Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy

MacDonald, Simon

ISBN 10: 1913368688 / ISBN 13: 9781913368685

Published by Haus Publishing, 2023

About this Item

Gut/Very good: Buch bzw. Schutzumschlag mit wenigen Gebrauchsspuren an Einband, Schutzumschlag oder Seiten. / Describes a book or dust jacket that does show some signs of wear on either the binding, dust jacket or pages.

Seller Inventory # M01913368688-V

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Leadership: Lessons from a Life in Diplomacy
• Publisher: Haus Publishing
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1913368688
• ISBN 13: 9781913368685
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very good

About this title

Synopsis

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY BOOK AWARDS 2022

When Abraham Lincoln said, ‘You can be anything you want to be,’ Americans, and eventually everybody everywhere, lifted their sights. Nowadays anybody can aspire to be a leader, and nearly everybody has to lead sometimes.

In his first book, Simon McDonald assumes that thinking about leadership before you lead helps you to lead better. No matter the circumstances in which we might be called to lead – be it at work, on the sports field, or in the community – the example of top leaders in politics and public service (both their successes and shortcomings) can help you figure out your own approach.

Over nearly four decades in HM Diplomatic Service, Simon worked for four permanent under-secretaries and a dozen senior ambassadors before becoming permanent under-secretary himself and leading the Service (which has over 14,000 staff in 270 countries worldwide) for five years. He also worked directly for six foreign secretaries and saw five prime ministers work at close quarters. Observing these people undertaking the most important and often the most difficult work in the country, Simon saw the behaviours which helped them achieve their objectives, and those which hindered them. He then had the chance to try to apply that learning.

In a closing chapter that considers the future of leadership in the UK, Simon McDonald makes a compelling case for the reform of the monarchy, the cabinet, civil service and, in particular, the House of Lords, of which he has been a member since 2021.

Leadership of the United Kingdom is being debated as never before. This book is a clear-sighted and insightful contribution to that debate.

About the Author

Simon McDonald is a British former diplomat who was the British Ambassador to Germany and later Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service. He is Master of Christ's College, Cambridge.