that May relied heavily on two close advisors throughout her campaign. Decisions were made behind closed doors within this small group and the manifesto drawn up without proper consultation of the rest of her leadership team (the Cabinet), experienced MPs or backbenchers.
Using the analogy of a company, the public are essentially her clients, MPs her employees. So this suggests May did not speak to her employees or clients fully when creating the manifesto (we could call this the product or service if we were to continue with the analogy)
According to Goleman’s model, teamwork and organisational (social) awareness were distinctly lacking.
What can we learn from this?
Leaders and managers win when involving their employees and by having clear channels of communication that feed back throughout the organisation. And of course feedback from their clients too. This helps create a product or service that will be appealing to the market and that employees will get behind.
2.) Exposure and Image
May's second mistake. She was not particularly visible during the campaign. She refused to attend the leadership debate, speak at major rallies, or it seems, engage with the public very much. When she did, she presented herself with a tough exterior, using dull repetitive soundbites, and lacked empathy, with less charisma than Mr Fish Finger himself. She never really looked relaxed or inspiring despite running through a field of wheat once.
Top management consultant Harvey Coleman states that exposure (being visible and present to the right people at the right place and time) is the number one factor to career success. His second? Image. How you communicate, your charisma, appearance, body language, connection with others. May failed on both these accounts.
Referring back to Goleman’s EI model, she lacked empathy, inspirational leadership and emotional self-awareness.
What can we learn from this?
Successful leaders and managers are visible, engage with employees and clients, and work on developing a positive image. They inspire. They work on communication, presentation, body language and listening skills and building relationships with others. The best leaders are emotionally intelligent.
3.) Accountability
Finally, May is accountable to the public (her client base of 65 million people). She is accountable to her employees of 318 MPs now (and many more who work for her party)
What she failed to do immediately after the election was to be accountable for the result. To take responsibility for it, to the public and her party (at least not that we know of). Her speech the next morning after visiting the Queen referred nothing to the result.
Why did she do this? Was it a belief that apologising shows weakness? Or that acknowledging the situation makes her less of a leader? A sure fire way to lose the support and engagement of MPs and the public is by not being honest about the situation and communicating it, it comes across as arrogant and incompetent.
On Goleman's EI model, this demonstrates a lack of social awareness, emotional self-awareness and empathy.
What can we learn from this?
Leaders and managers need to communicate and be accountable for mistakes to their employees and clients. Acknowledgement shows understanding, strength, builds trust, support and loyalty. “We got it wrong, we will change, improve and listen” can make all the difference to keeping people on side.
So what next for May?
Theresa May would benefit from working on what seems to be some consistent areas that require development in her leadership. The emotional intelligence competencies of empathy, organisational and social awareness, teamwork and inspirational leadership. Her image too. A skilled coach could help her relatively quickly improve in all these areas.
If you're a leader or a manager looking to accelerate your professional development then coaching will help you too.
If May doesn't change, it's unlikely she will stay as leader for much longer, and it could very well be Lord Buckethead moving into Number 10 (how awesome would he be at the next G7 summit though?)
Let’s relate these to Theresa May's 3 big mistakes around the general election:
1.) Involving others
Numerous sources have reported that May relied heavily on two close advisors throughout her campaign. Decisions were made behind closed doors within this small group and the manifesto drawn up without proper consultation of the rest of her leadership team (the Cabinet), experienced MPs or backbenchers.
Using the analogy of a company, the public are essentially her clients, MPs her employees. So this suggests May did not speak to her employees or clients fully when creating the manifesto (we could call this the product or service if we were to continue with the analogy)
According to Goleman’s model, teamwork and organisational (social) awareness were distinctly lacking.
What can we learn from this?
Leaders and managers win when involving their employees and by having clear channels of communication that feed back throughout the organisation. And of course feedback from their clients too. This helps create a product or service that will be appealing to the market and that employees will get behind.
2.) Exposure and Image
May's second mistake. She was not particularly visible during the campaign. She refused to attend the leadership debate, speak at major rallies, or it seems, engage with the public very much. When she did, she presented herself with a tough exterior, using dull repetitive soundbites, and lacked empathy, with less charisma than Mr Fish Finger himself. She never really looked relaxed or inspiring despite running through a field of wheat once.
Top management consultant Harvey Coleman states that exposure (being visible and present to the right people at the right place and time) is the number one factor to career success. His second? Image. How you communicate, your charisma, appearance, body language, connection with others. May failed on both these accounts.
Referring back to Goleman’s EI model, she lacked empathy, inspirational leadership and emotional self-awareness.
What can we learn from this?
Successful leaders and managers are visible, engage with employees and clients, and work on developing a positive image. They inspire. They work on communication, presentation, body language and listening skills and building relationships with others. The best leaders are emotionally intelligent.
3.) Accountability
Finally, May is accountable to the public (her client base of 65 million people). She is accountable to her employees of 318 MPs now (and many more who work for her party)
What she failed to do immediately after the election was to be accountable for the result. To take responsibility for it, to the public and her party (at least not that we know of). Her speech the next morning after visiting the Queen referred nothing to the result.
Why did she do this? Was it a belief that apologising shows weakness? Or that acknowledging the situation makes her less of a leader? A sure fire way to lose the support and engagement of MPs and the public is by not being honest about the situation and communicating it, it comes across as arrogant and incompetent.
On Goleman's EI model, this demonstrates a lack of social awareness, emotional self-awareness and empathy.
What can we learn from this?
Leaders and managers need to communicate and be accountable for mistakes to their employees and clients. Acknowledgement shows understanding, strength, builds trust, support and loyalty. “We got it wrong, we will change, improve and listen” can make all the difference to keeping people on side.
So what next for May?