This interesting, sometimes surprising book has a subject, but also an object. Yet the latter – its obvious target, and primary reader – is mentioned not once by name. Tony Blair has long reflected on leadership: what it means, how to do it well, how to cope with its pressures, when to relinquish it. But in the early autumn of 2024, this feels as much like a work of contemporary commentary as a handbook on governance.
He argues that leadership follows three stages. The first is when the new leader is listening eagerly; the second comes when they think they know everything, and finally, there’s a third stage of maturity when “once again, with more humility, they listen and learn”. The book’s purpose, he says, is to shorten the learning curve and get leaders to the third stage more quickly.
Content from our partners
