Thinking about…

I’ve never understood why people think that changing your mind and doing a U-turn is a bad thing. To me particularly for somebody in a position of power, being able to change their mind and do a U-turn is a sign of confidence, self assurance and a lack of arrogance in their decision-making. It’s the senior leaders who can’t change their mind and U-turn, that I worry about.

In every day life we make mistakes, we mess things up, we fail and we do things that impact on others in a harmful way, often without realising we are doing harm. Yet most of the time we plough on relentlessly, thinking we must be right and that we’re just not hearing from the right people. Or that people aren’t listening to us in the right way. We plough on relentlessly, listening to the few rather than the many, often making things worse and finding it hard to acknowledge this.

Whatever your political persuasion, I’d argue that the only politicians worth paying attention to are those that make their mistakes in plain sight, own up and own their mistakes, and look to take a different path. Whilst it’s absolutely right to challenge, criticise, and hold people to account for the things they get wrong; when they admit they’ve got it wrong, apologise and seek to change direction, people deserve to be praised for using their power wisely rather than be castigated.

I can think of a number of leaders over the years who have stuck dogmatically to defending things they have done, even when all the evidence proves that they were wrong. Yet for reasons that make no sense to me, a large percentage of people seem to think that dogmatic arrogance is a good thing.

I recently read a book about military blunders. A book that most of our senior military leaders would probably prefer we didn’t know existed. When a military blunder is made, just as when a political blunder is made, lives are put at risk. Countless people could die if the wrong advice is listened to,  the wrong decisions made and if military leaders are not prepared to change their minds. 

There are three things that stood out for me about military blunders that occur and the things that are likely to lead to death and destruction.

One. An arrogant belief by the leader in their own self importance, to the detriment of anybody around who dares to disagree with that leader.

Two. An inability by the leader, to listen to any point of view that might slightly diverge from their own.

Three. A determined focus on not accepting the consequences of one’s mistakes.

I’m sure all of us can think of senior leaders we have worked with who have committed these blinders. Maybe not leading directly to peoples’ deaths, but certainly leading to a loss of a livelihood, a destruction of a way of life, and a loss of personal self-esteem.

It is arrogance and an inability to listen to or take on other points of view, that are the failings we see in so many senior leaders and yet many of us fail to see these as negative leadership qualities. I’ll never understand why listening, changing your mind and doing something different instead aren’t seen as positive leadership attributes.

Personally, I’d rather change my mind and say I’m sorry I made a mistake, how can we make this work for all of us? It seems crazy to plough on relentlessly, arguing that my ideas just haven’t been implemented properly. Surely these are military grade blunders. Blunders that some of our senior leaders and politicians seem unable to come clean about incase they lose face amongst their keenest followers.

Jim Thomas

June 2025