More B******t:Telegraph talk: Allan Leighton reveals all

[IWW Fellow Worker]

"Half the risk is in the execution." Allan Leighton

Don't you worry yourself about that Al! We'll sort the execution out, no bother!

[norbet colon]

I think it's non exec ? , wasn't there a article in Postworker singing his praises ? not! , supposed to be some sort of list like a who's who

[Crackerjackpencil]

How can you work full time in different companies? you either work full time in one or not.

He's apparently non exec with TNT and his missus I think is on the board of Manpower in a non exec capacity...Non exec roles don't I think have to be declared, which is why so many MP's and cabinet ministers do non exec roles, and you only find out about them when they do something naughty as the press dig up the dirt on them. He's also on the board of BHS and a couple of other high street stores...

I still can't get my head around what he means by fun....It may be fun for him to go around bullying staff and making life miserable for people under him, but that must be fun in the sado masochisitc meaning of the word.

[dvbuk55]

I think the most telling word that my best mate used was - SIMPLE - really that sums up the man, his philosophy and his planning - oh and his intellect!

[strangler]

How can you work full time in different companies? you either work full time in one or not.

He's apparently non exec with TNT and his missus I think is on the board of Manpower in a non exec capacity...Non exec roles don't I think have to be declared, which is why so many MP's and cabinet ministers do non exec roles, and you only find out about them when they do something naughty as the press dig up the dirt on them. He's also on the board of BHS and a couple of other high street stores...

I still can't get my head around what he means by fun....It may be fun for him to go around bullying staff and making life miserable for people under him, but that must be fun in the sado masochisitc meaning of the word.

No conflicts of interest there then.

[frankie]

[waffler]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.j ... iew125.xml

Highlight contentious parts in Red,

Making life fun may just be the way to deliver success at Royal Mail

"Sometimes doing the right thing is the hard thing. Leadership isn't a popularity contest." Tough words indeed and you have to sympathise. I'm talking to Allan Leighton, chairman of Royal Mail.

He's certainly taken on a classic leadership challenge, judging by the current industrial action and widespread public concerns over Post Office closures.

He has just written a book on leadership*, a compendium of advice from Allan and some of his chums, including Rupert Murdoch, Sir Philip Green and James Dyson. "I've read lots of books on management and leadership and found more and more of them are being written by people who've never managed or lead anything. You think "that's difficult" when actually in my experience it's all common sense," he says.

He's also a great believer in simplicity: "I've always felt if you can't say anything in 20 minutes then the chances of anybody being able to get it is impossible."

Allan Leighton is clearly not a fan of the academic approach to business, given his 18-year apprenticeship at US food group Mars. He was first attracted to the job by the promise of a car and a belief in his ability to sell Mars Bars. They sent him around the world, changing his job every three years.

Then ASDA came knocking and the rest, as they say, is history. One successful turnaround and sale to Wal-Mart later he turned plural, ending up on the board of eight companies, including what was then Consignia.

One of his first actions was to change the name back to the Royal Mail, for the most traditional of reasons: "I am very patriotic and proud to be British and here is something that has been around for 200 years. Not many things have 'Royal' attached; it's part of the country. Every day one of our people walks down somebody's path and puts a letter through the door - there is a great deal of heritage."

"So I did it for three or four months and just sort of fell in love with it, which seems odd as we were in middle of a national strike. The business was financially in a very bad shape. The whole market was about to be opened up to competition and the business was regulated. It could have gone seriously wrong, but I thought well, here is another thing to turn around."

"There is a lot of change and change is difficult for people to stomach sometimes. But the whole leadership thing is about doing the right thing and you can't kid yourself.

"We are trying to create something that is really sustainable in five years' time. I keep saying to people that I am not bothered about where we are in five minutes or five weeks or five months, but where we are in five years because that's what my job is, to create something that's sustainable over time. And unless we change, we will be much more challenged than we are today."

What really struck me about talking to Allan Leighton was his clear sense of purpose. He tells me: "You have to be very focused; whenever I talk about focus, I use the word 'unrelenting'.

You have to be a very good listener; it is very important to understand how people think about things, even if they think differently to you. And the third thing is very important, to keep everything very simple. If you just do those three things, then life is a breeze for everybody."

His conversation also always came back to his people: choosing the right team, communicating his instructions clearly, and then making sure they are engaged in the process by making the whole experience fun.

He is clearly interesting to work for and happy to try almost anything, on the understanding that if 50pc of the ideas work, then this represents success. He appears to genuinely support a no-blame culture. If stuff doesn't work, no problem, he'll try something else.

And like all successful business leaders, Allan is clearly very driven, with strong instincts for what will work - instincts that you hone the hard way, from the school of hard knocks, not from an academic journal.

He's undoubtedly fun to work for - go online and listen for his story about the sumo wrestling suits. I'm sure he is also a hard task-master, but generous in his praise when things finally work out.

1. Royal Mail has been round in various form since either 1516 or 1654 depending on how you define it both definitions are longer than 200 years.

OI! SOUTHON! NAAAAHHH! GERTCHA TONGUE OUTTA THERE!!

[norbet colon]

It is contentious full stop . He talks a good job but it's totally superficial , usual corporate story. You only have to google Asda & it's " labour relations " with the GMB to get the real story. What makes me laugh about these maverick managers is that only he can be the maverick and it's the tinpot dictator making sure everyone else toes his line . If these sort of people insist on backing themselves into a corner , the only option is to call their bluff and push them against the wall. His Arrogance , vanity & egotism can be his Achilles heel , pity there's not enough people who are smart enough at the CWU, to go for that achilles heel.