Brexit has exposed the leadership flaws of May and Corbyn as well as the limitations of an outdated system.

Tourists who visit the UK often remark about how quirky and quaint British tradition, history and pomp is. This is fine when it’s applied to a wedding or anniversary that has no current constitutional bearing. But when it’s about a serious political and structural economic issue such as Brexit it is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century. Scenes at Westminster resemble some kind of pompous pantomime. It’s embarrassing. 

When collaboration was clearly the order of the day, May and Corbyn’s leadership fell back on the caustic tradition of ‘command and control’ in a system predicated on adversarial politics. And all in all it has been an epic fail.

The myth of ‘strong’ leadership 

Great leadership requires flexibility and adaptability. But the immovable style displayed by our current PM is frankly useless for the task at hand. As she likes to say herself, this is a ‘bloody difficult woman’ who dislikes input from anyone. To some extent she is admired for her stubbornness and hard work. But alas this has yielded nothing up to now. 

Corbyn, has also done little to capitalise on this weakness or galvanise his own party to the extent that 7 key members have left the party frustrated largely at his lacklustre leadership, and the day after 3 followed from the Conservatives.

The problem with many current political leaders is that they are too fearful of being labelled as weak by the media. So they follow the dictatorial route as ‘strong leaders’ and by doing so, they oddly become weak. They don’t listen and they just plough on ahead regardless. 

Let’s focus on the PM. Theresa May could be described as an Authoritarian also known as an Autocratic Leader, Lewin (1939 cited in Wilson 2010). Autocratic leaders, tend to be controlling in nature and strive for Authority and Power.

Autocratic Leadership traits are demonstrated as:

• Clear direction.
• Little or no input from the general population.
• Clear divide between leader and population.
• Little time for group decisions.

The traditional notion of 'strong leadership' suggests that it is weak to change direction, to ask advice and admit that any decision, policy or strategy may have been incorrect in the first place. So charging off and then maintaining the wrong direction is often a problem for this style. And this has shown itself to the case for the Brexit disaster. 

This myth of what leadership should be, I believe is a result of history and the tradition of confrontational politics. The largest party not in power is called ‘the opposition’ and the format of the house is opposing whilst media only serve to amplify the differences and entrench thinking. It should therefore not be surprising that collaboration is not given the oxygen it needs to succeed. The embarrassing scenes at Westminster owes more of a lineage to the Machiavellian machinations of Game of Thrones and doesn’t reflect a modern, dynamic multi-cultural digital society that is 21st Century Britain.

So what should she have done?

Collaborate. Have a cross party focus group work on it including remainders and Brexiteers. The adversarial nature of politics only serves to entrench and build walls that further divide an already fractured house and this has hindered progress internally in the UK held back clear negotiation with EU. Nothing ever gets agreed and as a result the house continues to block progress. Still.

Listen. Work out the pain points then strive for a mutually beneficial solution. Instead ego got the better of the PM as she went for more power and a personal mandate by calling for a General Election and weakened her position even more. Now, with weeks to go, she still has no clarity and no one seems to know what the hell is going on.

In a recent copy of Wired which I read at the weekend, I stumbled across the following which I think is perfect advice for Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn from Hermione Ibarra, the Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School.

Ibarra states there are 5 key skills needed for leaders to move a group or company from its current state to something better.

1/ Connecting 

Bring the outside in. New ideas, trends, and opportunities come from engaging with external sources. 

The only collaboration (with the DUP) was under duress and May has isolated herself within her own party and now it’s likely too late as the extremist views of the ERG grow in their power inside the conservative party.

2/ Collaboration

Make sure teams operate in psychological safety; people need to be able to say what’s on their mind without being punished.

Parliament is not safe. The whip system doesn’t lend itself to a pragmatic approach to achieving a solution. So when division occurs, it’s not just a splinter, it’s a chasm as we have seen with the ERG. 

3/ Coaching 

Facilitate rather than dictate. Help people accomplish what they want to achieve. 

May is a dictator, not a facilitator. 

For her, it is ‘my way or the highway’. 

4/ Authenticity 

We want our leaders to be real people who are able to connect with us personally. 

Sadly, her personality has struggled to connect with her party and the wider public. She appears distant and disconnected and therefore unreal and not genuine. 

5/ Curiosity

Leaders should recognise what they don’t know, be interested in finding answers and pull in talent if they need help. 

This may have happened but who knows? 

I guess it is all too easy to point the finger of blame entirely at Theresa May. She hasn’t been a success, but it is the system that has revealed itself to be an ass and the initial idea came from another flawed leader. Whatever, the final result remains to be seen whilst the clock continues to tick. 

Never mind I suppose, you could argue that we have survived greater threats to our safety, just none that were so comprehensively self inflicted. 

In short, innovation is needed. A younger approach that better reflects the changing times in the UK. Maybe the independent group of MP's is the beginning of this. But whatever, a fresh approach to leadership is required with fresher, younger options that will better connect and unite an electorate around a common cause which should be the continued prosperity and security of the UK into the future.