It’s all change at the top with a new Labour Government learning the ropes after 14 years in opposition, and yesterday US President Joe Biden withdrawing from the presidential election in November and backing his VP, Kamala Harris.
Being the New Broom is the recent episode of the BBC podcast The Bottom Line and host Evan Davis is joined by three CEOs (Stuart Hill, CEO, DHL; Rachel Roxburgh, former CEO, Dallaglio RugbyWorks; Alan French, CEO, Thomas Cook) who discuss what it’s like on day one to take over and run the show, what to do first, and biggest lessons learned with the benefit of hindsight. When asked for one piece of advice to give Labour ministers, it’s interesting that the answers vary from the advice the panel would apply to business – the rhetoric of politics being more likely to lead to the enforcement of simple solutions onto complex problems.
It’s a thought-provoking episode. The takeaways for me are:
· The criticality of the vision, supported by a positive culture and clear communication
· Embracing change and building the flexibility to pivot as necessary
· Listening and trusting your intuition – by all means listen and review the data but don’t be over-analytical
· Bearing in mind that commercial decisions can be corrected quickly, people decisions are harder to undo
You can listen to the full episode HERE