Policies vs Personality

The UK general election has been a hot topic for months now and the question everyone’s asking is, do we back policies or personality? Do I vote for the person I think will be a great leader or do I focus on the party policies that resonate with me most? What I’ve been interested to hear is whether the general public are concerned with the differing policies on offer or do personality traits; passion, charm, commitment (or superficialities such as how to eat a bacon sandwich...) hold the most importance?

The truth is, a successful Prime Minister will need both. They will need to encourage trust and fellowship by illustrating great leadership skills and they will also need to reiterate their authenticity through policies and manage them effectively.

Last week I shared my thoughts on the difference between management and leadership and came to the conclusion that whilst a manager implements policies, processes and structure, a leader focuses on vision and inspires their team to be the best they can be. In other words, the manager steers the ship, the leader sets the course. The question is, what’s more important? Can you have one without the other? Who is the real winner here?

To answer the question, we need to define what a winner is. Who is your office winner? Everybody has their own perspective on what makes a winner, just like everyone has their own idea about which political party would run our country the best. Nelson Mandela famously said that “a winner is a dreamer that never gives up” is this the innovative leader who is dedicated to perusing and sharing their dream? On the one hand, a winner could be the culture carrier in the office. You know that guy, the one whose personality and charisma encourages the team to follow his endeavour to change things for the better. They inspire the team to take action and remain motivated.

On the other hand, perhaps the hard worker of the office is the winner; they may not be the life and soul of the party, but they are the strategic thinker. The one who thinks very carefully about what it takes to get from A to B. The person you wouldn’t necessarily see down the pub every Friday afternoon but who you know has a clear understanding of how things need to be processed in order to work effectively.

Either way, it comes down to the same conundrum: personality or policies?

There’s a reason we have leaders and managers in business and we cannot deny the distinctions between each role. Not all leaders are great managers and not all managers can be good leaders; that’s a fact. A business can’t survive with someone leading at the front if there’s nobody managing from below. A business needs infrastructure but there’s no point in having all the right strategies without the vision and drive to mould them into something special. Good policies are better followed when there’s a personality to front them and we cannot ignore this significant partnership.  

This year’s election has been a roller-coaster ride. With no clear winner, it really has been anybody’s game. For me, one of the reasons behind this is that none of the leaders have managed to perfect the policy/personality combination, rather each leans one way or the other.

Learn from this and take the first step to becoming the winner you want to be. A winner that understands how to steer and navigate in the right direction. 

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