London Bridge Has Fallen
Somewhere on Twitter this past week, amidst all the tributes posted out of respect upon her death, I read that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was “the first girl boss” (she became Queen at 25 over 70 years ago) and it made me think about what her tenure (she was the world’s longest-serving monarch) might teach us about organizations and leadership. “I cannot lead you into battle,” the Queen said in 1957. “I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands, and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.”
In fact, it is perhaps easier to think of what kind of leader the Queen was not, rather than align her with a corporate title: not a chief executive officer, a president or a director. Given the length of her service and the ways in which she established the idea of monarchy in peacetime, she seems like more of a founding partner than CEO; and because of her work away from day-to-day operations, she is more like a board chair than senior manager. It is actually quite difficult to find a good analogy for the role of the Queen as a leader, and yet leader she was, as monarch and head of state. Perhaps outgoing UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, summed up what her loss meant to us and the nature of her leadership, when he said: “For older Britons especially, the loss is deep and personal and almost familial.” And almost to substantiate Johnson’s point that the Queen was seen principally as the head of a family, Rolling Stone and septuagenarian, Mick Jagger, said, on the Queen’s death, "For my whole life Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II has always been there. In my childhood I can recall watching her wedding highlights on TV. I remember her as a beautiful young lady, to the much beloved grandmother of the nation.”
Two aspects of the Queen’s work shed some light on how perhaps the Queen herself saw the tensions inherent within her role. In 1997 during the immediate aftermath of Diana, Princess of Wales’s death, the Queen and her family, with Diana and Charles’s sons, William and Harry (15 and 12 respectively), retreated to Balmoral where, as the Queen stated: she could protect the boys from the outpouring of public emotion and the media frenzy in London and be a grandmother to them. But the people of England wanted more; they wanted to see that the Queen cared about them, her subjects, and about the loss of the “People’s Princess.” Prime Minister, Tony Blair played a key role in efforts to manage and lead the Queen to change her mind and return to London. In this example the Queen necessarily turned away from her public role to a more private one, where she placed Charles’s young family first; and then, her duty of care for her people forced her to turn back to the nation. The image of her bowing her head as Diana’s cortège passed by, showed her deep sense of duty to her people; and of course acknowledged the role Diana had played in their lives.
A second and perhaps more important fact that helps us understand the type of leader Elizabeth II was and how she may have influenced us, is to consider that she served for over 70 years as head of The Firm. (A term coined by the Queen’s father, George VI; he was even known in fact to have said: “We are not a family, we are a firm.”) Long-standing leaders can certainly be a plus to institutional success. Some obvious questions to be asked, however, are: can one person move and change sufficiently with the times? Can an organization be viewed as responsive and reliable with the same leader in place that long? For the Queen clearly, it was a great strength. In the 1990s, the Queen herself talked about the tradition and continuity of the monarchy. She actually lamented that people no longer seemed to take on jobs for life. She saw long-term service as a good idea, since people in long-term positions are more able to know the role intimately and to do it better as aspects of the job become more predictable. The wisdom she developed made her, among other things, a keen and effective advisor to 14 prime ministers, as they in turn taught her so much about governance and politics.
If we see the power and influence of the Queen as that of an elder in a family, that is someone who has been in the position a long time, we can see how valuable and vital—and in fact unique—her long life of service was to the country. The longevity and continuity she represented formed the lifeblood of the country; not only safeguarding the institution of the monarchy for 70 years, but also providing an executive layer of leadership that withstood the tests and trials of changes in the economy, political parties and prime ministers.
One of the Queen’s distinct skills as a long-standing leader was her “soft power;” not necessarily the direct power of a CEO, rather that of someone who used influence and was adept in the art of gentle persuasion. During meetings of the Commonwealth Nations in the 1980s where the important topic of South Africa and Apartheid was being discussed, it was Queen Elizabeth who spent time with individual leaders slowly developing the consensus that resulted in economic sanctions against South Africa by the nations of the Commonwealth. More recently, at the opening of the Welsh parliament in 2021, she criticized world leaders on climate change when she referred to their “…lot of talk and no action.” A woman who is famously known for saying: “I have to be seen to be believed” remained circumspective and neutral in public on many issues, and yet she always knew the power of a few carefully chosen words at the right time. British politicians knew how to leverage this aspect of the Queen’s ability, through what they called a charm offensive, sending the Queen or other prominent members of the Royal Family overseas to pave the way for diplomatic and other agreements. Her Majesty, while seeming to be a woman of few words, used her communications and her presence wisely, bringing enormous value to every public moment.
Elizabeth II was not only our first “girl boss,” she was the embodiment of servant leadership. In any organization values and standards are important. It’s how we do what we do, why we do what we do. Remembering and applying these values is the role of leadership and long-term leadership especially provides stability and continuity in this application. In fact, the role of the Royal Family, as defined on their website is: “helping to strengthen national unity and stability.” As I write this an article in The New York Times (9/10/22) entitled: The Queen’s Death Leaves U.K. Grappling With Its Sense of National Identity, prompts a core understanding of the role of the Queen’s leadership in our lives. The Queen, Mark Landler writes: “…projected influence through duty.”
Another key element of a successful business organization is of course how effective its brand is. Queen Elizabeth’s constant commitment and devotion to duty defined that brand. As we saw during the recent celebration of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, the world readily recognizes the symbols and emblems of the United Kingdom. If you want a good example of an organization always on message, the Royal Family (mostly!) gets that right. Listen to Charles III’s language in his first speeches after his Mother’s death, he is truly on message. Throughout the past 70 years, if you want to understand what the United Kingdom stands for, just look to the Queen.
Clearly we can learn a great deal about leadership and organizations from the life and work of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Her devotion to duty and her desire to serve, shine brightly as we observe her passing. Somehow she was able to create a personal relationship with each of us and as her story passes into our history, the lessons learned are ones that we might learn from a family elder: the values of family, the pride of belonging, the celebration of clan, the ways in which we grow and change as we age and gain experience. In fact, no one can ever replace or replicate this role she played, or the person that she was. She grew before our very eyes. She was the archetypal matriarch--a mother who guided and inspired her family, both immediate and worldwide.
May God bless her!