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About
The leadership manual Tony Blair wishes he had when he became prime minister, with personal insights and global examples that show aspiring leaders how to go from talking about change to making change.
Sir Tony Blair learnt the precepts of governing the hard way: by leading a country for over ten years. In that time he came to understand that there were certain key characteristics of successful government that he wished he had known when he started.
Now Sir Tony has written the manual on political leadership that he would have wanted back in 1997, sharing the insights he has gained from his personal experience and from observing other world leaders at first hand, both while he was in office and since, through his Institute's work with political leaders and governments globally.
Written in short, pithy chapters, packed with examples drawn from all forms of political systems from around the world, the books answers the key questions: How should a leader organize the center of government and his or her own office? How should he or she prioritize and develop the right plan and hire the right personnel, cope with unforeseen events and crises, and balance short-term wins with long-term structural change? What's the best way to deal with an obstructive or inert bureaucracy, to attract investment, to reform healthcare or education, and to ensure security for the citizen? And how should governments harness the massive opportunities of the 21st-century technological revolution?
This is a masterclass on leadership in general, and political leadership in particular, from a master statesman. Tony Blair was UK Prime Minister from 1997-2007. He is the Executive Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), a non-profit that works with leaders around the world focusing on strategy, policy, and delivery. He lives in London. Introduction
Leadership and the Science of Governing
No Leader I ever met, who succeeded, did so just by being a "LEADER." They did it by hard work, by application, by poring over the detail, by agonising before deciding, by harnessing their self-doubt as well as their self-confidence.
And by curiosity. By a willingness to learn. By a relentless pursuit of the right answer, burrowing all the way down to the core, if necessary, to get it.
I was for ten years head of the British government and have spent almost twenty afterwards, through my institute, helping governments and Leaders in around forty different countries all over the world. I learnt a lot doing it and I have learnt a lot watching others do it.
Leadership is always a journey. Over time, I have deciphered a pattern in that journey broken into three stages. In the first flush of taking power, Leaders are all ears. They know they know nothing or little of what governing truly means. They listen eagerly.
In the second stage, when they have become acclimatised to the rhythm of it all, they know enough to think they know everything. They're impatient with listening. They're the boss. Who can know more than them?
The third stage is that of maturity when they come to the realisation that what they know is not the sum total of political knowledge; that there are t hings-many of t hem-that they don't know. Once again, with more humility, they listen and learn.
That sweet arrival at discernment is unfortunately usually achieved by bitter experience.
The distance between the three stages can be long or short.
Many Leaders never get past stage two. And this is most often where the mistakes are made.
This book is about how, by studying the lessons and science of governing, Leaders can shorten the learning curve, steepen it and get to stage three faster and in better shape.
*
Governments have been around forever, of course. But the twentieth century saw an unprecedented expansion in what they do and in what the public expects of them.
In early-nineteenth-century Britain, the role of the state was
Sir Tony Blair learnt the precepts of governing the hard way: by leading a country for over ten years. In that time he came to understand that there were certain key characteristics of successful government that he wished he had known when he started.
Now Sir Tony has written the manual on political leadership that he would have wanted back in 1997, sharing the insights he has gained from his personal experience and from observing other world leaders at first hand, both while he was in office and since, through his Institute's work with political leaders and governments globally.
Written in short, pithy chapters, packed with examples drawn from all forms of political systems from around the world, the books answers the key questions: How should a leader organize the center of government and his or her own office? How should he or she prioritize and develop the right plan and hire the right personnel, cope with unforeseen events and crises, and balance short-term wins with long-term structural change? What's the best way to deal with an obstructive or inert bureaucracy, to attract investment, to reform healthcare or education, and to ensure security for the citizen? And how should governments harness the massive opportunities of the 21st-century technological revolution?
This is a masterclass on leadership in general, and political leadership in particular, from a master statesman. Tony Blair was UK Prime Minister from 1997-2007. He is the Executive Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), a non-profit that works with leaders around the world focusing on strategy, policy, and delivery. He lives in London. Introduction
Leadership and the Science of Governing
No Leader I ever met, who succeeded, did so just by being a "LEADER." They did it by hard work, by application, by poring over the detail, by agonising before deciding, by harnessing their self-doubt as well as their self-confidence.
And by curiosity. By a willingness to learn. By a relentless pursuit of the right answer, burrowing all the way down to the core, if necessary, to get it.
I was for ten years head of the British government and have spent almost twenty afterwards, through my institute, helping governments and Leaders in around forty different countries all over the world. I learnt a lot doing it and I have learnt a lot watching others do it.
Leadership is always a journey. Over time, I have deciphered a pattern in that journey broken into three stages. In the first flush of taking power, Leaders are all ears. They know they know nothing or little of what governing truly means. They listen eagerly.
In the second stage, when they have become acclimatised to the rhythm of it all, they know enough to think they know everything. They're impatient with listening. They're the boss. Who can know more than them?
The third stage is that of maturity when they come to the realisation that what they know is not the sum total of political knowledge; that there are t hings-many of t hem-that they don't know. Once again, with more humility, they listen and learn.
That sweet arrival at discernment is unfortunately usually achieved by bitter experience.
The distance between the three stages can be long or short.
Many Leaders never get past stage two. And this is most often where the mistakes are made.
This book is about how, by studying the lessons and science of governing, Leaders can shorten the learning curve, steepen it and get to stage three faster and in better shape.
*
Governments have been around forever, of course. But the twentieth century saw an unprecedented expansion in what they do and in what the public expects of them.
In early-nineteenth-century Britain, the role of the state was