Introduction
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have been at the heart of government for the last 10 years. Much has been observed and written about them. Most of this, obviously, has concentrated on their political endeavours. A lot has focussed on their personal relationship. In this research, however, we were more concerned about their psychological profiles. Was it possible using detailed authoritative accounts of their work, their ways of dealing with others and their approach to critical events to create a psychological profile of them? Having done this we wanted to see what their psychological profiles told us about their leadership styles. Our view, as psychologists working in the area of leadership, is that one’s personality determines not only the way one conducts oneself but also the way the organisation is run.
Our approach adopted had three steps. Firstly, reading accounts of Blair and Brown from authoritative sources. These were either biographies or through books analysing their political achievements. From the descriptions given we made a list of attributes which were either explicitly mentioned or implicit in the narrative.
Secondly, we then compared the lists of attributes from each of the books.
Thirdly, we then completed a number of personality questionnaires for both Blair and Brown. This was done separately by the two researchers involved in the project. We then compared the resulting profiles examining them for differences and similarities. From this analysis we emerged with the following profiles.
A word of caution is obviously needed here. When examining someone’s personality there are three key sources of information. Firstly, there is the individual him or herself. Interviews and psychometric testing would be involved to determine how the person sees themselves. All of us have thoughts, impulses, motivations and emotions which are positive and negative. Only we can really know what goes on in our own heads. Secondly, there is our persona – the way we like to project ourselves to the world. Naturally, we try to maximise the positives and minimise the negatives. It is not possible to achieve this completely so some of the negatives will be made public.
Thirdly, there is a view that others have of us.
In this study, we have a great deal of the third aspect, a little of the second, particularly by our analysis of Blair and Brown’s speeches, and none of the first.
So the data is limited and the findings need to be treated with caution as a result.
Nevertheless, the findings help us form some useful hypotheses as to the real personality dimensions that drive the behaviour of two of the most dominant forces in UK politics in the early part of the 21st century.
