“You can’t do everything at once, be true to your mandate” – Tony Blair

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks………………..

“This is my third theme today. You cannot do everything at once just by ordering results, just by bashing the system to deliver those things is not going to achieve change.
You have to be much more skilful, much more surgical than that. You have to apply a science of delivering. A science of priorities, a science of proper planning of defining goals, creating data systems that crack progress and developing the routines that make sure you keep all these going even amid the crisis that blow up. And they will. 

“And above all, maintain the relationship between yourself and the centre and those in the public service on the frontline, the people who make sure that the delivery actually takes place, praising them when they do well, encouraging them when they fall behind and replacing them when you have to. 

“Now, all these might sound straight forward. But it is not straight forward because a lot of the administration you are leading has gone into the habit of driving process rather than outcome.” 

Be true to your mandate 

He also asked Buhari not to derail from his mandate 

He said: “I remember many of us ministers, including the Prime minister himself, had never been in government before, not even a junior parliamentary or Secretary of State, the lowest for ministerial life. We were all new. I was the third man. I want to share with you the first rule of government because it is irrelevant to you. Be true to your word. Be true to your mandate. 

“At the beginning for us, there was nothing easy at all. We discovered some important things pretty quickly. The first thing is that the skills of leadership that take you to government is not the same skills you need to be successful in government. You have to switch from what you were campaigning when you are in office. You have to switch from a persuader where the tools of your trade are your words to being a CEO. That is the difference between being a persuader and and being a CEO. One is about words, the other is about deeds.