On Leadership: A Practical Guide

The leadership manual Tony Blair wishes he had when he became prime minister, with personal insights and global examples that show aspiring leaders how to go from talking about change to making change.

When Tony Blair led his UK Labour Party to a landslide electoral victory in 1997, becoming the youngest prime minister of the twentieth century, the party had been out of government for almost two decades. With victory comes a mandate to govern. But there was no manual he could turn to, no course for Prime Minister in training. He had to learn on the job, relying on gut feeling and the learnings that came with experience. After a decade in office, he says, he was beginning to understand how government worked and how to make it better.

Now he has written a manual on leadership, something he thinks he could have done with in 1997, sharing insights from his personal experience and from observing world leaders firsthand. In short, pithy chapters, rich with examples from all forms and systems of government from across the globe, On Leadership answers key questions:

• What sort of skillset does a leader need to develop?
• How do you come up with a plan for actually leading, and make sure you stick to it?
• What do you do when inevitable crises emerge unforeseen?
• How do you develop an effective team around you?

As Tony Blair says, ＂You arrive in power as the great persuader. You govern as the CEO. Persuasion is about talking. Governing is about doing.＂ This book is a short guide to doing for the busy leader.

Tony Blair was UK Prime Minister from 1997-2007. He is the Executive Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), a non-profit that works with leaders around the world focusing on strategy, policy, and delivery. He lives in London.