Allies and rivals: lessons from the Blair-Brown relationship

Quote
“It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.”  Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

News

Documents leaked to a pro-Conservative British newspaper last week provide evidence that several of the current leaders of the Labour party were involved in a campaign to oust Tony Blair and replace him with Gordon Brown as leader of the party – and therefore Prime Minister – back in 2005. 

The present Labour leadership have dismissed it as “ancient history”, but the documents have once again cast light on the chronic tension between the two most senior government leaders from 1997-2007: Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Chancellor Gordon Brown.  Despite the oft-repeated statement that all was well, the actual relationship between the two men – whose combined leadership was crucial to governing the country – was ‘volatile and sometimes ferocious’, to quote a BBC journalist.

Backstabbing has been a feature of politics at least since the Ides of March in 44 BC, but there is always a high cost when those who are charged with leading a government (or any organisation) are fighting for control of the levers of power. 

In democracy, the relational art of compromise is a political necessity; no one person has all the insight, wisdom and experience to take the best decisions for wider society.  Dictators prove that daily. 

The ability to listen carefully, to forgive, to emphasise a common purpose, to practice humility, and to recognise what is best in others are some of the relational qualities needed for effective leadership.  By the same token, envy and selfish ambition in a senior colleague are a toxic growth that should be weeded out, or it may bring down the organisation.  The same principles apply from the home to the board room and all the way to Downing Street.

Read on...

Rivalry has continued to characterise the top of the Labour party; Ed Milliband narrowly defeated his brother David to win the leadership election last year.  A review of the recent book by Dorothy Rowe on sibling rivalry, ‘My Dearest Enemy, My Dangerous Friend’, can be read here.

Walk the talk

Ambition is good, but it needs periodic refining to rid it of the subtle but corrosive influence of envy and jealousy.  Do you need to examine your own heart for this?

The last word
From the Bible, Matthew chapter 12, verse 25: "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”