Leadership

Using his extensive experience of international governance to offer insights into what constitutes good leadership, Lord McDonald has succeeded in producing an enjoyable read Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy

(PUS) at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when the UK negotiated its exit from the European Union and the FCO absorbed the Department of International Development into its remit. He reckons that permanent secretaries are near the top of the British system (not quite the peak of the diplomatic Everest, but at camp four) and he “enjoyed a good view”.

Simon guides the reader to appreciate what constitutes about them. They have people around them who are allowed to take them aside for a quiet word. “When Gordon Brown was being his most difficult, Sue Nye was able to clear the room and talk like a friend.”

Kindness rather than ferocity: it is most likely to get the best out of your team. At the height of the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher discovered that the then

PUS’s wife was in hospital for cancer treatment. She sent a large bunch of roses from Chequers, with a handwritten note promising “the scent of flowers from an English country garden for you”. Thirty years later the

PUS told Mrs Thatcher’s biographer how grateful he had been for the gesture.

They have courage: Mrs Thatcher showed that courage on 12 October 1984, when a bomb exploded where she was staying in the Grand Hotel, Brighton, and “her unflappability calmed the country”.

They are good communicators. Tony Blair was the best communicator Simon saw in No 10 because “he always seemed to have the right words… whatever the situation”.

They have a plan: “Theresa May’s statement on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 13 July 2016 was as compelling a manifesto as any prime minister has delivered on their first day in office.”

They convey a sense that they are at ease with their responsibilities: the presumption on the part of the people around them that they can do a difficult job helps them. Of all those whom Simon saw in Downing Street “the one who looked most at home was David Cameron”.

My time as minister of state at the FCDO overlapped for two years of Simon’s tenure as PUS. Was he a good leader? Yes. What impressed me most? His quiet determination to ensure that there was genuine diversity and inclusion in access to a career in the diplomatic service. As he says: “A sensible society seeks out and encourages talent wherever it is found.”