If Boris were a CEO

Management Today

This crisis has needed politicians to be bloody tough. You’ve got to deliver the facts and make people believe that we’re on a course and that “this is how it is going to be” and not flinch from that, which takes determination and direction.

We’ve seen a communication strategy with too much flip-flopping, too much leaking of information and a message that has been lacking in emotional intelligence. They’ve tried to bang ideas into soundbites that channel well through social media but this is too complex a situation for soundbites. 

There’s been a lack of real purpose and also too much hope injected at the wrong times. The only one who has come through it with any credibility is Rishi Sunak.

A crisis will find you out. Sometimes you need to face your critics by being very well prepared, going into the worst possible interview and coming out virtually unscathed, but the government has run away from their biggest detractors. There’s been blind panic occasionally and then rushing to judgment or making it up as they go along to deflect criticism.

This just wouldn’t last in industry. If you were a chief executive, running a family business or FTSE 100 company, you would have had to fall on your sword by now because there’s a lack of credibility, but Boris is just too deep inside the bubble.

https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/management-today-winter-magazine-issue-available/article/1705866