Monday, May 09, 2005

When is it time to go?

The news this morning in Britain is dominated by suggestions that Tony Blair should resign.

Mr Blair led the revolution of the Labour Party since 1994 - and won three successive General Elections - the only Labour Party leader to do that - is now under pressure to resign from his own back bench MP's.

There are lessons in this for management and leadership at all levels.

The question is - can people stay around too long as a leader and when is the right time to resign before you are sacked?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just can talk as an stranger in this case but i will tell you my opinion. In any political party the affiliation is sovereign. The leader is at the mercy of the will of the affiliation. It´s them who must decide. Anyway, depending on the honorability of any leader if they really think they should resign they could do it. I can´t tell you in this case because i´m not so concerned with british politics as to have a solid opinion, but sometimes it´s the media that are interested in one movement or the other.

Trevor Gay said...

Hi Felix

You are right - I think the media are more influential than the public believe.

Mr Blair's outcomes and results - if he were a manager - would merit promotion and a pay rise!

My feeling is the press have the knives out for Mr Blair.

Trevor

AJ Hoge said...

Sticking Around Too Long

On your broader question, I do think its easy for folks to stick around too long... and not just leaders.

Im guilty of the opposite, but one advantage is that I stay fresh. I enter into a job/project charged up... and pour a tremendous amount of energy and creativity into it.

Put after some time, the project/job grows stale for me. It enters the maintainence stage and Im not good at maintainence. Rather than hang on, I leave and move on to the next job/project.

I suppose this mimics the Hollywood approach ( a model Tom Peters talks abou sometimes). Its one I like. It promotes greater energy and creativity.

In fact, the Hollywood model also shows what happens when folks try to stick around too long.... sequels are rarely as good as the first project,... and by the second, third, or fourth sequel, most film series are bland, banal, and essentially dead.

Trevor Gay said...

Thanks AJ - I relate to your comments.

In my career I always think that the time to move on is while you are still motivated - if we stay around in that 'complacent' stage when there is no personal challenge any more - that is time to move on.

Good luck on your exciting life and career journey - you have the creative mind to succeeed -I have no doubt

Trevor