Power, Gender, Hubris conference video 2/5: Sir Anthony Seldon. Leadership and power: The role of history. (2017)

Sir Anthony Seldon, University of Buckingham Vice-Chancellor, addresses five topics:

• Hubris as it has affected recent UK Prime Ministers, from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron (“four out of the five suffered hubris, an 80% rate that may or may not apply across all 54”)
• Why might Prime Ministers be unusually hubristic? “You don’t find humble, meek people wanting to be Prime Minister”.
• A closer look at the UK’s two female UK Prime Ministers (Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May) and whether hubris is gender-specific
• Thoughts about power including how Prime Ministers are struck not by how much power they have, but how little
• Downsides of excessive hubris, including the impact on Prime Ministers’ children.

From the conference ‘Power, gender and hubris: success and arrogance as risks to leadership in health care and beyond’
Held at the Royal Society of Medicine in London on 9 May 2017.

Watch the video: Leadership and power: The role of history

Biographical notes

Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham since 2015, is one of Britain’s leading contemporary historians, educationalists, commentators and political authors.

He was Head of Brighton College and of Wellington College, two of Britain’s leading independent schools. He is author of over 40 books on contemporary history, including the inside books on the last four Prime Ministers, politics and education, was the Co-founder and first Director of the Institute for Contemporary British History, is Co-founder of Action for Happiness, Honorary Historical Adviser to 10 Downing Street, Chair of the National Comment Awards, a member of the Government’s First World War Culture Committee, and a Governor of The Royal Shakespeare Company.