Dealing with Political Change

Abstract

Establishing a relationship with a leader who was instrumental in appointing you is one thing. Doing so with a new leader from the same party is likely to involve problems of re-negotiation of the ground rules and adjustment to a different style of political leadership, but it is likely (although by no means certain) to involve a significant element of continuity. The new leader is from the same party that you have worked with previously, whose priorities and programmes are unlikely to change substantially (although there is generally scope for a new leader to make adjustments within the broad ambit of policy and occasionally to introduce major changes in policy direction). The main challenge facing a chief executive which results from political change is when one political party loses power to another, and a chief executive is faced with a new leader who has previously led (or played a leading role in) an opposition party.¹