In some management training course years ago I was given the book Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? by Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones. You can find a summary of it from Harvard Business Review here. Leaders, Goffee and Jones say, need vision, energy, authority, and strategic direction. And one of the character traits they describe is to “Become a Sensor” – an awareness of what is happening in the business around you.

While Goffee and Jones penned a business book, some of the elements of it are on my mind just now – with regard to the future composition of the European Commission.

Let’s start with the Brussels political drama this week – the resignation of Thierry Breton. “You [von der Leyen] asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that in no instance you have
discussed directly with me […] However, in light of these latest developments – further testimony to questionable governance – I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties in the College.” In other words: Von der Leyen, I don’t like your management style. “He [Breton] never recognized her as a boss and a leader,” said one EU official quoted by Politico. “That’s a bad basis for a relationship.”

The problem of course is that our political ‘leaders’, even less than business leaders, are not chosen for their capacity to lead or for their leadership skills and abilities. Von der Leyen was appointed in the first place because she was less of a problem for Emmanuel Macron than Manfred Weber. She might be many things, but vision, strategic direction, and being a good sensor of what is around her are definitely not her strong points. Breton – who at least had some leadership experience in the private sector – was himself only in place because Sylvie Goulard failed her hearing. And there remains the strong urge to use Brussels as a place to get rid of people, the place you send politicians that have been poorly performing or an irritant at home. In Brussels, no one can hear you scream.

And that then brings us to the aspect of Breton’s resignation that prompted me to write this post. He announced his resignation on Twitter/X, prompting Gerardo Fortuna – also on Twitter/X – to remark “the EU bubble is still addicted to the platform“. Sure, if you’re Fortuna, a journalist whose job it is to follow what people of supposed influence say, then maybe you have to be where those people are.

But real leaders would do it differently. It doesn’t even need the good sensors Goffee and Jones speak of to understand things are going wrong on Twitter/X – by continuing to use that platform you are supporting the business of a man who expresses shock that no one is trying to assassinate Harris or Biden. Who thinks UK civil war is inevitable. Who thinks it is totally OK to threaten Taylor Swift. You are basically still on a platform run by a modern day fascist.

It is in the end pretty simple. If you are still active on Twitter and you are a Commissioner or MEP, you are not a leader in any sense of the word. You are a follower and a coward. If Breton had announced his departure on Bluesky or Mastodon or Threads or LinkedIn or in a press release or an interview we would still all have known. And if your argument against leaving is “but I have a big audience there!” then it makes you no less of a coward. Act like a leader, stand up for your ethics, gain some respect – and then people perhaps should be led by you.

Maybe, just maybe, a few of von der Leyen’s incoming Commission team may pay some heed to this!