Our country is in turmoil. More specifically it lacks leadership. It is unlikely to get anything resembling that soon. The young have been betrayed. Over 60% voted to remain in the EU yet their futures have been stolen by the old. Our political class is broken, the two major parties void of ideas and lurching to find an identity.

Today I am launching a political movement for the young people of Great Britain. It will sit at the centre of the political spectrum, will be compassionate, inclusive and tolerant. It will listen, the way our politicians forgot to listen. That means to everyone.

The vision is to create a robust, thoughtful, democratic progressive party for the 21st century, that moves towards not pushes away. We will seek to understand the other, not exclude. Most of all, the politics of division and hatred must become a footnote to history. We need to engender trust once more in the political process lest we slip back into the fractious and warring 20th century. I invite anyone who sought to Remain in the EU to subscribe to the New Democrats via Facebook, to take leadership and assist in getting a million young people to be heard, and to act. The time is now and it’s later than you think.

A few days ago, a girl I dated for a year when I was in my teens contacted me via a social network. It came as a surprise. When our relationship ended, I had not behaved well. She was very much in love, I was not. Our feelings for each other at the time were far from mutual. I was well within my rights to end the relationship. Inexcusable, however, was the abject dismissal of how she felt at the time. I remember standing under a streetlamp on a dark night and simply telling her: “It’s over. I met someone else.” She became slightly hysterical, and as she did my attitude hardened, my resolve firmer. In the end I turned on my heel, leaving her standing, distraught. At least, that is how I remember it. There are always different interpretations, even different meanings we make of life events. She may remember it differently.

When she wrote out of the blue, I replayed this scene in my mind and felt ghastly. My 50 year old self would never treat some one like this. Somehow, I had developed a modicum of empathy. But my unconstructed 18-year old self was quite relaxed about being an ass. Yet I am the same person. How could I draw a line between these two different selves and make sense of it? If I had known what I would become, would I have acted that way in the first place? I was ashamed. I contacted her and made a full, unreserved apology.

As I reflect on this small vignette in an insignificant life, I find larger implications. Saying sorry, asking for forgiveness makes one vulnerable. This has no downside. Yet in human affairs we do it so rarely. Why is it so difficult for leaders to apologise, to admit being wrong to “lose face”? Why do we so consistently put our “selves” before others and their feelings? I can share my own feelings having made this apology, as a proxy: it offered, and I feel a sense of relief. It was as if a bit of the closet got cleaned up. I expect nothing from her, no absolution. It is enough to have simply said it.

Leaders the world over carry small burdens, burdens that become cumulative and affect behaviour, leading us to self protect. Write to someone whose feelings you have hurt and apologise. Crossing that small divide heals organisations, teams, relationships and even ourselves.

Cry me a river

Forty-eight hours ago, German Wings 4U 9525, en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf took an unexpected dive over the French Alps and crashed into a mountainside killing all 151 people on board. In the early hours of the investigation, the assumption was a technical failure had caused the catastrophe. But as the flight recorders were found, it seems that there is a more sinister explanation. At this point we know that the pilot was locked out of the cockpit. The plane was in the sole charge of 28 year old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz. In the last moments of the plane’s descent we hear the pilot trying to kick the door in and retake control of the plane to no avail. The rest is history.

The scenario is oddly reminiscent of the MH370 crash over a year ago. In this disaster, a plane diverted from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and was lost somewhere over the Southern Ocean several hours later. It has never been located. Since no technical issues were reported, the assumption is that the pilot was on a suicide mission. All the cockpit recorders had been disabled. The enquiry has focused on the mental health of the pilot.

Let’s focus for a minute on the daily life of a pilot and the “hygiene” factors in the airline business. Flying a plane nowadays is reported to be a tedious endeavour. Apart from takeoff and landing, pilots spend long boring hours in cramped quarters doing not much. Moreover, from a social perspective, it is rather lonely. Flight crews are brought together for a return flight and then disbanded. A pilot may not see another pilot for months. So there is little camaraderie. The chance to build context, unlike in so many other jobs, is low. Couple this with a disturbed sleep pattern ( highly correlated with depression), getting up very early or flying in late and thus also an irregular social life, it’s surprising that more pilots are not a bit gaga. When most of us feel low we have a boss we can talk to. Pilots lead a lonely existence in an industry where pay is only going down. And I haven’t even mentioned airline food!

Last year, after MH370 the boss of Kiwi Airlines said: “There is a fundamental desire to ignore the mental health problem in the airline industry”.

Today the twittersphere is alive with stupidity, calling Lubitz a terrorist amongst other things. The fact is that anyone who deliberately flies himself and 150 other human beings into a mountain is mentally unwell. If it turns out to be suicide this will bring the death toll of planes that have crashed at the hands of a suicidal pilot to over 800 in the last three decades. When there was a spate of suicide at Apple’s Foxconn production facility in Taiwan, Apple got on top of it and improved the working conditions of the employees. Maybe it’s time the airline industry took a long hard look at itself

Andreas Lubitz in happier times.

.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Afzal Amin was, until two days ago, on a roll. A former British Army captain and Chairman of the Armed Forces Muslim Association did what no well-trained military man should do: he shot himself in the foot. How? Amin was prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate in the forthcoming general election.

For the Tories Amin was a dream. Military background, Muslim and Conservative are an unlikely mix. For a party with a right wing of, at times, questionable racial standpoints, they must have been delighted with his candidature and his potential to win. Amin, however, had other plans. In order to secure this marginal seat, he jumped into bed with the enemy, The English Defence League. For the uninitiated, think, Nazi leanings, racist bigotry, thuggish behaviour and a dated world view. What was he thinking? Amin allegedly offered the EDL access to power, should he be elected. In return, the EDL would threaten to stir up trouble in Dudley and Amin would be seen to mollify the situation.

Unbeknownst to Amin the leader of the EDL decided to record the conversation with Amin and shaft him.

The real issue here is around leadership. Amin’s moral compass was facing South.

1) Power for power’s sake is not public service. Win fairly or don’t bother. People are fed up enough with politicians and dare I say, democracy.

Looking good, feeling bad.

2) Why would a Muslim deal with a group of people who are seeking to remove him and his kind from the British Isles? Turkeys and Xmas come to mind. Amin was clearly desperate. Leaders desperate for power should be excised.They will only serve themselves.

3) When you get caught, on tape, don’t deny it. It’s embarrassing. Own up and say sorry. Don’t come up with silly excuses, when you know that you are getting fired (with enthusiasm) in the morning, which he was.

Amin got his, ahem, marching orders. Good riddance. Had he looked rather more deeply into himself, this catalogue of errors may not have happened. He claimed to have been “stung”. Great leaders don’t get stung. Their moral compass is always facing True North. And all leaders need to ask themselves: Who do I seek to serve and why? not, “What do I seek to acquire and how?”

Yesterday, David Cameron inadvertently revealed himself as a leader. Headline scribblers went mad overnight, commenting on his “arrogance, presumptuousness, reluctance etc”. The crime? Informally interviewed, peeling carrots ( or some other root vegetable) in his kitchen, he simply said, in response to the direct question: Would you go for a third term?

“No, I want to see through a full second term. I want to finish the job. The job is half done…I think at the end we will need fresh leadership, a fresh pair of eyes. We have plenty of young talent coming up through the ranks”.

Granted, he has not won his second term yet.

Whatever your political persuasion, as a lesson in leadership, Cameron’s remarks are salutary.

• Firstly, he is courageously authentic. It would have been easy to obfuscate. He did not.
• Second, he made himself vulnerable. He did not suggest he could, would or should go on and on like some heroic leader. He is very aware that most politicians nourish their narcissism and go mad in term three. See Tony Blair for details.
• Third, he committed to finish the job and execute the strategy he set out with. Task orientation is often sadly lacking in corporate leaders. He demonstrated commitment and tenacity.
• Fourth, he talked about succession. It is pretty difficult, from an egotistical point of view to imagine handing over the running of a country. To do what? Play golf, write a memoir? Whatever you do next, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson, this was probably as good as it will have got. Yet succession is a thorny subject for CEO’s and politicians alike. They generally outstay their welcome, and destroy value as a result. Tony Blair and Steve Ballmer are shining examples.
• Fifth, peak leadership is a drain on resources energy and health. Let’s not forget that Cameron Tragically lost a child a few years ago. All leaders need to look beyond their jobs ate what really matters. Usually, that lies at home.

Cameron’s foes will likely make much political capital out of this single throwaway line. Politics is a dirty business. Leadership however is not. Cameron said the right thing. Now it remains to be seen if he will do it.