It’s hard to imagine a more tragically timely moment to hear the thoughts of a former head of the UK’s security services on what leadership means today. When the members of LinkedIn’s Big Minds Collective joined our virtual session with Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, the war in Ukraine had already been raging for several weeks throwing up hugely contrasting images of what leadership means – and proving just how devastating the impact of individual leaders’ decisions can be.
At times like this, leaders seem to step into the historical roles that we’ve been encouraged to expect them to play. They stand apart, take the weight of others on their shoulders, and make big decisions under huge pressure. Whether their heroes or villains, we almost always imagine them making decisions alone. And for Baroness Manningham-Buller, that’s where things often go wrong.
She has great admiration for President Zelenisky and the way he has grown into the type of inspiring leader figure that few experts (including, she admits, herself) would have expected. However, she stresses that his is leadership in a very particular, very unique context. Most of the time, the qualities required of an effective leader are very different. They require people to step down from the pedestal that their organization expects them to stand on, reject the ‘lonely leader’ idea and seek out a wide range of different thinkers to keep them company. For Baroness Manningham-Buller, modern leadership has to be pragmatic, flexible and team-based.
Here are some of the thoughts that the Collective discussed at our session. They add up to a framework for the type of less lonely leadership that the world needs right now:
When the world changes quickly, the way you’ve always done things is a misleading guide.
One of the first principles that Baroness Manningham-Buller shared with our group was the need for leaders to accept that they are now operating in a rapidly evolving world. What’s tough for them to accept is that the principles and experience that have served them well on their route to the top might be less valuable to them now that they’re there. The world in which they ascended and build their reputation isn’t the same world in which they now have to lead. The way you’ve always operated can be a misleading guide to what the situations you now face demand of you.
People in leadership positions don’t have a monopoly on valuable ideas.
Acceptance that the value of their own experience is time-limited helps leaders to realize that they and their senior colleagues don’t have a monopoly on valuable ideas. Those ideas are just as likely, in fact they might be more likely, to come from someone who joined your organization in the last week or so. Challenging received wisdom is crucial for an intelligence operation – in fact, for any organization that’s trying to get to the truth of things. It doesn’t mean that every idea from someone who’s just walked through the door is going to be gold dust. It does mean that you need to keep encouraging contributions and then find a way to distinguish between those that are worth taking forward – and those that aren’t. A structure for sifting through contributions from across the organization was one of the first things that Baroness Manningham-Buller established at MI5.
If you want an agile and imaginative organization, you need to cultivate a culture of diversity.
This organization-wide approach to thinking doesn’t just involve embracing ideas from all levels of seniority. It also means actively recruiting people with diverse backgrounds and ways of thinking. Baroness Manningham-Buller recalled how many of the best ideas generated at MI5 came from people who were neuro-diverse, and unconventional in their ways of thinking. Organizations are more agile when they can identify and recruit people who will come at ideas differently – and when they consciously design a culture in which these people feel empowered to contribute.
When there’s time, doubt can be a positive.
Leaders don’t like the idea of doubt – and they certainly don’t like admitting to it. We’ve been trained to see uncertainty as a weakness, both in ourselves and others. In a rapidly changing world where uncertainty is a fair reflection of the situation around us, this has to change. Baroness Manningham-Buller describes how knowing the state of your own ignorance is really important – and that it’s a crucial strength to be able to say at certain moments, “I don’t know.” Out of doubt comes better decisions.
This was an idea that struck a resonant chord across the Big Minds Collective, with several members stepping up to discuss how to build a culture that has room for doubt. The simple answer is: it has to start from the top. Admitting ignorance, and using it to dig deeper rather than settling for a simple answer, is a behavior that has to be modeled by leaders themselves.
The role of a leader is to be aware of gaps in knowledge – but take decisions anyway.
There’s a caveat to the principle that doubt leads to better decisions: Sometimes there just isn’t time for doubt. One of the most important principles of leadership in a rapidly changing world is identifying the moments when you have to take a decision on the basis of incomplete information – and being prepared to make a choice that might be wrong. It’s not arrogance – and it doesn’t have to take place in a lonely office in the style of a Hollywood movie. It’s simply a case of recognizing that there are moments when a leader has to take responsibility and be prepared to choose under pressure. Being able to balance this with self-awareness about the state of knowledge you’re basing the decision on is a crucial skill.
Empathy is what gets things done.
Empathy emerged from our discussion as a superpower within the intelligence community – indeed, a superpower for anyone who has to rally different groups of stakeholders around a sense of direction. Baroness Manningham-Buller talked about the importance of putting oneself in an opponent’s shoes, how understanding why someone might become a terrorist is essential for your ability to gather intelligence on that person effectively. However, she also talked of the value of digging into the motivations of those whose support you need. When it came to dealing with government ministers, understanding their needs – and the way they answer to constituents, cabinet and parliament – makes it far easier for an intelligence chief to give them what they need and move discussions forward.
Data and transparency can change the game.
Geopolitical crises aren’t the only test of leadership today. As a former chair of The Wellcome Trust, Baroness Manningham-Buller is also keenly aware of the need for global leadership as the world tries to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic – and deal with the almost inevitable pandemics yet to come. In this and other areas, she sees changing attitudes to data as crucial. She understands the misgivings people have about sharing health data publicly – but points out the crucial role that this can play in establishing which treatments are effective for a new condition. Earning the confidence to use data in new ways could have a vital role to play in the world’s ability to respond to the next crisis.
Radical change is often more effective than gradual change.
In all of these areas, whether establishing a new culture, adapting to change or innovating with digital technology and data, leaders have a choice between proceeding gradually and incrementally or trying to shift everything at once. It often seems intuitive to take the slow and steady approach – but Baroness Manningham-Buller argues for the opposite way forward. Radical change is often more effective for the simple reason that it clearly communicates a sense of urgency to your entire organization. When you present change as a series of tweaks, it’s far less obvious why it needs to happen. Motivating an entire organization around the direction you need to take is what the future of leadership is all about. The more successful you are at this, the less lonely a leader you will need to be.
Topics: Agency
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