Five Important Elements of Feminine Leadership outlined by Dr David Paul

The Rise of the Feminine radio show host Gina Lazenby interviews Dr David Paul in Sydney

Five Important Elements of Feminine Leadership – shared by Dr David Paul on his interview with Gina Lazenby in the launch show

With the recent appointments of women like Theresa May as the Prime Minister in the UK and Yuriko Koike, the first female governor of Tokyo, to top political positions, and the potential presidency of Hillary Clinton, the conversation about female leaders is one that has garnered much attention and one that is critical and necessary right now. The world needs exposure to feminine leadership and perceptions need to be shifted towards a better understanding of the different qualities women bring to the table.

The radio show The Rise of the Feminine, was created with this intention, to bring a spotlight to the new potential that women can offer. Women are rising in the world today and it’s worth exploring how feminine values are being increasingly expressed more openly in business, politics and society. In the episode aired August 1st, Dr David Paul, an adviser to heads of state and a feminine leadership thought leader, was interviewed about female political leaders.

According to Dr Paul, the leadership qualities reflected in women are incredibly important considering the complex issues the world is facing right now. He believes that women have a completely new vision and society at large can, and will, benefit from this. He also goes on to give five key characteristics that define feminine leadership and how they differ from masculine leadership.

1. Men think sequentially and linearly while women have the ability to multitask and see an issue in multiple dimensions. “You can see that with the way that women juggle so many tasks in the household.” He said men tend to focus on the next thing, then the one after that while women’s ability to see a more holistic viewpoint helps in dealing with complexity and the inter-connected nature of issues.
2. Angela Merkel defines feminine leadership, especially her handling of the refugee situation. “She showed courage in the face of absolute chaos, a boldness of vision and a real decisiveness about humanity. She embodies all those qualities, a feminine leader brings to any situation as opposed to the very rational, logical, autocratic ‘this-is-the-way’ kind of approach that a male leader would traditionally bring.”
3. Women have the ability to bring a different language to a global conversation. Merkel’s solution to the refugee situation was led by compassion. In Theresa May’s case, she  to responded the fact that people felt unheard by their leaders with her inclusive language. “In her actions so far Theresa may have shown that she has been listening, and that is also important in a feminine style of leadership.”
4. Dr David Paul thinks what makes feminine leaders so attractive is how they listen and equally articulate the feelings of the disenfranchised population. “From a male perspective we do a snapshot survey, because the numbers speak, and therefore we think that we have heard everybody, but when you read the mood and feel the energy, it is a different approach.”
5. Dr Paul also reminds us of the role of women in keeping the countries going through World War II. They kept the factories going and they held together the fabric of society. “If they had not been there then we would not have had a nation to come back to.” Feminine leadership is not just about roles in politics and business, it also embraces women’s vital leadership in communities and and home-making.

LISTEN to The Rise of the Feminine radio show episode featuring Dr David Paul

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Radio Show: Why Countries Need Feminine Leadership Right Now

Don’t miss the very first episode of Gina Lazenby’s new radio show, The Rise of the Feminine which launches on Monday 1 August on Voice America (5pm London). This week, Gina will engage with two experts in the fields of feminine leadership, politics and branding and a third guest discusses her entry into the world of local activism for national politics.

First, Gina talks to feminine leadership specialist and author Dr David Paul, discussing a wave of feminine leadership sweeping the world, echoed by the recent appointment of Theresa May to the Prime Minister post in the UK. David has been an adviser to heads of state and government minsters globally, both men and women, and has unique insights into what he sees women can bring to political leadership.

In the second part of the episode, the Country Report, Gina talks to Rúna Magnusdottir, an Icelandic entrepreneur and author, who has had special insight into Iceland’s contribution to the feminine leadership conversation. The discussion is centered mainly on the lessons that the UK can learn from other countries on the perceptions and understanding of feminine leadership.

In the third and final part of this week’s Rise of the Feminine episode, Gina talks with the local chapter leader of the UK’s Women’s Equality party in Harrogate, Yorkshire, Viviane Morris who got involved with the brand new political party with no prior experience in politics. She shares her interest in helping the world raise children who have a more inclusive perception of gender, which gives more hope for the future. We’ll be talking about the Women’s Equality party and its mission in a future show but here we wanted to focus in on what one woman can do when she steps forward and takes action in her local community.

Join the Rise of the Feminine conversation online on the Facebook page  and don’t forget to tune in every Monday, live at 5pm in London and start the week with us in California at 9am Pacific time.

Listen live on Mondays 5pm London time

UK’s new female PM aims for a new inclusive politics

We have just survived the most interesting week in politics that the UK has ever had, perhaps since the end of the second World War. (A big shout out to the BBC News channel for their fantastic coverage). Witnessing the vacuum in power when all the key men left, then seeing the women stepping forward, has been really inspiring and quite frankly, a relief! As I said in my blog post last week … when it gets messy, bring on the women.

However, a good friend in Sydney pointed out to me,  we don’t really want to pin our hopes on a female leader if she is just going to be another Margaret Thatcher who did nothing to champion women in politics. In her eleven year reign Mrs Thatcher brought just one woman into the Cabinet! I have been reflecting on this.

Will Theresa be another Thatcher?
The long shadow of Margaret Thatcher as an anti-feminist does indeed still loom large in any conversation about women political leaders, with many men simply thinking any woman will be the same. Apart from any personality issues, I believe Margaret Thatcher was a woman of her time and I don’t think there was any other way to act than to be either one of the men, or better than them at their own game. She did prove that a woman could do, what was probably perceived as a man’s job, and run the country. Thirty years later, having passed through the era-shifting portal of the millennium, we are in a very different world. There are now many female leaders around the globe, albeit the UK ranks as 48th with the number of senior women politicians that we have! David Cameron was very disappointing in his championing of women unlike Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who swept to power last November and created a balanced cabinet with equal number of men and women.!

I do truly hoped that the women who are increasingly stepping into national political roles in the UK will bring something different using their feminine power and not “ just do what men do” as Germaine Greer opined in the Times last month. She noted that as more women rise to the top they simply step into a “man-shaped world” ….  “a world run by women is not the same as having a world run by say, feminists or socialists…..” she said.

I think we have been through a dramatic shift in the last year and the last fortnight in particular. Remember during the General Election in 2015 when half the speakers on the TV debates were female (Scotland, Wales, Green Party leaders). That was a first and many of them were widely judged to have performed better than the men.

Something has changed and there is an appetite for female leadership, ney, I think we could call it a hunger right now. We are actually expecting the women to be different and I believe that is giving them a mandate to bring their authentic leadership style to the table. I don’t think it will be long before we have a new language about leadership with these women setting the agenda and showing a new way.

The BBC last night had a reporter in Swindon asked people what they wanted from their new Prime Minister (a good time filler while we waited for Theresa May to meet the Queen at the Palace). People were asked to write one word on a card that summarised what they were looking for. Here are those words:

• Pragmatic
• Bold
• A Do-er
• Honest
• Kind
• Listener

Yes those qualities will have been curated …. but they are largely what the feminine brings, especially the last two. And Theresa May did not disappoint during her first few hours as Prime Minster on Wednesday evening as she demonstrated most of those qualities. You can read her speech here (with annotations from the Guardian) or watch on the BBC here.

Everybody could see that no plan had been put in place by the people championing to leave the EU … but Theresa has made some bold appointments to handle this. She appointed some of the men who wanted Brexit to happen and they are now heading up a brand new government department to clear up the mess they created.

Theresa May’s first speech was filled with inclusive language. She spoke of:

• the precious, precious bond (between the countries in the UK)
• that word unionist is very important to me (the original full name of the Tory party)
• we believe in a union not just between the nations of the United Kingdom but between all of our citizens – every one of us
• fighting against the burning injustice
• The government I lead will be driven, not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours
• we will think not of the powerful, but you …..

Women Leaders are really taking on inequality
Much of the language during the referendum has been about putting the “Great” back into Britain but what did that really mean? and who has benefited from any initiatives that have been driving the economy forward? The answer is the few… and women leaders are now taking on this issue of wealth inequality. I would indeed have been disappointed if Theresa May had simply repeated about making Britain great again but the final call in her Maiden speech as Prime Minister, was “Together we will build a better Britain”.

She did talk about needing a vision for a new post-Brexit Britain and making a success of leaving the EU, but I also heard her put fairness and inequality right at the heart of her plans. What she said was more akin to a socialist reforming agenda such as we heard when Tony Blair first came to power in the 90s.  She made a promise that new laws and initiatives would be specifically targeted to the many working people and not the few … the 1% rich.

This wealth inequality is what Christine Lagarde, CEO of the International Monetary Fund put at the top of the international agenda at the World Economic Forum’s Davos meeting at the start of 2014. That was when a report from Oxfam showed that 85 people were in possession of half the world’s wealth. Two and a half years later at the Femme Q feminine intelligence conference in Berlin, co-organiser Scilla Elworthy, announced that “now 62 of the richest billionaires have more wealth than half of humanity”.  The last two years of austerity programs have simply made the rich richer and it is this inequality and increasing deprivation of opportunity that corroded the trust which people had in their political leaders. All pleadings from Westminster during the Referendum fell on deaf ears as they came over as more empty promises. Theresa May seemingly listened and has got the message from the country outside the capital. Forget us at your peril.

How the media have reported this rise of the feminine
The Evening Standard spoke of the country having had “enough of malicious male egos … and there’s a matriarchal yearning”. Our new Prime Minister will be joining Angela Merkel, and possibly Hillary Clinton,  on a world stage “cleaning up all the male mess. The Germans call it the Femokratie.”

Meanwhile an interesting essay in the Daily Mail last Saturday noted that “femininity is no longer the insuperable obstacle to leadership that it was in the past.” Sadly the page was headlined with “Why are women suddenly ruling the world?” which is both inspiring and threatening. The accompanying graphic was an image of the planet with a woman’s foot in a black stiletto shoe striding over it. We have to shift the conversation about the rise of women to the top key leadership positions as some kind of take-over instead of what it is, the fair representation of half of the population. That will come with time as the culture and culture-narrators in the media become accustomed to female power as a norm.

What do women bring ?
So far, Theresa May is showing that there might just be a different way in politics. She is not a showy, egoic character with an obvious connection to the old boy’s network of Westminster. She says, and everybody agrees, that she just got on with the job. In a leadership contest at another moment in time, her lack of a high profile and charisma could have stood against her but now, after the drama of the Post-Referendum fall-out with the main characters leaving, a quiet, calm, sober figure …. a vicar’s daughter with a proven track record as a hard worker … is absolutely what we need. Satirists and impressionists are having to trawl through media archives searching for the very few recordings of Mrs May. She has either been elusive or her last of participation in there Boy’s Club has made her invisible.

Many women operate under the radar and remain invisible
I just came across a blog post from a friend, Karen Sands, a Leading GeroFuturist who describes herself as a “visionary with wrinkles” and champions the benefits of aging, particularly the gifts brought by older women. Karen was writing about how women, and their efforts/accomplishments in later life, tend to be invisible. At age 59, Theresa May kind of fits into that category.

Karen says, “Women have the opportunity to harness their dominant feminine aspect, to go with the flow, making changes and collaborating with others in ways that go unnoticed by a society so focused on the visible, on the ego. When we fly under the radar of the good old boys’ network, we can make significant, sustainable changes without anyone standing in our way. This is why women must step forward today and act on their power to make a difference—through their votes, their purchases, their leadership, their vision, and yes, their success. Striving for meaningful, sustainable, and profitable success is necessary if we are to have the resources and power to lead significant change.”  A good mandate here for Theresa.

So fingers, our new PM may be our second female Prime Minister but let’s hope she is the first to be a real champion of the feminine with pro-female policies heralding a new era and bringing a soft power leadership to the UK.

Meanwhile, I have joined the Women’s Equality party (just one year old now) and if the movement for a cross-party Progressive Alliance movement does continue to get going, we have four years until the next general election to work out better alternatives to what we have now.

 

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“When it gets messy bring on the women”… and it really is messy now

Rt Hon Theresa May, the longest serving Home Secretary since 1892 .. now a serious contender to lead the UK as Prime Minster

This week in politics it has been difficult to pick over the blatant lies to recognise the truths and to separate egoic personal ambition from a strong desire to serve the country… and even to see clearly who actually has the skills to navigate us out of this mess.  It doesn’t help with the media highlighting the drama of personality clashes either.

It is going to take a particular type of leader to see us through the months and years ahead to re-establish our credibility in the global community. Whilst he might have been everybody’s hero during the Brexit campaign, I don’t feel that Boris Johnson has the skills to be an inclusive leader….  remember the look of  shock on his face the morning of his ‘victory’  .. a little bit akin to a rabbit being trapped in the car headlights! At that moment it became clear that these guys did not have a plan. So while on the one hand I admire his running mate Michael Gove for being ‘truthful’ and declaring that what he had seen of Boris’ coping strategy when the proverbial hit the fan over the weekend. His behaviour made Gove recognise (possibly reluctantly) that Boris was NOT the right man to form a new team and heal the current rifts, in the conservative party and in the country. On the other hand, he then declared that HE was in fact the man to do this … again, would we have judged him worse for not knifing Boris the back and also stepping aside … that would make it look like he was walking away from the mess and vacuum that they both were responsible for?

Cross Party Collaboration needs to be created
I believe the way is clear for our current Home Secretary, Theresa May, who has been in that job longer than anyone in history, to be the next Prime Minister and by saying that I am neither declaring myself a Tory supporter nor a socialist. I think that the polarisation of being on the left or right is meaningless right now. We simply need a fair, uniting representation of the people – whatever that will look like. Cross-party collaboration like never before will be critical now to ensure that the voices who declared themselves unheard in the EU election, are now finally listened to.

Female nation leaders stepping it to unite
I found an interesting article this morning about female nation leaders stepping in after countries have been through trauma and crises. As I read it with interest, then increasing recognition, I discovered that I had written myself it two years ago !!

Basically, I reported in a post on this blog about research which examined five-decades of 5,700 national leaders which showed that in the most ethnically diverse countries, women outperform their male counterparts in terms of GDP, which is a significant indicator of progress. In tough economies with great ethnic diversity, countries with a female at the helm correlate with a 6.6 % rate of growth in GDP after their arrival. This compares, in similar situations with a less than 1% return from male leaders.

Perhaps some feminine sensitivity is needed for healing the divides
As report author Professor Katherine Phillips said, this “dispels the myth that women are too maternal, lack strength or are otherwise ill-equipped to provide senior-level leadership in trying times and amid complex circumstances. Our findings reveal that not only can women grow global economies, but that a little motherly sensitivity can go a long way in guiding a nation in need of healing to not only mend, but thrive.” I think that would now include the UK! We certainly qualify as a nation in need of healing.

Nobody has really been discussing any gender aspect of our current leadership needs and it would be fair to say that most of the players in the game have been men with a few walk-on parts taken by women … with of course the exception of Nicola Sturgeon who seems to continue to be a uniting force within Scotland.

I have not previously taken much notice of Theresa May but yesterday when she stepped on to the podium to announce her much anticipated candidacy for Britain’s next Prime Minster, I really saw that she had the reassuring presence which this Westminster comedy of errors is now calling for. You could tell she had been given a well-crafted script but by by comparison with much of the unscripted Eastenders-like drama around her, her voice was quiet, regal and reassuring.

“I am Theresa May and I think I am the best person to run this country.” For me that bold statement alone was a dead give-away that the words were written by a man. That’s OK … we need strong leadership now and courageous declarations. And the next bit was clever because it tackles all the criticisms levelled against her about being boring .. surely the polar opposite of the now-departed Boris Johnson.

“I don’t tour the Television studios, I don’t go gossiping about people over lunch, I don’t go drinking in Parliament bars …. and I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve. I just get on with the job in front of me.” She continued “People want strong resilient leadership and honesty from politicians”…. ouch, that was a clear reference to the lies that were the cornerstone of the Brexit campaign with many campaign promises being reneged on within hours of the win being announced last Friday. Trust in politicians in general is at its lowest and a calm, steady pair of hands, with a good track record at the top is probably a safe bet for restoring faith in our system. She is actually the longest serving Home Secretary since 1892 .. more than 120 years.

When it gets messy bring on the women
We also need a female role model who is different to Margaret Thatcher. Loved and hated seemingly in equal measure, we need to prove that not all women will be clones of Margaret. Politics is changing, unity is required and I strongly believe that feminine qualities of compassion and collaboration are what is needed to unite  the country.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, often points out the difference that women bring to leadership situations. She is famously quoted as saying that if it had been Lehman sisters, the bank would probably not have collapsed. She also says that when times are tough, women are much better at doing what needs to be done and was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying: “ When it’s messy, get the women.”
I think Andrea Leadsom with her finance and city experience would be a good deputy PM and we have never had a female duo at the helm. And we could find that a likely Labour leadership challenge puts another woman in the Opposition Leader role. Interesting times ahead.

A roadmap from Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard for the uncharted times ahead

Gina Lazenby with Barbara Marx Hubbard talking on Brexit morning about the bigger picture of what this all means

A small group of women had gathered to listen to Barbara Marx Hubbard, considered the original futurist and a woman who has written many books about conscious evolution. We were brought together on Friday, June 24 by Mirella Sula of Global Woman Magazine. The kind of women who showed up were all passionate about aligning their business interests with their deep commitment to creating change in the world. Barbara Marx Hubbard is definitely a poster girl for understanding how to ride waves of change, and at age 86 she been a leader in this field for over half a century.

I travelled down to the gathering from the north of England especially to meet Barbara. What started out as an interesting and exciting encounter became something a little more urgent as we were all trying to grapple with the surprising news about Brexit … the UK’s unexpected departure from the EU was just announced a couple of hours before we met. Barbara was a perfect mentor for putting all this real and potential chaos into perspective. Barbara was with us for just over an hour and half of that time was for questions. I was very keen to have time for an interview so when I heard that she was leaving immediately for the House of Lords, I asked to join her and ended up doing my video and audio interview in the back of a London taxi cab .. as you do !!

Here is the interview to watch. It’s very insightful and couldn’t be more perfect in its timing to begin to give us a roadmap. We are used to living in uncertain times but the political structures that we have become accustomed to, and we know no longer serve us, are actually dismantling hour by hour. There really is no map for what is ahead and it is crying out for a new kind of leadership, something we have not seen before but have to do envision afresh. I have also Transcript BMH Interview so that you can read it here … there is much to digest.

A few key insights:
This is all meant to happen as part of evolution
In order to have transformation happen, which is what we are seeking in order to fix our systems that no longer work, breakthroughs have to be created but breakthroughs can only come once we’ve had breakdown. This is exactly the space were are in now with our political system and democracy.

It looks fearful because that is all we are focusing on
The media we have is operating in the old paradigm and is only reporting everything that is bad news. The total focus is on what’s not working and we are in such an overload with that this weekend, it puts people in a state of fear, and against each other.  There are plenty of initiatives around the world of things being done differently and successfully that would give us hope but they are not being included in this one-sided news story. It is hard to have a vision for new possibilities when you are ignorant of all the good things that are already being instigated through other people’s creativity. Hope over fear will be a guiding light.

Why there is a big opportunity here for women
New leadership is needed and this is likely to come from the women. It by no means indicates that women would take over, it simply means that the men who created the systems that have now broken are trapped in an old way of working. It’s hard for them to see alternatives. Men are structured into a success syndrome culture but that’s not a natural way for women to work. This is where our creativity will come in and our feminine style of leadership with different values. Compassion, tolerance, intuition, listening, community building .. these are all highly feminine capacities which are being called for at this time.

Connection and community is key
Around the world people are already gathering in small groups, like we did in London on Friday, to discuss new ways forward. We don’t know what we are each doing … there is an urgency for us to connect. As Barbara said, everything that rises has to mobilise. Creating communities of common purpose that can connect to each other will be the way forward. As the big power systems start to collapse, which is quite terrifying to most people, the potential void creates space for the new initiatives to come through. The gaps are always frightening but they give us a chance so we need courage.

Men need our help
This is the time where the evolving woman needs to nurture the evolving man. We have to give men love, support and guidance to enable them to step into different ways of being that they are not familiar with. While stepping forward we also need to step back and provide a space of holding, to enable men to take on the inner exploration that they need to find their own creativity in a way that they have not done before. It is a beautiful and scary journey for all but at the end of it we will be creating different kinds of relationships where both the man and woman will be aligned by the passion that comes from the jointly supporting each others’ purpose.

The Dalai Lama is right about women saving the world …
He has said that the world will be saved by western women. We’ve got the freedom, the education and for those over 50 and the decades beyond, there is much less focus on child care. We know how to love a family and our concept of family has expanded globally. Barbara so elegantly put it: “We have more love in our hearts than we were able to give in the old structures”. We are on the loose with energy and passion and we need to mobilise … !

The Breakfast Event where Barbara had been speaking was organised by Mirela Sula, Founder of Global Woman Magazine. Their next major event is the Global Women’s Summit on July 30-31

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Jo Cox: the painful loss of a new kind of leader

An unusual combination of MP and activist
Jo Cox MP was exactly the kind of new leader that society and politics needs right now and we didn’t really know what that might look like until the bright media spotlight was thrust on her, sadly for the wrong reasons. She was the first female Member of Parliament to be murdered, and brutally so last Thursday in her home town and constituency while serving her community.  The country was reeling in shock and for the rest of that day and following day… there was no other news.

The more we heard the more we were able to build up a picture of an extraordinary politician and inspiring leader. We listened to work colleagues talk about how wonderful a loving mother she was, with a bright, brilliant intelligence; a ferocious campaigner; a champion for the dispossessed, disadvantaged and vulnerable all over the world with the street cred of having spent most of her adult life working in social justice actually on the ground and working in refugee camps. Not only that but she was effective. People spoke of her energy, passion and practicality and her ability to take on major issues. Apparently she worked with Sarah Brown (wife of ex-PM Gordon) on MDG5, the only Millennium Development goal that by the mid-decade had not had any impact. The issue of maternal health was simply not on the radar of world leaders .. until she put it there. Sarah has since written that the number of deaths of women in childbirth then halved when she championed the issue.

If only we had known all this before, we could have loved her while she lived! And how it would have given us hope that change might be starting to happen. We have got so used to being disillusioned with the whole system that it became easy to forget, or we didn’t see, that a new breed of politician has been coming in to Parliament. I certainly did not know that inspiring individuals like Jo Cox had been motivated to serve the country by standing for election and working inside the House of Commons. Thankfully, she was not alone. On the very night of her death another female MP joined Westminster having been elected to replace the Tooting seat vacated by our new Mayor of London. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, is another professional, passionate leader who is local born and raised in Tooting and works as an A&E doctor at the local St George’s Hospital.

A new set of values
As people shared their experience of Jo the most commonly quoted traits and values were:

• dedicated,
• passionate,
• loving,
• accessible,
• warm,
• compassionate,
• honest,
• always listening and
• having a huge heart.

Reading through that list one would not normally think that we are talking about a politician, in fact it was this image of a hard-working loving mother and skilled community champion that added to the pain of the tragedy. These are not qualities that are brought so openly to the political arena. Recently, we have seen a huge increase in negativity in the debate between public figures. The appalling personal insults and low quality of dialogue has made many people disengage right when we need to be able to listen and understand how to decide on the future of the country. Our political leaders have not been role models for emotional intelligence and when things get nasty it might be seen to give permission to other people, who may not have full command of their emotions, to express themselves with very inappropriate action … as witnessed last week in an extreme way.

What good can come from this?
BBC new presenter Joanna Gosling asked Jo Cox’ s friend and fellow MP, Stephen Kinnock, if this might mean we could see “a gentler politics?” He replied that there needs to be a reflecting so that the tone of anger is dialed down and that politicians are in fact very good people who need our respect. Jo’s own wish would be for a society of tolerance, hope not hate. Her drive and compassionate approach to all that she did got her noticed by politicians on both sides of the house in the short time she was an MP, just over a year.  Compassion is so rarely brought to bear where big decisions are made in countries and corporations and yet it is exactly what society needs to create change. Only last week I attended a Summit in Berlin called Femme Q where we heard how feminine intelligence will be key to creating change the world with compassion being in the top five traits that leaders need to embrace to create change. Jo Cox was certainly a trail-blazer in feminine leadership.

Jo’s one fault …
Lord Kinnock spoke movingly on live TV, unable to hold back his tears, recalling, as a family friend of twenty years, that he had encouraged her. He was impressed with how she used her high intelligence to solve practical problems and her fight for common sense and fair play. Poignantly, he said “this was a woman who could not be stopped”.  He drew attention to her one fault … in his opinion she was too modest and he advised her to push harder .. for herself, to get heard. This is often the plight for so many women leaders focussing on what is dear to them but unwilling to drew attention to their achievements, letting them speak for themselves. Rather tragically in this case, attention has been drawn to Jo and her work, but a little too late for her to know how highly regarded she was.

Personally I believe there will be a ripple of change. People will absolutely remember the amazing mother and fearless champion who might want day have made it to the top as a party/country leader.  She has set a high benchmark for a new breed of politician who’s loyalty to their community is their priority and who bring new values to play a very different game of politics that actually brings change. That’s my prayer for Jo Cox.

What I learned from Margaret Hodge

Margaret Hodge has been the Labour MP for Barking (near London) since 1994 and after holding various ministerial posts (Culture, Children) she is now the high profile Chair of the Public Accounts Committee.

Margaret was interviewed at a special convening of The Leaders Club in January sharing her wisdom from a long life in politics on both sides of the house of Westminster. Read the report of this event. This is what I personally took away from that dialogue.

1. Working as a lone woman (in a majority of men) and having a mission can make you a big target for both criticism and untruthful media coverage. I think that this is less about gender and more about being in a minority and trying to shift the status quo.
2. You’re never too old to take on a a big mission or a big job. Margaret is 70 and has been in the running for the election of a new Mayor for London. I can stop whining about being in my late 50s and feeling like I missed out on anything. Just get on with it!
3. Doing what you believe is right and actually having the courage to speak out might mean you lose out in the popularity stakes …. but as long as you are true to yourself and your values, that will give you the strength you need.
4. Get involved. Don’t leave everything to the politicians. Get behind a big idea. Get behind a small idea. Get behind something. I am talking to myself here.
5. Tell the truth. Other people might not like, but better to be known as a truth-teller, particularly in the current culture of politics that is so tainted by lies and dishonesty.
6. Have the humility to recognise when you were wrong. If you make a mistake, own it. Be upfront about it and that will help to defuse some of the ammunition your opponents might line up against you.
7. Don’t just complain about what you see that is not working … do something different to try to bring about change.
8. Value the immense power of listening …. really listening …. so that your stakeholders feel heard.
9. Work with others to get results … cross boundaries, partitions, borders, tribes …. whatever traditions separates you … find ways to come together to get results when you have a common cause and both of you will benefit.

 

Are there any politicians who have inspired you?   What inspired you?

Meeting the UK’s “Tax Rock Star”

Gina Lazenby meeting Margaret Hodge MP at Westminster, London

I was really keen to hear Margaret Hodge speak, not only because she is a female MP, still a rarity in the UK, but also because she is one of few really high profile women in politics. She’s outspoken and her honesty and forthrightness has in the past attracted some bad press so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet her in person and judge for myself.

I have to say I was expecting her to be rather formidable. As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee she has a reputation for roasting the targets of her investigations. As political author and columnist Polly Toynbee put it, she “turned the dull-sounding public accounts committee into the most rigorous scrutineer” of wrongdoers … “making bankers, tax-avoiding CEOs, failing ministers and permanent secretaries quail under her sharp tongue.” Margaret herself said that when she was in Paris at an OECD meeting they lauded her as a “Tax Rock Star” for her work in putting tax avoidance onto the Government’s agenda.  She is quoting as saying to a senior executive of Google “ I think you do evil!” over their pitifully low tax payments in the UK.

At our January gathering of The Leaders Club in Westminster’s Portcullis House, she delighted us with her honesty and authenticity, sharing stories about her early life as an Austrian Jewish refugee in Cairo. That traumatic start in life has obviously helped shape the woman of today. She observed herself as being a “stroppy” child and told us of her reluctant journey through business and motherhood into politics. No, in person she was not in the least formidable … well not in the English sense but in the French I would definitely call her “formidable!”.

Margaret Hodge was interviewed for The Leaders Club by Richard Smelt, HR Director of McCains. It was a well-researched and excellent Q and A.

A haphazard career
It was interesting to hear of the journey she took which led her in to politics. I used to think that people went into politics OR business. Margaret points out that this is not a good thing. She said politics today is “too professional” and not only does it need people with some business experience as well,  it needs to involve more “ordinary people” who reflect more the views of voters. Margaret’s journey started out at Unilever where she worked after graduation but soon left because, in the late 1960s, women were allowed to do the research but not allowed to write the reports.

Politics was not on her radar but when she left work when she had her children, she needed to do something outside the home. She joined her local council. From her involvement in community politics in Islington, she saw the issues of the day that needed tackling and joined in the marches and activism of that time. Gentrification and the loss of affordable housing have been passions of hers to stand behind. She has weaved in and out of politics and business ever since, and although she never intended to become an MP and work in the “odd bubble that is westminster”; somehow she was persuaded to stand for Barking in 1994.

She spoke of a different kind of politics
When the leader of the BNP (British National Party) targeted her parliamentary seat in Barking, she was forced to rethink the way she related to voters. Her London suburb had shifted from being mainly white to having very high levels of immigrants and that had put enormous pressure on housing needs. She set out to really listen to her voters. She avoids ribbon-cutting at opening events, instead, she creates opportunities to sit down with her voters over cups of tea and listen to their concerns. She is well aware of the broken trust politicians have so she has made it her priority to re-build trust by making sure she can deliver on the requests made of her that she is certain she can actually do something about. No empty promises from Margaret.
A champion for women
With so few female politicians at Westminster, she has always been in the minority and issues that affect women have never been held as important when the majority of MPs have been men. She spoke of her early work on diversity which has always brought the media pack down on her. Conversations that she championed 30 years ago that attracted ridicule are now being held as relevant today…. finally. One of the greatest changes that she has been involved in was the right to have flexible working. There were no maternity rights when she had her children so she said female MPs across the parties aligned and worked together to change this. She shared her dismay that years later, women are still structurally disadvantaged and real progress remains an illusion. She sees that women of child-bearing age are not being promoted and her own daughters were both made redundant during their pregnancies.

When Margaret was Minister for Culture she was alarmed at how few women were on cultural and arts organisations boards. Only 26% of the names being put forward for consideration were of women. She said they made an effort to find women to propose, and within a year they almost doubled the numbers to 46% for female candidates. Sadly, after she took a year out for compassionate leave, the energy for this dissipated and the numbers slipped back to 26% but it shows what is possible when intention is placed behind an initiative for change. This experience has led her to back positive action to advance women since leaving it to the system is not working.

What advice has she for women today?

• Of course confidence is always an issue so it is hugely important that women support each other by offering encouragement and reinforcing that women “can do it” when they have moments of doubt and think they are not up to the job. Women’s self belief must be bolstered.
• Don’t think of your working life as a short sprint .. it’s a long haul especially if you take time out to care for children or later in life for ageing parents. Expect to come back and continue the ascent, especially if we are all now being expected and encouraged to work until we are 80 … Margaret herself is aged 70 and has put her hat in the ring for Mayor of London.
• Use women’s networks … they are critical. we have to be there for each other especially in work cultures where men know their way round the system
• Ask for more. As event host Richard Smelt pointed out, when men take on a new job they are 60% likely to ask for more money whereas only 30% of women will think to do this.

Paying Tax is a question of fairness
It has been reported in the press how she has skewered top execs of the global tech companies who are operating in the UK and have kept their tax liabilities to a minimum. Is that smart business? It’s not fair says Margaret. If you are a business that needs employees then those employees need to live somewhere with an infrastructure that are supported by public services, including healthcare. Who pays for this so that YOUR employees are educated, healthy and can get transportation to your place of work?She felt it was particularly odious that a big consulting accounts firm had been paid by the Government Treasury to write to technical framework for taxation regarding invention and patents, only to then “sell” their advice about this to their clients.

Margaret’s work on the Public Accounts Committee has intervened to ensure that the Government makes their legislation more robust to protect from this potential loss.Margaret talked about us needing a new moral social contract .. that people would want to give according to their means and contribute to the common pot. However difficult it is to set up cooperative working and business models like the John Lewis Partnership, we need to look at these options.

 

 

 

Great news from Scotland: New female leader inspires with a new language

Scotland is a long way from London and I would not normally follow the workings of the Scottish Parliament or find it remotely interesting.  But today the country’s new leader is making their first appearance in the house and for the first time this post is held by a woman. In fact, the one candidate she was up against was the female leader of the opposition, and her anointment in the role took place the day before in a procedure led by the first female Presiding Officer in Scotland. With the lead players at Holyrood all women I decided to watch the live streaming on BBC News of Nicola Sturgeon’s performance as First Minister taking her first Questions. She was impressive. Her language was different to what I normally hear coming from a politician’s mouth.

Anything positive spoken about a woman can be taken as a criticism of men. It’s not. I am wired to look and listen out for difference. The more we can understand the difference that women bring the better for all of us. As we search for new ways to conduct business and politics it is important to recognise the special contribution that is available by having more women in key and leadership roles.  Not just because equality of opportunity is a good thing but we need to understand, name, respect and leverage feminine qualities that will help take us all in a new direction. What struck me about Nicola Sturgeon was her language and her invitation for a different approach to dialogue.

She said she wanted to avoid  “the usual defensive ding dong” that is traditional of political discourse.    “I am open minded to any proposals that come forward from any side of the chamber as to how the government can do things better.” The topic of healthcare was raised and specifically the postcode lottery of uneven access to life-saving cancer drugs.    Again appealing for consensus, the First Minister, added: “On this issue, possibly above all other issues, it’s important that we don’t divide on party lines – these are matters of life and death for many people.” She referred to the problems being complex and not professing to have all the answers herself inviting anyone to come forward with ideas and she would make time to sit with them and listen.

I can’t ever remember a Westminster politician or male minister admitting to not having answers, saying they were open-minded and willing to listen to the opposition, or wanting to be participative and non-combative. How refreshing! I would much rather vote for a politician who said they did not have answers. We know they don’t know but they won’t admit it. What we need is their listening because it is in that open creative space of dialogue that we will find the answers that society is looking for to the myriad challenges we face.  Tell the truth I say. Name the reality.

“I’m lost …. we are lost … but let’s get together and talk about a way forward … let’s use our combined intelligence and wisdom and see what emerges from that.” Now that is the kind of speech I am interested to hear from a politician of any colour and I am inspired to discover a female leader emerge in Scotland who has the courage to ask for help. Bravo Nicola. It seems she is demonstrating what Professor Vlatka Hlupic, author of The Management Shift, would call “emergent leadership” which her research indicates is our only way forward if we want to create a sane, solvent, sustainable world.

 

Was this acceptable behaviour in the House… and in the Press?

I feel for Maria Miller, I really do. And her family…. she’s not the only one affected by this.  I can’t imagine how she has managed to keep it together this last week since resigning last Tuesday.  If I were her I would indeed feel badly for what I had done but also totally mortified if I had read the press coverage about myself. She paid a high price for her mistakes, not only losing her job but her reputation is in shreds and that is not something that can easily be recovered, if ever.

What I have been churning over is the reaction in the press. So many people have felt free to release a lot of nastiness in her direction.

How can this STILL be an issue?
I think the first thing to say is that I was extremely disappointed that expense mis-claiming at Westminster is still an issue. After the expense scandal blew up five years ago, surely they got it all sorted out? No, it seems they haven’t (and apparently there is more to follow). The opportunities for misunderstanding about what is appropriate to claim apparently continue.

It can’t be that difficult for an MP’s accountant to sit down with a Westminster official or a Rule Book and get clarity on what IS and what ISN’T appropriate for their client to claim?  And why have all these huge mortgage claims anyway? Why not give every MP the same daily ‘living-away from home’ allowance for them to spend in whatever way they chose?  MPs, particularly busy Ministers, need better financial advice than they are getting. The Evening Standard called it a “complicated eco-system”. While we are at it, the whole culture of Westminster needs a major re-think but that’s a MUCH longer conversation.

A Witch Hunt? Bullying from the Press
Reading the headlines and the miles of columns devoted to her, this was a really big issue last week.  From what I have discerned, I think it would have been difficult for her to remain and resigning was the best option. My concern is the level of negativity directed at her from ALL quarters (other than the Prime Minister himself who was resolute in his support). The nature of the press coverage was brutal, nasty and personal.  She was criticised way beyond the expenses … everybody had a go calling her arrogant, a philistine, bad at her job as Culture Secretary and failing in more ways than one.

Ouch! To me it felt like it was open season to criticise and to throw out any insults they felt like, which really is a form of bullying. If I had been a young woman considering a career in politics I think I would have decided against it last week. Maria Miller was hung out to dry by the system and ripped to shreds in the media …..  MPs in her own party actually spoke out against her (that has not happened before as they almost always close ranks), although they were the same MPs as those who voted against the recent Bill she drove through to enable Gay Marriage. Even the party Vice-Chairman felt it fair game to take a swipe and tweet “About Time!” when she did resign. That was totally unnecessary. Prime Minister David Cameron thought so too and promptly sacked him. That added to the drama.

Are we getting upset over the wrong things?
The media went crazy over Maria Miller and her “arrogance” and seemed determined that she should resign. I am sure we could sit down and argue over this for many hours but I do wonder why there is no similar outcry over other issues which for me are way more important. Take the issue of the Government spending over £500 million stockpiling two drugs that have turned out to be no more effective than aspirin. This news made the front page as a sub-story underneath Maria Miller. After the Bird Flu alert the Government bought Tamiflu and Relenza which have subsequently been shown, not to prevent flu, but to reduce its occurrence from 7 days to 6.5 days. Is that all???  I ask you,  £400+ million spent on that … now THAT is criminal.

And yet where is the outcry? We’re too busy fretting over a few thousand that potentially was over-claimed for a Minister’s house. Yes I know it’s not the money it’s the principle … and it comes down to ethics and trusting politicians.  I think we lost trust in politicians long ago but where is the public enquiry and debate about the wasted money spent with the pharmaceutical companies that was for nothing??!   And this is just one story …. what about the £100 million investment by the BBC now lost after the Digital Media Initiative was scrapped. Why aren’t we jumping up and down about that one….?

The Claim or the Apology? What upset people the most?
Not all MPs/Ministers with expenses issues have had to resign and Maria Miller was the first one to be asked to make a formal apology in the Chamber. I wondered in my previous blog if the real issue was the expense problem that got to people OR …..  whether it was the apology which was quoted everywhere as being “graceless” and only 32 seconds.

The Guardian says she “conveyed no contrition”. I watched it again and I don’t agree but yes it was short. It was this criticism which made me think that if the Minister had been a man people might not have been so upset by this brief, concise apology. Professor Shelley Correll from Stanford University speaks of women being held to a higher standard of niceness than men (watch her video interview). Perhaps this was a factor in the reaction. Maybe. Francois Hollande is still President of France after lying and cheating on his partner and she was the one who came away with the bad press. Now that one is a real mystery!