On leadership

I have been a little distracted by what’s going on down under recently. The performance of the English cricket team at the World Cup has brought little cheer and the national soul-searching about how we can have greater impact in one-day tournaments has started. In fact, it started before the tournament began when there was a debate about who should lead the team – Alastair Cook eventually giving way to Eoin Morgan.

It is wrong to pin the blame for lack of success on any one person, but our sporting leaders do have a key role in making the most of the talent around them. The greatest English cricket captain, Mike Brearley, was reputed to have “a degree in people”. Brearley’s stats as batsman were poor. Yet, the English selectors recognised that they needed someone to get the best from their players and that’s why they plumped for Brearley.

It worked.

He mastered the art of captaincy – the title of his brilliant book - most memorably when he brought out the best from Ian Botham (yes, I can still recall his heroic cricketing deeds with fondness) and Bob Willis during the 1981 Ashes series but also during his time as the leader of the successful Middlesex team of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

His success was built on meticulous preparation, an instinctive understanding of what makes people tick, innovation and excellent decision-making.

I say all of this to make a few simple observations about the type of leadership we need today.

In all walks of life, we need leaders with the energy to engage people and align them behind a common purpose; leaders with the capability to make sense of complexity; leaders that are honest about the challenges and choices we face and leaders that offer clear direction by articulating a compelling view of how things can get better.

This is particularly true when it comes to the messy business of running the country.

With less than ten weeks before the general election, the pressure on our political leaders is growing. While polls suggest we should expect another hung parliament, political chat focuses on who will do deals with their political rivals in order to form a stable government.

Our political system puts our leaders under huge pressure – asked to lead long, exhausting election campaigns, coping with the 24/7 demands of the media, and then, if successful, to hit the ground running, to form a government and then to deal with whatever domestic or foreign crisis that crops up.

Following the intensity of the election (and any coalition talks that follow), we need our leaders to be at their best: to maintain focus on they will work together to make things better and, for many of us, that includes a desire to grow our prosperity without trashing the planet.

We live in a period of huge turbulence and I argue that our political leaders need support rather than derision. Smart leaders recognise their own limitations and seek help in terms of ideas and practical solutions to wicked problems such stopping climate chaos and the ongoing degradation of the natural environment.

That is why we need those outside government to play leadership roles for our core interest of saving nature.  We need businesses (like Marks & Spencer or Cemex) that are learning how to make a profit without harming the natural environment, we need land managers that nurture our natural assets while growing food, we need NGOs to leave brands at the door in order to broker lasting landscape-scale partnerships and we need individuals prepared to work with others to make things better in their communities.

Tomorrow, I am heading off to Bristol to participate in a two-day conference we have organised, with others (see here).  The first day is an opportunity to showcase the best in landscape-scale conservation.   I hope and expect to hear how great leadership is transforming landscapes for people and wildlife.  We’ll hear about progress with RSPB Futurescapes, the Wildlife Trusts' Living Landscapes and the Defra funded Nature improvement Areas. We plan to learn from experience and come up with a recipe for future success. Our aim is to offer a gauntlet to the next generation of political leaders to make it is easy for all of us to build on these achievements.

With luck, I may even spot the next generation of Mike Brearleys to take nature conservation forward in the 21^st century.

What sort of leadership do you think we need for 21^st Century conservation? And who is your role model?

It would be great to hear your views.