"It is important not to allow ever wider coalition-building to become an end in itself."
Margaret Thatcher was referring to consensus when talking here, and taking out of the political realm and bringing to the business realm, it's just as important to understand.
She followed up the above sentence saying, "As we saw in the Gulf War of 1990, international pressures, particularly those exerted from within an alliance, can result in the failure to follow actions through and so leave future problems unresolved."
As business leaders we must at times make decisions that we will never be able to build a consensus with, and be willing to take the heat.
Whether we're running the whole business, or running a division or small office, we should be the ones that know more about it than anyone else in the company. That puts us in the position of knowing what's best for what we're responsible for.
While we need to attempt to make our cases for what we want to do, in the end, we need to make the decision that we believe is the best way to go; whether we have everybody on board or not.
As Thatcher said above, we can't make consensus or building coalitions the end of what we're doing. If we do, as she says, we'll be forced to compromise in a number of ways that leave problems on the table that we'll have to pay for later.
When we know we're right, we can't move off of that for the sake of making other people happy of feel included. The consequences will be devastating, and the problems which emerge exhausting.
All of this is another way of saying we must be leaders. Don't leave so much on the table in order to please people, or it'll come back to haunt you.
Margaret Thatcher Resources:
The Best Quotes From Margaret Thatcher's 'Statecraft'
Margaret Thatcher & the Revival of the West
Interview with Margaret Thatcher
Magaret Thatcher's Life in the Shadows
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