What sort of leadership does the United Kingdom and, indeed, the world currently need? Views, of course, differ but it is a question posed regularly at Wellington. In his February Fireside Talk, Sir Anthony Seldon took us through the great Prime Ministers and what it was that enabled them to be transformational leaders; and earlier this week, The World at One’s Sarah Montague gave Wellingtonians a whirlwind tour of the current geopolitical landscape, reflecting on the world’s most pressing issues, the role Britain might play and the types of leadership we are witnessing.
I often wonder what the First Duke of Wellington would make of it all, a man who helped bring Europe together in peace after the Battle of Waterloo, and who spent his entire career leading and serving others, both militarily and then, later in life, in broader public service when he became Prime Minister. Twice. It should come as no surprise that, as the Iron Duke’s national memorial, Wellington College has always had a strong tradition of service and leadership, and we continue to search for different ways in which we can give pupils the opportunities to serve and lead others during their time here, as well as taking part in formal leadership training.
The legendary NFL coach, Vince Lombardi, famously said, “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” To help make leaders at the College, we are fortunate to have Dr Katy Granville-Chapman and Mrs Emmie Bidston who run the WLCI – the Wellington Leadership and Coaching Institute. The WLCI works in partnership with the Oxford Character Project, the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard, the Department of Education at Oxford University, and also the Jubilee Centre in Birmingham; it delivers training and initiatives within our Global Citizenship programme aimed at developing:
- Leaders with great strength of character
- Leaders with a desire to serve to lead
- The skills required to be a positive leader
Crucially, at Wellington, we believe that anyone can lead and, indeed, that leadership can be learnt. Furthermore, one of the quotations to which we regularly refer is, “Leadership is a choice, it is not a position” from the American author Stephen Covey. This is not a distinction I appreciated when I was 16 years old and in the Lower Sixth, when I failed to be appointed a College Prefect at school. Not only that, but I also failed to be appointed a House Prefect or even a Dormitory Prefect, the lowest leadership position there was, which was distinctly upsetting as I was led to believe that everyone at my school was appointed a Dormitory Prefect!
Last week, I saw my old Housemaster. We reminisced and I asked him about his decision not to give me any position of formal power or leadership back in 1994. He laughed and gently pointed out that my motivations at the time may have been more focussed on the position and title, and not so much on the privilege and opportunities of serving others. With hindsight, I think he was absolutely right and whilst disappointed at the time, I came to realise that this disappointment was not going to define me or my future, nor did it mean that I was somehow a failure. I just wasn’t the right person for those leadership roles at the time.
So as we head into the Summer Term, I would like to thank the entire Upper Sixth for the leadership, service and character which they have shown as senior pupils within the College over the past year; and I congratulate those in the Lower Sixth who have been appointed to various positions within their Houses and the wider College.
That said, I will never stop urging every Wellingtonian to understand that they can develop their leadership skills and become highly effective leaders without any formal position, just as I did back in the 1990s. True leadership is, after all, a choice and not a position.