Believe it or not, the prime minister was once a teenager. Spots, at least as awkward as he is now etc. If I were his career advisor at the time, what would my advice have been? If I had been good enough to spot his need for power, I would have advised politics. A great place to be if you’re keen on power. If your top motivation is power, think no further than politics. Of course, it’s all dressed up as doing good for others, blah, blah, but politicians are generally there because they love the sound of their own voices, the expense accounts and the lack of accountability. If you’re a non performer in business, you’ll be out within a year. As an MP, you’ve got 4 and even then you’ve still got a chance to hoodwink the electorate.

So, back to Gordon. I do think he’s in the right career. Unfortunately though, he suffers from what’s known as the “Peter Principle”. Don’t ask me why it’s called that, it just is. The Peter principle occurs when an individual gets promoted beyond their level of competence. Happens all the time. The individual who hitherto has been a fine performer is suddenly out of their depth.

If we look at the qualities required of an individual to lead a country, in addition to a decent set of brains (tick for Gordon), integrity (tick - I think), there’s something called leadership. Big topic. There’s been quite a lot written about transformational leadership. These are leaders who can bring about change and take people willingly along with them. These leaders have genuine empathy, the ability to keep people on their toes by being really clued up as well as some charisma. Well, on the C word, I think we have a zero score there. No person should be allowed to run a country if their only use of power is as a blunt instrument. If people like and respect you, as a leader you have a much better chance of building a strong followership.

So Gordon is in the right career, he’s just been promoted beyond his abilities. Let’s face it, it’s really difficult to turn down the promotion when it comes around. All of us though, get to a point where we’re officially out of our depth and therefore likely to be far less effective. So, beware that fantastic promotion - it might just be your downfall!

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