Boris Johnson Prime Minister UK Brexit Archives

I am not talking about the psychopathic supervillain, who was disregarded by society as he terrorised Gotham City, but about Boris Johnson, the newly elected Prime Minister of the UK. He has not been to Gotham City, but was the Major of London. In fact Boris has (hopefully) very little in common with the supervillain except for the fact that both are goofy pranksters, and both do like to dramatise everything. Boris Johnson though has been the joker of the Conservative party, somebody who is widely adaptable to mould himself into the solution for any given problem.

He is seen as the savior against the sudden rise of Nigel Farage’s Brexit party popularity. He is seen as anti-establishment, even though it was the deepest establishment that voted for him. He seems to model himself on Churchill. Johnson is charismatic and proudly English, able to connect with a wider audience and not shy to stretch the truth to make his point. All those are qualities the previous Prime Minister, Theresa May didn’t have. His performances of his previous two official posts though were in stark contrast with another.

Boris Johnson did remarkably well as Major of London. He was not only well liked but also seemed approachable and normal, often cycling to work with an ill-fitting helmet. But his chaotic nature superseded any other trait when he was the Foreign Secretary. He failed to gain any respect among his European colleagues and proved to be largely ineffective. That surely only hardened his stance as pro-Brexit. These days he seems so determined to leave the European Union at any cost, that a no-deal Brexit seems to be his base case.

Because of this, he, more than anybody else, would be able to get the Europeans to agree on more concessions. Let’s see if the Boris show is all about the art of negotiations or just showmanship. If he doesn’t get a better deal, the government could collapse, and he would go down as the shortest serving Prime Minister of the UK.

Should he succeed in finding a palatable compromise and thereby saving the UK from economic self-mutilation, he could go on to be a memorable Prime Minister – provided that he surrounds himself with the most talented and hardworking executive to make up for his short coming.

It will be interesting to see, if the second Prime Minister chosen in the last 3 years, not by the people, but rather by a few old men is able to turn this democracy around.

The ongoing Bexit negotiations led by Theresa May hold valuable lessons for future negotiations, mostly on how not to do it.

During her time as home secretary she made a name for herself as a prudent and competent operator. Even though she campaigned for the UK to remain within the European Union, surely she would be savvy enough get a good Brexit deal approved by parliament.

Mrs. May entered the negotiations overconfident, mistakenly thinking that the UK was in the stronger negotiations position and drawing red lines that were in her mind non-negotiables.

As a Brexit secretary she chose David Davis, for no other apparent reason than that he was one of the strongest Brexit supporters. But he resigned after only a year in the job, which he never seemed to take seriously in the first place. But he was not the only one to resign from team May – she has had 37 ministers resign (and counting). That is more than any other UK Prime Minister has ever had.

Mrs May stuck to her lines and was uncompromising in her approach. She came up with one deal, that was voted on by the members of parliament a few times, and every time defeated by record margins. Even some of her own executives voted against her. Predictably, she ran out of time, and had to go and beg for more time from the increasingly impatient EU.

So, what can we learn about her disastrous negotiation skills?

Firstly, don’t start the countdown until you have a comprehensive plan. It was up to the UK’S Prime Minister to start the two-year period by triggering article 50. When the UK Brexit negotiators met the European negotiators for the first time, they seemed woefully underprepared. If one has the ability to start the clock, make sure you know exactly what you want to achieve in that time period, with different options at hand should the negotiations become deadlocked.

Secondly, make sure that your whole team sings from the same hymn sheet. As the Prime Minister lay out the objectives of the negotiation, and then come up with a strategy on how to accomplish them. Make sure that you have the buy-in from your closest colleagues, so that they can spread one uniform message with the same objectives in mind. Also select team members you get along with. You don’t need to be friends, but you need to be able to spend countless hours working together. Complex negotiations take time, make sure your team gel and don’t get pre-occupied with infighting.

Thirdly, when you draw lines in the sand (or red lines like Mrs. May referred to) make sure that it is out of a position of strength. More importantly make sure that they are realistic. It didn’t help that Mrs. May chose targets that are only of benefit to the UK, not the Euro area. She completely overestimated the UK’s position of strength and didn’t analyze the alternative.

Forth, be flexible. A trait all great leaders had was to be flexible. Changing your point of view slightly doesn’t mean that you are not fulfilling your objective. It also shows that you are willing to compromise and work towards a solution. Thus your negotiations partners knows you are working with them, rather than against them, leading to a friendlier working environment which has been proven to yield better results. The trick is to list as many objectives as possible, so that the negotiations don’t get stuck on a few major elements, but that it is a fluid motion of give and take. Theresa May is stubborn, uncompromising and inflexible. That caused her to stumble in the negotiations and be defeated in parliament.

Fifth, make sure that you have the numbers behind you. The conservatives had a small lead in parliament when Article 50 was triggered, but the party was split between strong Brexiteers and “Remainers”. Therefore, Theresa May would need the support of some of the opposition party members of parliament. Instead of reaching out to them, she decided to hold a snap election in which she lost the majority in parliament. The results were a clear indication that the not even the public approved of her work thus far. Yet she still didn’t reach out to the main opposition parties to come up with a deal that would pass parliament. Instead Mrs. May continued to thrash out a deal with the European Union, which when it was finally ready to be voted on was defeated by the biggest margin ever. It is simple math’s. If you don’t have a clear majority in parliament, and you don’t have your whole party behind you, your deal will fail, unless it is a combined effort of all the parties involved.

This also leads me to the last point. If you enter negotiation, make sure that your objectives are the objectives the majority of your team, in this case the British parliament, approves of. Once you have that, it is time to start the clock and negotiate with the opposing party.

The Brexit disaster has been a tragedy that is still playing out. The parliament are making a fool of themselves. The debates remind of a tired yawning soap opera that seems to be never ending. The politicians seem to thrive in endless posturing and biggotting. But I not sure if doing what is best for their community is a high priority.