The Future of Political Leadership
By: Usc Price Executive Master Of Leadership
Tags: Leadership Development, Brexit, International Relations, Politics, Leadership

In the last and final installment of Dr. Carol Geffner’s interview series with The Right Honourable Charles Clarke, the pair discuss leadership from a global perspective and the future of political leadership.

What interested you in political leadership?

Dr. Carol Geffner: Were there milestone events in your life, political leaders, or experiences that inspired you to focus on leadership in politics?

The Right Honourable Charles Clarke: In my life in politics, I could see that the choices that were being made for political leadership were being made on the wrong basis.

It was, “Was the individual a left-winger or a right-winger? A liberal or a conservative?” That’s not the issue.

There is an issue about [political ideology], but if you say the only issue is “is it a left-winger or a right-winger,” that doesn’t answer what politics is because political leadership is about a whole range of different skills, of which your ideological direction is only one of them.

And I got very frustrated, we had some political leadership issues in our country where I thought the best person was not chosen because people weren’t thinking properly about what leadership was.

In fact, I would say in Britain at the moment, Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, is a very good illustration of that problem. I think that’s true in other countries too, and it made me think that that was the case.

In general, what interests you in leadership?

The Right Honourable Charles Clarke: What changed it more widely was having high government office, thinking about how police forces, how universities performed, or how schools performed.

You can’t get away from the fact that leadership is central.

There was a report done many years ago in Britain about high schools called Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary Schools and their Effects on Children which said the core aspect in the success of the high school is the quality of the leadership, the head teacher.

It didn’t matter whether they were liberal or authoritarian or whatever, they had to develop a cultural, sound approach shared by the whole school.

And I bought into that. I thought that was true.

That immediately led to the question, “Actually are we thinking about this leadership question hard enough?” And I didn’t think we were in a number of ways. In politics, I didn’t think that which is the reason I wrote British Labour Leaders. I thought it was important to focus on what makes a good leader and what didn’t make a good leader.

My particular version may not be right, but I do think is talking about it, understanding it, discussing it, and considering it is the right thing to do.

Are you optimistic about the future of UK political leadership?

The Right Honourable Charles Clarke: I’m very optimistic. I’m naturally an optimistic person. I believe one ought to be optimistic generally.

Of course, in the British context, I’ve been very depressed by Brexit and by the state of the Labour Party. Brexit, I think there’s quite a good chance we won’t leave the European Union now. I think Labour has survived the worst, and I think we’ll be able to rebuild over a 3–5 year period.

What about US political leadership?

In America, I was pessimistic about Donald Trump’s presidency. But I also said at the time that I thought he wouldn’t be able to achieve as much as he set out to do because the American political system is very resilient. And we’ll see, I may be wrong. He may get re-elected and be able to do something more long-term. I’m optimistic that America will come together again in a way.

I would have voted, for Hillary Clinton. The sadness was that she appeared to represent the old style of American politics at a time when there were millions of people calling out for some change.

She’s a deeply decent person in my opinion. I thought many of the attacks on her were unwarranted. She couldn’t overcome the problem of who she was. And we’re going right back to leading with integrity. She wasn’t really able to do that in the way that was necessary.

Wrapping Up

Dr. Carol Geffner: It’s a delight, Charles, to have you here today. I’ve so enjoyed this conversation, and you make it so easy. I wish we could stay here for a lot longer, but then you’re on UK time, you need a little bit of a rest.

Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me today about leadership from a global perspective, and I hope we get to do this again.

The Right Honourable Charles Clarke: Thank you very much.