Simon McDonald
Haus Publishing Ltd, 2022.
Simon McDonald worked as a civil servant in the diplomatic service / foreign office from 1982 – 2020. He writes well, with plenty of sensible insights.
The book isn’t only about leadership, he also gives his views on politics. The last chapter is his proposals for reform of the House of Lords.
Much of his advice is relevant for anyone who works in an organisation:
“brevity, clarity, and accuracy […] the importance of meeting deadlines […] consulting everyone with a legitimate interest, who were given a reasonable time to respond but who were also to understand that their silence at that point would not delay the progress of a piece of work up the system.” Pages 9-10.
“no one since I started work ever asked me about the class of my degree (a 2:1). In the workplace bosses value different proofs of intelligence: they are more interested in speed and accuracy of work, in concision, in fluency, in the ability to incorporate everything that needs to be addressed in the depth that it needs to be addressed, in the ability to winnow out irrelevant information, in the ability to process new material and to move when facts change.” Page 183.
He gives an example of how to respond to manipulative urgent calls for instant action:
“advisers know that they have relatively little time to get things done. They therefore tend to be in a hurry. Revolutionary change tends to appeal to them more than incremental change, even if – throughout British history – incremental change has usually proved to be more long-lasting.” Pages 115-116.
“In Donald Trump’s Administration, some of his advisers in the White House would combine the grandeur of their headed writing paper with the drama of a tight deadline to try to bounce through their hobby horse ideas. One senior official told me about the first time his department received a draft executive order (EO) at 9 p.m. on a Thursday with the instruction to clear it overnight, ‘because the president wants to make the announcement tomorrow morning’. […] the official combed through the sixty pages of the draft, waking up colleagues for advice […] Come morning, he concluded that the draft EO’s shortcomings were too glaring to be nodded through. He informed the White House that despite the president’s keenness to proceed immediately, his department had major issues and would not be able to support it in its current form.
My friend waited for a rocket to explode from the West Wing. None was launched. He heard nothing further.
[…] By the end of the Administration, his initial response to out-of-hours unreasonable requests was to inform the White House that he would look at the papers in the morning.” Page 114.
Those most ambitious for promotion are not always the best:
“The senior ranks of the Civil Service are chock-a-block with people who never did any job for very long – they agitate to move on and up quickly. […] Apparent success must be banked professionally before its shortcomings come to light.
For a time, at the Ministry of Justice, the reorganisation of the Probation Service in 2014 looked like a shining success […] I took part in talent discussions where the main claim of a candidate to promotion was stellar performance in reorganisation of the Probation Service.
By 2019, it was apparent that the reorganisation had been an expensive disaster […] But the most senior civil servants involved had moved on, promoted on the back of a signal ‘success’.
[..] Problematic, too, is the reluctance of the modest, excellent civil servants who cannot imagine themselves in the top jobs and consequently do not push themselves forward.
The self-promoters not only relentlessly push their own claims, but they also deter others from having a go.” Pages 100-102.
He gives an example of poor leadership:
“the idea of compromise, or the notion that today’s opponent might be tomorrow’s ally on a different issue if handled with humour and respect, never seemed to occur to her.” Page 33.
“Most poor leaders I have come across have treated themselves seriously, encouraging (or at least accepting) deference from their colleagues. These characters can enjoy a long run of success before coming a cropper.” Page 35.
Leaders need to take care not to become control freaks:
“Leaders need to prioritise. If they do not, someone or something else will: their noisiest adviser or the noisiest issue in their in-tray will do it for them. The more senior the job, the easier it is to convince yourself that everything you are doing is important and necessary for you to do, and the easier it is to convince yourself that, without your personal input, any given issue will go awry. But the more senior the job, the more likely its incumbent will not be able to keep across every issue.” Page 113.
Good leaders:
“see the biggest picture; they do not allow themselves to get bogged down in the parochial; they do not disregard what is inconvenient or unfamiliar; they question their own most cherished views and accept evidence to support different points of view rather than look for constant reaffirmation of their existing views.” Page 198.
May 2026
Adrian Vincent