Extraordinary times - extraordinary events.

We have witnessed bitter political rivals put aside their differences last week to form a political alliance not observed in the UK in decades. There are key leadership lessons to be gleaned from the UK’s governance and economic situation - the manifestation of which produced affiliation between previous political foes.

In terms of leadership lessons learned I stress the importance of the ’situation’ descriptor. Challenging situations require situational leadership, where an adaptive leadership style produces innovation, co-operation and commitment to a common cause.

In the two London Boroughs I work for, two different political administrations have worked together to create a unique HR shared service - in fact all three main political parties have contributed to produce a unique outcome that provides efficiency and cost reduction locally to the tune of saving £500,000 each year in the cost of HR.

Replicate this approach and level of savings across the public sector and surely we’d be a long way down the road to address the national debt?

Dean Shoesmith - PPMA President

Joint Executive Head of Human Resources - London Boroughs of Sutton and Merton

Tags: HR Shared Services, London Borough of Merton, London Borugh of Sutton, Political Alliance, Situation Descriptor