It’s been a tough week for Boris Johnson. Just in case you’ve spent the last few days living under a rock, Boris has publicly apologised to the country for attending a party at Number 10 in May 2020, during the UKs first lockdown. It doesn’t look good for his future as PM and time will tell if this is the final straw for people of the UK. The memes doing the rounds on social media are both hilarious, and cutting, mocking his explanation that he didn’t realise it was a party and thought it was in fact a work event. As I’ve been reading the commentary I thought that Boris, and probably a number of his contemporaries, could do with a few lessons in engagement.
First up, let’s look at the role of integrity. We know that integrity is a critical enabler of engagement. Integrity is quite simply ensuring that what you say aligns with what you do. And clearly what Boris was saying at the time (with regards to the lockdown rules) doesn’t match up with his actions. A lack of integrity is one of the quickest ways to erode trust, which is what we’re seeing across the UK at the moment. The country has lost trust in a leader, and once lost it’s hard to rebuild. I’ve heard a few people comment that this is a big fuss about nothing, it was just a few drinks in the garden of Number 10 – but anyone involved in field of engagement understands the significant impact of integrity on our perceptions of others. It is not about 25 minutes spent with colleagues, and bringing your own booze into a garden – it signals that this person cannot be trusted.
Let’s move on to the role of connection. As social creatures, feeling connected to others is fundamental to our wellbeing. The biological foundations of human connections are tied to oxytocin (Zak, 2017) and its impact on serotonin. When oxytocin is released through any type of social connectivity, it triggers the release of serotonin. Serotonin then activates the ‘reward circuitry’ in our brain, which triggers a happy feeling. We are hard-wired for human connection. The bottom line is that we are social creatures and having strong social connections can help us not only survive but thrive as well. There is an ever-growing body of evidence which demonstrates just how important social connections are to our wellbeing. During lockdown there’s no doubt that our opportunities for meaningful social connections were more limited, no matter what out living arrangements. It was tough, we all made big sacrifices for the greater good. Only it seems Boris didn’t, and that hasn’t landed too well with the people of the UK.
Which brings me onto empathy. We know that empathy is crucial for engagement, and we think Boris could learn a lesson or two here. Empathy is the ability to put yourself into others’ shoes and understand the world from their perspective and world view. Even if (and it’s a big if) the work event at Number 10 was within the rules, even a modicum of empathy for a locked-down UK public, sacrificing so much for greater good, should’ve resulted in the decision not to have, or attend, such an event. Stopping for just a moment to consider how this “work-event” would be viewed by the public would have been enough to realise it was really not a good idea.
And finally, I wonder if Boris and the wider team could’ve learned some lessons about the role of autonomy in engagement. Direction and control of our own lives is important and a key feature of intrinsic motivation. Autonomy also promotes a feeling of respect and communicates a level of trust. The figures shared from the Xmas and New Year period in the UK indicated that despite the absence of official lockdown rules, many people did the right thing and decided for themselves what they were comfortable with.
It’s hard to understand how Boris and his team could get this so wrong, but it’s not so different from frustrated practitioners experiences with their own organisations. This stuff is not rocket science and yet it seems some leaders still struggle with the basics.
As ever we’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.
