21 Great Leaders: Learn Their Lessons, Improve Your Influence (34 page)

Reagan was meeting with his staff when the call came in, and they could hear the bawling out their boss was getting from the prime minister. At one point, Reagan put his hand over the mouthpiece and said to his aides, “Gee, isn’t she marvelous?”
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Even on the receiving end of her high dudgeon, Reagan admired her.

In 1992, debate raged over the Maastricht Treaty, which created the European Union. Mrs. Thatcher was no longer prime minister, but she was involved in the debate in the House of Commons—and she opposed the treaty. Prime Minister John Major sent Conservative politician Michael Forsyth to talk her into supporting the treaty. When Forsyth arrived, Mrs. Thatcher had a marked-up copy of the treaty in her hands.

“Michael,” she said, “which section of the treaty would you like to discuss?”

Forsyth replied that he hadn’t come to discuss the content of the treaty. Instead, he was concerned that she was hurting herself politically by her opposition to it. He later recalled, “It was a stupid mistake and I should have known better. There followed an almost thermonuclear explosion during which I was asked in forceful terms if I thought she had ever cared about herself rather than her country…. I crawled under the door, thoroughly ashamed of myself.”
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Here is one of the keys to Margaret Thatcher’s bold leadership: She didn’t care about her own political interests. She didn’t care if she was praised in the press. She didn’t care if she was popular. She cared only about what was best for her country. Her lack of self-interest made her bold where others would have been timid.

Bernard Ingham, Mrs. Thatcher’s longtime press secretary (1979 through 1990), said, “She did not crave to be loved. God save me from politicians who want to be loved. It is sufficient to be respected. Margaret Thatcher was respected.”
¹⁸

Even some of Mrs. Thatcher’s most bitter opponents respected her. After her death, Paddy Ashdown, leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 through 1999, told the
Guardian
, “I didn’t like her politics…. I fought, sometimes mistakenly, against elements of her agenda…but there’s no question that she was one of the great prime ministers of our century.”
¹⁹

Mrs. Thatcher’s boldness served to embolden others in the Conservative Party. Kenneth Clarke, health secretary under Thatcher, said, “We were all believers in free-market economics; we all thought the trade unions were a dreadful, over-powerful vested interest…. [But] if it hadn’t been for Margaret, I’m not sure many of us would have had the courage of our convictions. She gave us all the courage to do what we all believed ought to be done.”
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Underneath Margaret Thatcher’s boldness was a captivating (and underrated) feminine charm. Geoffrey Howe, foreign secretary during the Thatcher years, recalled a European summit in Copenhagen in December 1987. The delegates could not come to an agreement. Tempers were frayed. French president François Mitterrand rose and delivered a dour monologue, saying the summit was over and no solutions were in sight.

Then Mrs. Thatcher stood and cheerily replied, “No, it hasn’t been like that at all, President Mitterrand. It’s been a very good meeting. We haven’t quite solved it, but we will.”

Mitterrand responded, “I sometimes think Mrs. Thatcher is even more beguiling when she is saying yes than when she is saying no.”

Howe was also present at the first meeting between Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1984. Thatcher was the first Western leader to recognize Gorbachev as a different kind of Soviet leader. At the end of their time together, she said, “Here is a man with whom I can do business.” Soon after that meeting, Mrs. Thatcher met with Ronald Reagan. Howe was present, and he reflected, “Margaret’s most important contribution to the world was her ability to convince Reagan…that Gorbachev was a guy with whom he could do business, too.”
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Mikhail Gorbachev remembers Margaret Thatcher as a bold and daring leader who contended forcefully for her views. Gorbachev especially appreciated Mrs. Thatcher’s statement about him, and the fact that he and Mrs. Thatcher could disagree intensely while growing closer as friends. “For me,” he concluded, “she was ‘a person one can deal with.’ ”
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On August 2, 1990, Prime Minister Thatcher was preparing to give the closing remarks at the Aspen Institute Symposium in Colorado. Her top foreign policy adviser, Charles Powell, called her and told her that Saddam Hussein’s forces had just crossed the border into Kuwait. She told Powell to determine the location of British ships and aircraft in the region, and find out what resources could be diverted to the area. During a crisis, she once said, a leader must “take some action quickly, and you want first to know the facts.”

Her next step was to take a walk to clear her thoughts. Then she went to see President George H. W. Bush, who was staying in the Aspen home of the American ambassador to Britain. President Bush welcomed her and said, “Margaret, what do you think?”

“Aggressors must be stopped,” she replied, “and not only stopped, but they must be thrown out. An aggressor cannot gain from his aggression.” Her experience in the Falklands had confirmed this principle. The experience of World War II also confirmed it, for the Nazis had been emboldened by a failure to “deal firmly enough with Hitler in the early stages.”

President Bush was receiving conflicting advice. Arab leaders told Mr. Bush to allow time for an “Arab solution” to work. Colin Powell urged sanctions. Mrs. Thatcher knew that an “Arab solution” meant endless stalling, while sanctions could take years to work.

“You often receive conflicting advice,” Mrs. Thatcher reflected. “That’s why it is so vital to get your own ideas sorted out and the reasons for them. You don’t have to accept advice which you think is unsound, but it is vital that you work out what you think has to be done and the reasons for it.”

Mrs. Thatcher could see that President Bush lacked clarity. So she said, “Look, George, this is no time to go wobbly.” She knew that the United States and Great Britain had to stand firm. Saddam Hussein had to be evicted from Kuwait.
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Because of the bold leadership of the Iron Lady, President Bush committed American forces to the region. Mrs. Thatcher left office on November 28, 1990, less than a hundred days before coalition forces launched the ground assault that began the liberation of Kuwait.

Mrs. Thatcher died on April 8, 2013. When she passed into history, the world mourned the loss—and remembered the legacy—of a bold, courageous leader.

The life of Margaret Thatcher is rich in lessons on the Sixth Side of Leadership: Boldness. Here are some important insights:

1.
Physical courage is a leadership asset
. It is one thing for a leader to put a career, a reputation, or finances on the line. It is quite another thing for a leader to demonstrate courage in the face of suffering, tragedy, or mortal peril. A leader who demonstrates the kind of physical courage Margaret Thatcher did—going on with the conference after the Brighton bombing—sets an inspiring example for everyone to follow.

I’m not suggesting you should engage in reckless behavior or exploit a personal tragedy. But when events put you to the test, you have an opportunity to become a role model of bold courage. Your trials and tragedies can be opportunities for influencing others.

2.
Dare to speak the truth that others refuse to face
. Margaret Thatcher delivered her bold “Britain Awake” speech in 1976, when most politicians muted their criticism of the Soviet Union. Mrs. Thatcher defied convention and told the truth as she saw it. Though some were aghast, others applauded her boldness. The Soviets responded by dubbing her the “Iron Lady”—and she wore the sobriquet as her trademark. Let your boldness be your leadership trademark.

3.
Set bold goals and pursue them with confidence
. When Ronald Reagan told Margaret Thatcher he was going to “try” to become president, she replied, “I
am
going to become Prime Minister.” She dreamed an extreme dream—then she pursued a step-by-step plan for turning her leadership dream into a reality.

Lech Wał\ęsa, leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland, was grateful for Margaret Thatcher’s support. He recalled, “Observing her at work was a great opportunity to learn how to achieve goals. Once she gave me advice: ‘Write down the ten steps from where you are now to where you want to be.’ It was a good lesson.”
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4.
Eliminate habits that undermine your boldness
. In 1975, critic Clive James criticized Margaret Thatcher’s voice, saying she sounded “like a cat sliding down a blackboard.”
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Mrs. Thatcher responded by hiring a consultant, former television producer Gordon Reece. Mr. Reece, while on a train from Brighton to London, encountered actor Laurence Olivier. The actor gave Reece the name of a renowned speech coach at the National Theatre. After working with the speech coach, Mrs. Thatcher eliminated the shrillness of her voice and developed a dramatic, almost Shakespearean style of speaking. By the time she became a national leader, her voice was no longer a liability—it was one of her strongest leadership assets.
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On two occasions, I was in the audience when Mrs. Thatcher spoke in Orlando. Though she was not a dynamic, high-energy speaker, she was compelling. Everyone in the audience was captivated by her passion, her wit, and her stories about great people and great events. She walked us around the world and talked about nations and issues that would confront the West in years to come. I came away saying, “That was the best political science class I’ve ever attended!” It’s encouraging to realize that her speaking ability was not a natural gift, but a skill she acquired, practiced, and improved on with the help of professional coaching.

5.
In times of crisis, don’t go wobbly
. Don’t abandon your principles in the crucible of testing. Margaret Thatcher believed that free market principles would turn the economy around if given enough time to work. By the fall of 1980, her policies had been in place a little more than a year—yet her critics demanded that she make a “U-turn.” Her bold reply: “The lady’s not for turning.” If you know in your heart that your principles are worth fighting for, don’t go wobbly. Silence your critics by proving them wrong.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Margaret Thatcher’s first response was to take a walk, clear her thoughts, and recall her core principles. By clarifying her principles, her decision became clear. People who lack core principles have very little basis for decision making. They are uncertain and indecisive—they make it up as they go along. Crises catch them by surprise, and they often delay decisions until it is too late. A well-defined set of principles will clarify your options and serve you well in a crisis.

A leader must not go wobbly. A leader is not for turning. Leaders must be bold.

A SERVING HEART

G
ANDHI

The Great Soul

My life is dedicated to service of India through the religion of nonviolence
.

G
ANDHI

T
he train was moving as Mohandas Gandhi jumped aboard. He climbed the steps, tripped—and one of his shoes slipped off and fell beside the track. Without hesitating, he yanked off the other shoe and heaved it away in the direction of the lost shoe.

A fellow passenger asked, “Why did you throw away your other shoe?”

Gandhi said, “The poor man who finds the one shoe will now have a pair he can wear.”