Rather, recognise that all leadership is temporary, that you will be custodians of your institutions and keepers of their flames. And if possible, although it’s a bit late for me, take a cue from Cincinnatus and Washington, and leave before you are asked. Thank you. 25  As Haidt wrote, “People bind themselves into political teams that share moral narratives. Once they accept a particular narrative, they become blind to alternative models.” See Haidt, J (2012) p.20 26 See www.johnkay.com 27 Haidt, J (2012) p.365 28 As quoted in Barton, D (2017) 10  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  10  References Barton, D (2017) In the Arena: Leadership in an Age of Disruption Bernanke, B (2015) The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and its Aftermath, W. W. Norton & Company. Big Innovation Centre (2016) The Purposeful Company Interim Report Buckingham, M and Coffman, C (2016) First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently: Gallup Press. Carney, M (2015), Speech at Lloyd’s of London ‘Breaking the Tragedy of the Horizon – climate change and financial stability’ Carney, M (2016), Roscoe Lecture, Liverpool John Moores University ‘The Spectre of Monetarism’ Carney, M (2017a), Remarks at Thomson Reuters, ‘The high road to a responsible, open financial system’ Carney, M (2017b), Remarks at the Banking Standards Board Panel ‘Worthy of trust? Law, ethics and culture in banking’ Geithner, T (2014) Stress Test. Random House Haidt, J (2012) The Righteous Mind. Vintage Books.
An organisation’s purpose can be for the client; such as Amazon’s goal ‘To be earth’s most customer-centric company’; or the greater good, such as the World Bank’s mission to ‘End extreme poverty’, and the Bank of England’s to ‘Promote the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability’. The leader’s job is to ensure that the purpose of their organisation is always present and anchors its goals, values, and strategy. Like diversity, purpose is not a “nice to have”. Evidence shows that purposeful companies have higher employee engagement, greater customer satisfaction, tighter supplier linkages and better environmental stewardship. The pay-offs to purposeful business are superior share price performance, better operational performance, lower costs of capital, smaller regulatory fines and greater resilience in the face of shocks. 10  Always remember that, as leaders, you will be stewards of the purpose of your organisations. In this sense, leadership is the acceptance of responsibility rather than the assumption of power. True leadership is not an end in itself but rather as a means to accomplishing a worthwhile goal. These are lessons that some in financial services have had to re-learn in recent years. An industry of the scale and importance of finance needs social capital as well as economic capital in order to operate, innovate and grow. To maintain social capital, finance ultimately needs to be seen as a vocation, an activity with high ethical standards, which in turn conveys certain responsibilities.