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One of Great Britain’s most internationally recognized statesmen, Tony Blair served as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2007. During his tenure he helped transform Britain’s public services in education and health care and is widely credited for his contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process. He continues to be active in public life today, working as a key leader in the international community’s efforts to secure peace in the Middle East. He also advocates on issues of personal interest, including Africa and climate change. In 2008, he launched the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which promotes understanding between the major faiths and increases understanding of the role of faith in the modern world.
On His Early Days as a Leader
- Sometimes people look at people in a position of leadership and think they have confidence, etc.
- “I’ve never been like that.”
- “I felt very normal in an abnormal situation.”
- “I felt compelled at a certain point to step out.”
- Conventional wisdom can be the comfortable thing to do.
- The comfortable thing to do can be the wrong thing to do.
- You have step-backs and failures when you step out against the norm.
- Most people liked to be liked.
Decision-Making
- The thing about leadership is that you have make a decision inside of yourself that there will be things you will stand on and be faced with the fact that other people might not like it.
- Part of leadership is having an inner core, an irreducable core, the thing that cannot be chipped away at.
- You cannot yield on what is at your core.
- You have to do what you know is right, even if it’s not popular.
- Your job is to stand by what you think.
- Be prepared to walk away.
- The times I found most difficult to lead were when I thought I was compromising on what I thought was right.
- Most people in leadership know when they are taking a position because they actually believe it.
- You’ve got to listen to and absorb criticism.
- If the facts change, I change my mind.
- You have to have a clear view.
Doubt
- Doubt is expressed as a deep reflection of what you are doing and if it’s right.
- You need to think through your decisions.
- Doubt can be right, it causes you to think.
- You’ve got to put aside fear that comes in the moment of decision.
- You have to be able and willing to take the responsibility of decision making.
- It’s never easy… but in the end, your ultimate duty is to decide… somebody has to.
- If you’re not stepping up and deciding, someone is.
- Even if people strongly criticize you, they respect your role of decision making.
Faith
- If you are of religious faith, it’s the most important thing in your life.
- It’s not that you make decisions in a “religious way.”
- But it does give strength and support.
- Faith and its role in the world is an enormously potent force for good or bad.
- Faith plays progressive and constructive role in the 21st century.
- There’s a lot people of faith can accomplish together.
Negotiating
- I’m a great believer between the differene between tactics and strategy.
- There’s strategy in the goal you are trying to reach.
- To get there, it requires a lot of compromise and tactical issues along the way.
- You’ve got be be prepared to have a lot of give and take.
- Things are difficult and tough to get through, but things should always be measured against your goal.
Leading Through Crisis
- Do we react by pointing a finger or make a statement of our unity?
- Made the judgement that a statement of unity was most important.
- In the moment of crisis… get the facts, get the managerial details, get a message that meets the emotions of your people.
Pain + Disappointment
- By counting your blessings you can endure pain and disappointment.
- Remember it’s a privilege to do your job.
- We’re blessed and lucky to be doing what we are doing.
- Every day you should wake up and feel motivated.
- Whatever pain and disappointment you accumulate, it cannot compare to the blessings you have.
- What are you REALLY complaining about?
To Church Leaders
- Leadership is a blessing.
- It’s a gift that you’ve been given and a gift you can use to help others.
- No matter how difficult, challenging or painful, it’s your duty to do it.
- The way the world around you works, whatever it is, without a leader, things don’t get done.
- The joy of getting something done makes all the pain worthwhile.
- It’s a blessing and a gift from God you should use.
Hybels’ Comments
- There are things you have to be unyielding on and you have to be ready to walk away if that’s compromised.
- What is that irreducible core in you?
- We are torn in leadership… people pulling us in different directions.
- Are you willing to stay true to what you believe?
- 1 Corinthians 15:58: be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your work is never in vain, if it’s in the Lord.
- Leadership is a blessing.
- It feels heavy at times.
- We get to paint pictures for people to aspire to.
- We get to lift up causes and people that matter for eternity.
- Keep in balance.
- There’s pain, blessing and opportunity in all of it.
