Political Leadership: Introduction (Theresa May) 0/5

The Qualities of Political Leaders: Introduction

I didn’t expect to ever have a selfie with Theresa May, but on a hot June day in 2017, at a provincial fair, there she was. I had a photo with her, plastering social media with it. 

And there it drew some backlash; after the election and with austerity still biting, she was not a popular figure. But when are political leaders ever popular figures? They may enjoy a ‘honeymoon’ initially, but the mood always turn against them. It is too difficult to both govern and please.

Political Leadership

Being Prime Minister or President is not the same as running a business or leading a charity or religion. You are directly responsible for the welfare of tens of millions of people, as well as implementing complicated policy across a sprawling government.

You must be funny, and likeable, and modest, but also confident and serious. You have to respect the office you hold, while making sure it’s modern enough to meet new demands. When crisis strikes, you must speak with eloquence. Not too much eloquence though - that would be snobby.

Political leaders therefore need more than normal leadership qualities. Yes, they should be good at strategy, team management, and delegating responsibility, but they must also be more capable than your ordinary boardroom.

The British Cabinet - not 
the usual gathering of executives

They must be able to manage an entire population, respond to the constant, potentially fatal pressures of governing a country, while upholding the complicated institutions that make running a nation possible. Being a people person is not enough.

The Five Qualities

And so political leaders must display abilities unique to, or at least used very differently in, politics. Any successful political leader needs at least one of these unique abilities, or they won’t ascend in the first place.

The best show four, or even all five and are rewarded with long terms and deep legacies. Each trait can be found in office blocks around the world, but adopts very different meanings in high office. In order of how we’ll cover them, these abilities are:


1. Storyteller

2. Philosopher

3. Empathiser

4. Innovator

5. Manager


In this series we will discuss what each ability is, why it’s so crucial, and how leaders have shown it (or not) at key points in history.

What Next?

Over the coming posts we'll come to understand the unusual responsibilities of being a political leader and dig deeper into what it is to have a country’s direction resting on your shoulders.

We'll consider, yes, British Prime Ministers and American Presidents, but also leaders from China, France, and the USSR. Political leadership is not just Anglo-American.

Political leaders, all of them

In the next post, we’ll be discussing ‘storytelling’; what it is, why it might be the most important ability of the five, and how it explains President Trump’s election, and Prime Minister Theresa May’s failure.

Enjoy.

Theo, July 2021