Queen Elizabeth II - The female leader for all ages

“a rock of stability in a world of constant change” was just one of the many quotes you will find when trying to understand how other very senior leaders described Queen Elizabeth.

This is still LinkedIn, and this is not a post to highlight anything more than the fact that nobody can take away from the fact that today the world lost one of its most iconic leaders of all and any time. To put that into context, the longest ruling Roman Emperor was Augustus and he ruled for just over 40 years, the longest Chinese Emperor (Kangxi) was in position for 61 years. Elizabeth ruled her empire for 70 years, that was after a period of 10 years, where she was flung headfirst in to standing in for her Father (the then King) and taking on essentially all of his duties overseas in Africa, Asia and wherever else she was needed. When the King died she was in Kenya and on her way to Australia when she found out and at 25 years’ old was flying back to Britain as the Queen of the British Empire…

You’ll see many emotional videos and statements this weekend, you’ll see the tributes pouring in from all over the world, but you will also see the negative news and the remarks about her family and comments about Charles and people questioning why there is no election for our Monarch…?

Wade through the Instagram posts, look beyond the Twitter feed and please find time to read about the adventures she went on, the fact that in 1 single year (1977) she travelled over 56,000 miles to mark the silver jubilee in respect to all of the nations in our commonwealth. This leader didn’t get a work from home day for the best part of 60 years’ and seeing that just 48 hours before she passed away, she was meeting the newly appointed Prime Minister is genuinely remarkable to me. How brave was this woman, clearly suffering and likely against the advice of Doctors to stand up and greet the next PM! Who else in such state would be not only asked but expected to carry out such a duty?!

It gets forgotten that the duty of British monarchs is not to express political opinions but rather to encourage, warn and provide counsel to those in political power. She is essentially the Senior Advisor, the consigliere if you will to the Prime Minister of Britain. How many PM’s? 15. 15 people who leant on her for guidance, trust and used her expertise to steer a nation through thick and thin.

Elizabeth despite her ‘age’ was with it, before YOU were. She was one of the first heads of state to send an email, back in 1976. It was also her judgement to televise her coronation, the guy she opposed on this judgement: Winston Churchill. People listened to Elizabeth and through over 7 decades of change, war, pandemics, culture changes and the technology era she was always un-waivered in her calm approach and always drew crowds everywhere she went.

I am not the biggest fan of the royal family per say, but 10 years’ ago when I knew she was in Manchester City center I remember missing work for an extra 30 minutes over lunch to wait in a crowd to see her give that classic wave with her gloves on as she got into a car.

Rest in peace Queen, a female leader for all ages and someone the world will miss.?