What leaders really do

This article is part of the Contemporary leadership series

Mid-way through the Wimbledon Men’s Singles Final this summer the television cameras scanned the crowd in the royal box. There were past winners, sporting greats, politicians, and celebrities of various degrees of permanence. Among them was a single figure who seemed less intent on the irresistible rise of Novak Djokovic and more on the smart phone in his hand. He was Sir Martin Sorrell, the CEO of the marketing and communications giant WPP.

For the modern business leader there is no rest from the steady stream of emails, the demands on their time. There is no hiding place. 

Des Dearlove is co-founder of the Thinkers50. He is an Associate Fellow of Said Business School at Oxford University; an adjunct professor at IE Business School, where he taught the Strategic Communication Module on the International MBA; and the author of a bestselling study of the leadership style of Richard Branson. He has taught on the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme, and the Swarovski Academy in Switzerland, and teaches media skills and crisis management at Cranfield School of Management.

He is a former columnist to The Times, contributing editor to the American magazine Strategy+Business, and co-editor of the bestselling Financial Times Handbook of Management. His books available in more than 20 languages include Gravy Training and Generation Entrepreneur (co-authored with Stuart Crainer).