Perhaps I'm in a minority of one but amongst all the commentary I've seen and heard, a huge point has not been mentioned.
Just read his "apology" and it's immediately obvious who the problem is.
"I am genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt as a result of the pace, standards, and challenge that I brought to the Ministry of Justice. That is, however, what the public expect of ministers working on their behalf".
He has completely missed the concept of how you get people to want to do things. The best boss I ever had was notorious for not suffering fools and for his expectation of a high work rate and high standards. He was also fearsomely intelligent and the people who worked for him would pretty well follow him anywhere.
Raab, apparently, achieved the opposite. I suspect he isn't fearsomely intelligent in any way useful for leadership, and he managed to demotivate rather than motivate. He was the common factor in the complaints that followed him around, to which he is totally blind. Scores of other ministers have managed to run their departments without attracting complaints of bullying.
Loyalty is a two way street, as is respect, and I believe those are critically absent from Raab's repertoire. He clearly engenders neither, and almost certainly didn't show them to his team.
I'm quite prepared to believe that the CS was out to get him, but I also think he and his supporters are blind to the reasons for that. Bottom line - he was a serial failure at ministering, and nobody wanted to work for him.
|