On Leadership Quotes

“If you don’t feel safe, nothing else in your life is going to compensate for the absence of basic security.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“I reckon it takes ten years to change a country. And that is ten years of focused change-making. At a minimum. Fifteen is better and twenty optimum.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“The word ‘government’ is derived from the Greek kubernao, meaning to pilot a ship, as in Plato’s phrase ‘the Ship of State’. To steer a course, governments need a plan.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“The Leader sets out for the people what they need and not simply what they want. Otherwise, the Leader is just a follower.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“Really good people are hard to come by. In any walk of life exceptional talent is, well, exceptional. So, if you see someone with such talent, then go after them; if they’re as good as you think they are, you will never regret it.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“The same rule applies to politicians. For government the equivalent reads: policy first, politics second. In other words, decide the right policy to solve the problem and then fashion the right politics around it; don’t decide the politics and then form a policy to suit.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“The priorities are the big things, and because they’re big, there can’t be fifteen of them. If you’re lucky you will make five. And the process of prioritisation must begin at the beginning of the government. Otherwise, effort is diffused, or events drive the agenda.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“I call the four ‘P’s: prioritisation, policy, personnel and performance management.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“Then there is something that all too easily gets neglected: you also need time for yourself, for your family, for relaxing, for shedding the stress, if only for a moment.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“Whoever runs your schedule is the most important person in your world as Leader. You need time to think, time to study and time to get the things done you came to leadership to do. Lose control of the schedule and you will fail.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“In opposition, it matters what you say. In government, it matters what you do. And saying is a lot easier than doing.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“But then, second, there are the changes of a systemic nature – reform of healthcare, welfare, privatisation of a major state utility, for example – and these changes involve painstaking analysis of the system, the precise changes you want to make and their relationship to the system as it currently operates; they involve managing a range of different interests, all of which will fight the change or find ways to diminish or neuter it.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“Often these changes demand structural reform on a large scale. My experience of governing is that changes usually fit into two categories. First, there are changes which are one stroke of the legislative or administrative pen – such as abolition of a tax or setting a minimum wage. They’re important. But the process of government in respect of them is relatively straightforward.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“American diplomat who defined the USA policy of containment towards the Soviet Union in the 1940s and 50s, once remarked (paraphrasing Lewis Carroll and Through the Looking-Glass): ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“But courage – doing what is right, not what is easy, being prepared to be unpopular as well as popular – is an almost inevitable accompaniment of successful Leaders. This is for the very matter-of-fact reason that true Leaders are change-makers. And change is the hardest challenge of governing.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“Leaders have the courage not to go with the flow. They speak up when others stay silent. They act when others hesitate. They take the risk, not because they fail to identify it as risk but because they believe a higher purpose means the risk should be taken. They’re prepared to say what needs to be said, including to their own supporters.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“Politics is part philosophy, part performance and part practicality. The last is more mundane but it is the one which finally makes the difference.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century

“The concept of social care was unknown. During the course of the nineteenth century state provision developed, but even in 1900, government expenditure accounted for only about 12 per cent of GDP. Since then, as government has progressively taken on more and more duties and responsibilities, that figure has risen to over 40 per cent. Most modern developed nations have built their public realm in much the same way. And developing nations are following suit.”
― Tony Blair, On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century