Several years ago, during an election year, I was having a political conversation with a fellow when he said, “I just don’t think that I could vote for a woman for president. I don’t think a woman could lead the country.” I paused a moment and said, “What about Margaret Thatcher?” He could only smile and shrug.

I have just attended THE IRON LADY. This current movie is Meryl Streep’s performance of the life of Margaret Thatcher. It is powerful and sobering. (It is particularly sobering to me because my own father has dementia.) But, even though this is a very personal approach to this leader’s life, leadership principles still come through.

  1. Stay true to who you are. This leader took the best from her father’s conservative, “salt of the earth” approach to life. She never strayed from the belief that hard work brings results. This kind of thinking guided her during her challenging years as Prime Minister. In her most productive season this was the leadership that Great Britain needed.
  2. Do something. If you were not going to take action with a situation or an issue, get out of the way because this leader was ready to step up. She understood that leaders can’t always wait for the whole world to “get on board.” When a decision needs to be made a leader will be ready to make the call.

Stay true to who you are and do something!