In many ways, the two pictures sum up the 11-year premiership of Thatcher who died on Monday. Like all famous autocratic leaders, she first became an international celebrity and a domestic hero, but later was thrown out of office by her own party.
Thatcher's style of leadership was suitable when she came to power - Britain was in serious trouble and people clearly preferred somebody who could provide ultra-strong leadership and quick decisions rather than an endless consultative style of working. The fact that she was no consensus-builder and treated even her senior ministers with contempt was ignored when she presided over a turnaround of her nation's fortunes. Thatcherism was then lionised and so much was her self-confidence that she wore with pride the sobriquet - "Iron Lady" - even though the Soviets meant it as an insult.
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But the moment the tide turned and Britain once again started experiencing surging unemployment and an increase in economic inequality leading to social unrest, what was once considered her forcefulness and self-belief started getting interpreted as unbearable arrogance. The "do as I say" style of leadership was no longer considered suitable and the complete intolerance of dissent prompted her once followers to revolt against her. It is widely known that she could never come to terms with her fate and was deeply depressed in the months after leaving office, angry at the "betrayal" by men she had promoted and advanced.
All these are telltale signs of an autocratic leader, who revels when people cower as he/she walks towards them, forgetting to note that the same people grumble when he/she has gone past them. Succeeding on her own merits, Thatcher was clearly unsympathetic to the needs and frailties of others - a personality trait brilliantly captured in a 2011 film, The Iron Lady, where Thatcher's role was played by Meryl Streep. A scene that epitomises the late prime minister's leadership style is when she snatches a document from a Cabinet minister, who was one of her most trusted aides, and proceeds to condemn the poor individual. Her comments are in no way meant to be constructive, making it clear that she and she alone is in charge.
Many great autocratic leaders in the corporate world have met the same fate as her - feted in the prime of their careers and humiliated when the tide turned a little. History would have perhaps remembered them as well as Thatcher more kindly had they practiced what in management parlance is known as "situational leadership" - a term coined by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey. In simple terms, it means the same leadership style cannot be practised in all situations. Depending upon the circumstance and environmental context, the leadership style needs to change.
Blanchard and Hersey have argued that leaders have to match their style of leadership to the maturity of the person or group they are leading. Without that, the result is failure. For example, you are about to go on a holiday and have an experienced and competent colleague to handle the job in your absence. But, instead of allowing him the freedom to do the job, you leave a detailed list of instructions. Result: your job may be done, but you will forever lose your colleague's respect, and he will look for an opportunity to either get even or quit.
In a crisis situation when firefighting is the need of the hour, a leader can be, or rather should be, autocratic. He has to minutely supervise the followers, constantly instructing them about why, how and when of the tasks that need to be performed. But as the situation evolves and matures, the leader has to change his style. He has to seek opinion or provide controlled direction, or just limit himself to monitoring and reviewing the process after delegating the decision-making. After all, a successful organisation can never be in a permanent crisis mode, requiring a "do as I say" leadership all the time. That's why many of the strongest personalities in Thatcher's Cabinet had left, leaving her with ministers who were often reluctant to contradict her decisions. In the end, she made Cabinet government something of a private joke.
A situational leader, on the other hand, would accommodate his leadership style as the situation demands, and will not assume that his followers are just not competent enough to do the job and are unwilling or afraid to try, necessitating a highly directive role without any concern for building relationships.
It's just the way a surgeon leading an operating-room team should behave. He may be an expert in surgeries, but when an emergency situation calls, he decides instantly to let other specialists take charge. Leaders, who are permanently autocratic, often forget how or when to let go - just like Thatcher forgot when to change her leadership style.