Britain's Growth Agenda Is Also a Leadership Agenda

The Chancellor’s latest growth speech is about investment, innovation and jobs. However, there is a bigger question sitting underneath it: do we have the leadership capability to turn the ambition into reality?

There is a lot to take from John Healey’s growth speech.

The Government wants to increase investment, improve productivity, make better use of new technology and create more opportunities for people across the country. There is a particular focus on artificial intelligence and on giving regions more power to shape their own economic futures.

While those are important ambitions, for me, the most interesting part of the speech is not really about economics at all.

It has to be about people because none of those ambitions happen by themselves.

You can absolutely invest in new infrastructure, introduce AI and change the way education and skills are funded. You can also give regions, cities, combined authorities more powers over decision making.

But the fact is, it’s people that have to make it work, which brings us back to leadership.

Growth is not delivered by policy alone

We sometimes talk about economic growth as though it is something that mysteriously happens at a national level when the stars align, and is then somehow only felt by organisations and individuals in a process of osmosis.

In reality, growth is delivered through thousands of organisations making smaller decisions every day.

Someone has to decide whether to invest, to take a chance on a new idea, explain why a familiar way of working needs to change, and bring people with them when it does.

That is leadership.

Investment matters, of course. As does technology, skills and infrastructure, however, it is what happens inside an organisation will determine whether those things actually translate into better performance and subsequently, growth.

A new system does not make an organisation more productive just because it has been installed, just as an AI tool does not create innovation because people have access to it. Even a training programme will not build capability unless people have the opportunity to use what they have learned.

The missing ingredient in all of these types of investment and developments to improve productivity is often leadership.

AI will test leaders in ways technology cannot solve

The section on AI in the Chancellors speech is particularly interesting.

Healey describes artificial intelligence as a general-purpose technology that will affect every part of the economy. He also acknowledges that it will change the labour market, with some jobs disappearing and new ones being created.

Much of the discussion about AI still focuses on what the technology can do.

I think the more important leadership question is what happens to people when it does.

What does a leader say to a team when they know technology is going to change their roles, but cannot yet say exactly what those roles will look like?

How do you decide what should be automated and what should remain firmly in human hands?

How do you create confidence without pretending that there is nothing to worry about?

How do you equip people to make responsible choices about the use of AI?

And how do you make sure people are learning quickly enough to keep pace with the changes around them?

The important point is that these are not technology questions - they are leadership questions.

There will be plenty of organisations that buy the technology and struggle to get the value from it, all of us have probably been in those organisations at one point of our career. Others will use it to rethink work, develop their people and do things that were previously difficult or impossible.

The difference between these two types of organisation is not the technology they have access to, but what their leaders choose to do with it.

We need to talk about productivity differently

The very same principle applies to productivity in my view

It is often discussed as an economic problem and as something to be measured through national statistics and improved through investment, infrastructure and technology.

However, there is another side to productivity that happens much closer to pretty much every workplace.

Can people make decisions?

Do they understand what they are accountable for?

Are managers equipped to manage?

Can someone challenge a process that clearly is not working?

Do people have the skills they need to do their job well?

And, most importantly, do they feel trusted enough to contribute ideas and take responsibility?

These things sound too ordinary to be part of the ‘grand growth agenda’ but they are incredibly important.

The Chancellor talks about working with business to improve productivity and support growth. That sentiment and commitment is very important at a national level, but the real test will be what happens inside workplaces across the country.

I’m firmly of the belief that we should be asking more questions about the quality of leadership and management, because good strategy can only take an organisation so far. At some point, someone has to turn it into reality.

More power requires more leadership capability

The Government's commitment to devolution raises another issue that I think deserves more attention.

Healey talks about Britain's growth being written in more places, with greater powers and resources given to regional and local leaders. He also points to stronger partnerships between government, business and academia.

It’s a direction of travel that is eminently sensible – local decisions made based on local needs.

However, giving people more responsibility only works if they have the capability to use it.

This is true whether we are talking about a region, a public service or a business.

We have spent a long time thinking about leadership as something that sits at the top of an organisation, but increasingly, that is not how organisations work.

Decision-making is becoming more distributed, with teams are expected to take greater ownership. Because of this, partnerships matter more and leaders are often having to influence people they do not directly manage, which requires a different set of skills.

It requires judgement, collaboration, curiosity, and the confidence to make decisions when there isn't a neat answer sitting in front of you.

Those capabilities do not appear in people just because we decide we need them - they have to be developed.

And that brings us to learning

The Chancellor's focus on skills and workforce participation is therefore particularly relevant.

He points to the number of young people not in education, employment or training, as well as people already in work who do not have the skills or opportunities they need to progress. He also highlights the role of technical education and clearer pathways into employment.

There is an important message here for employers.

We cannot keep talking about skills shortages as though the solution sits entirely outside the workplace because no-one has the magic wand to solve that issue.

Organisations have a responsibility to develop the people they already have, and we need to rethink what that development looks like in practice.

Learning cannot be something that happens only when someone is booked onto a course or given modules to complete. We are at a point in time where technology and jobs are changing so quickly, so people need to be learning as part of their working lives, everyday.

They need the opportunity to try things, do things differently, ask questions, get things wrong, get feedback, think about a different approach, and try again.

To make this happen, they also need managers who understand that developing people is an integral part of their job, and that learning and leadership are symbiotic. People are far more likely to develop when they work in an environment where curiosity is valued and where they are trusted to take some ownership of their own growth.

The question I think we should be asking

There will, quite rightly, be plenty of debate about the Government's economic plans.

Will the investment be enough? Will the productivity gains materialise? Will the approach to AI work? Will devolution deliver the growth being promised? Will it work this time?

From my perspective, I think there is another question worth putting alongside all of those:

Do we have the leaders we need to deliver the future we are talking about?

If we are serious about growth, and all of the things that it brings, we need to take leadership capability much more seriously.

I’m not just talking about the leadership of chief executives and senior politicians.

I’m talking about the leadership of the manager running a team of ten people.

The person leading a transformation programme.

The local leader bringing businesses and education providers together.

The manager trying to introduce AI into a workplace where people are understandably uncertain about what comes next.

These people are making the future real, or not, every day, and that is the part of the growth debate that we should not lose sight of.

We can talk about investment and innovation, about AI and productivity, skills, jobs and devolution.

But these things are delivered by people - and people need leadership.

If the country wants a more productive, innovative and adaptable economy, then developing better leaders and managers cannot be an afterthought, it has to be part of the growth strategy itself.

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Source: HM Treasury, Chancellor John Healey’s Growth Speech, September 2026