This means practicing what you preach, as General Colin Powell advised: “You can issue all the memos you want and give all the motivational speeches…but if the rest of the people in your organisation don’t see you putting forth your best effort every single day, they won’t either.”  6  Catalysing action means listening to and empowering colleagues, who are more likely to follow a new direction if they have been consulted during its development. And it then means getting out of the way. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what [the leader] wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”  7  Such delegation has traditionally been an anathema for central banks. But when following the crisis the Bank of England doubled in size and tripled in responsibilities, we knew our rigid hierarchy had to change. To start that process, we surveyed widely and met with colleagues across the Bank in order to develop our new strategy. We then slashed the number of internal committees by two thirds and instituted a policy that the author of every analysis had to be in the room whenever it was discussed. We’re now devolving decisions to the right level, changing the way we meet and making the Bank more permeable to the outside world by multiplying our channels of communications and the number of our spokespeople.
Before they do so, a good leader assesses the context in which their organisation operates. That process starts with discussions with all stakeholders, including clients, senior managers and, via roundtables and surveys, colleagues at all levels. Understanding context requires developing intuitions about global developments and shifting technologies. This has always been second nature to central banking, but there are few organisations today that are not affected by the mega trends of shifting demographics, the accelerating pace of technological disruption and the search for a more inclusive capitalism. When setting priorities, time is of the essence because of both the rapid pace of global change and the arc of a leader’s personal capital within their organisation. As the global head of McKinsey Dominic Barton observes, “Great leaders set a clear agenda early on and then act on it fast. They never have as much power or impact as when they first take on the role.”  5  4  This is part of the Bank’s Vision 2020 Strategic Plan launched in 2017, which aims to overhaul ‘how we work’ and ‘how we communicate’. See: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/governance-and-funding 5 Barton, D (2017) p. 3 3  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  3  The third thing leaders do is to catalyse action. Specific catalysts vary with an organisation’s structure and culture, but in all cases they require the full and visible commitment of the leader before devolving power to colleagues.