Does anybody get to the top of government WITHOUT being a bully?

[Nimbostratus100]

So many of our top politicians are so aggressive, manipulative, deceitful, selfish and basically thuggish, all be it often in a refined and upper class way.

I cant really see how a normal, decent human being would ever hold their own with people like this, or get into positions over them

I am not surprised by the allegations of bullying in recent years. I have just assumes these people are all likely to be bullies. I am glad its being called out now, and maybe times are changing. But as things stand, AIBU to think if you are at the top of government, it almost goes without saying that you are likely to be a bully?

It's well known that Theresa May did not have any time for Raab. I don't agree with her (or any Tory) politics but she does always seem to me to be someone who went into politics for the right reasons, and I'd be surprised if she had acted like an arrogant bully in the workplace.

I have a friend who is a senior civil servant who never worked directly with Raab but crossed paths with him, and is close to Raab in age. His assessment of Raab's intellect is similar to that of your fiend @lljkk .

There a no 'inspirational leaders any more

There are manager/supervisor types, who have little by the way of charisma, training or people skills, who haven't led teams or who haven't worked with many people and who can only rely on what's got them through in the past - boneheadedness, stubbornness and shouting

They are useless managers, lousy leaders and are only there due to favours done or owed

Raab's resignation letter is very telling. He really seems to believe you cannot do a successful job as a minister without using his default aggressive management style. Yet he's generally rated as one of the more incompetent Justice Secretaries, whereas those rated as OK/good (eg Ken Clarke) seem to have managed fine without this sort of behaviour. I despise Gove with a passion, but I will acknowledge he was much better when he was in the MoJ than he was in any other job, and people who worked for him generally said he was fine as a a boss.

Anyone whose stated pet project is to get rid of the Human Rights Act isn't going to be sweetness and light are they?

Brandon Lewis managed to get stuff done at the MoJ and he was only in the job while Truss was PM.

Not many people in high powered roles are nice people. You don’t get far in your career by being nice.

I would agree with this. I don’t mean he isn’t ambitious, knows which side his bread is buttered, nor that he wouldn’t dissemble in what he saw as being his best interests. However, he is ime courteous, cheerful and willing to listen and respond intelligently even when he disagrees with you.

I will be very interesting to see whether being in a higher profile position with more power is corrupting.