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February 6th 2023.
On the Politics Live BBC TV programme at lunchtime today, Emily Thornberry Labour’s shadow attorney general let slip a comment that shocked me. She either meant something different or didn’t realise what she was saying. She said that the same corporate tax rate should apply all over the world. Such an attitude would cost the UK billions in loss of competitive advantage.
She was one of 36 who nominated Jeremy Corbyn in the election for the Labour leadership. It has been rumoured that she has globalist tendencies.
Having watched recent political events unfold in New Zealand and the UK my mind drifted back to when I was studying for my first post-graduate degree. I was drawn to the age-old argument about the differences between leadership and management. I delved into my archives and flicked through notes and textbooks (home computers were in their early days then!!) Sitting at the top of my books were articles about one of the gurus of the age – John Kotter. Kotter was one of the leading researchers in management theory.
David Bertocci produced a very readable book on leaders and managers.
This perspective of the evolving nature of leadership in organizations that are flexible and responsive reflects the needs of organizations that tend to be more like virtual organizations, where employees live and work where the jobs are. The growing surge towards more virtual organizations will require all the more emphasis on able leadership and a strong culture to shape decisions that must be made quickly, especially when the stakes are high. Thus, in the future, every line manager will have to exercise leadership prerogatives to an extent unthinkable twenty years ago.
John Kotter, a widely recognized leadership expert predicted this evolving role of leadership in an organization when he distinguished between management and leadership: Management has certain complex and often routine functions relating to an organization. As we have seen, one of the most significant developments of the twentieth century has been the emergence of large organizations bringing with it even more complexity in the management functions. Good management brings calmness and stability to an organization and tries to eliminate what sometimes can be chaotic circumstances that Chapter One The Evolving Nature of Leadership threaten their very existence.
Good management brings a degree of order and consistency to the quality and profitability of products or services. Leadership, by contrast, is about vision, big picture views, and coping with change. Part of the reason leadership has become so important in recent years is that the business world has become more global, more competitive and more volatile. As a result, the old way of doing things just isn’t sufficient. Doing what was done yesterday, or doing it five percent better, is no longer a formula for success. Major changes in organizational design, structure and leadership are becoming essential for survival in this new environment. Thus, coping with organizational change demands effective leadership.
Source: John P. Kotter, “What Leaders Really Do,” in Managing People and Organizations, ed. John J. Gabarro (Boston: Harvard Business School Publications, 1992), 102–14. Bertocci, DI 2009, Leadership in organizations there is a difference between leaders and managers / David I. Bertocci., University Press of America, Lanham, MD.
This reinforced my previously expressed view that Rishi Sunak is not a leader but a manager. I have suggested that he gives the impression of making a very good CFO of a Footsie 100 company but has little political understanding, limited people skills and is deficient in leadership qualities. What is the vision of the future that he is offering to the Conservative party and the people of the UK? Is he a leader who can get us all following him to the promised land and the sunlit uplands of the future?
This leads me to Mr Luxon. Here is someone who changed the culture of Air New Zealand from a customer-oriented company with a vision for staff and customers into a bland corporation that concentrated on figures, figures and more figures. What was the vision for the future of Air NZ when he left? If there was one, how well was it communicated to stakeholders?
I feel that like Sunak, he has carried his corporate skills into the political arena. He has also carried with him the same skill deficiencies that were with him at Air NZ. What message is he trying to get across to the electorate? What is his vision for the future of New Zealand? Unless he can get a clear, positive message across to the electorate then the election will be a closer run event than most think. What sort of country is he promising to deliver to us? We know what Labour is offering and I don’t like it, but what is Luxon’s message?
