The sad passing of the Queen made us all pause for thought. She dedicated much of her life to service and led our country though some trying times over the years. A figurehead that cannot be replicated, as she was on the throne for over 70 years, which is a remarkable achievement.
We have been thinking about what we can learn from her, especially as the main figurehead of the monarchy. The Royal Family are sometimes referred to as the Firm in the media, and in many ways it is like a business. The Queen did so well in uniting the Firm in tough times and navigating criticism.
How did she do it? And also, how did she do it whilst remaining so popular with the public?
Well, she did have a huge team behind her, managing public relations and dealing with the immeasurable administration and planning. But this doesn’t explain how she remained so popular and thought of with such fondness.
Here are some points we think we can all learn from, particularly as business owners:
- Calm under pressure – the Queen was known for her steadfastness and remaining calm even in the most tricky of situations
- Remain dignified – even with the pressure of cameras in tough situations
- Do not fan the flames – despite her family being mentioned in some very negative press, the Queen handled it with grace, not adding to the conversation and making it worse.
- Consistency – her image especially did not change constantly, she had a ‘look’ and whilst she did remain fashionable, she had a uniform that worked well as she was easily recognised whilst being classic.
These are all elements from the Queen that we can all look to as inspiration. Her work was a huge acheivement and even more so to do it whilst remaining popular to the wider public and world. As business owners, these are points that we can be influenced by and try to remember as we navigate through our working lives.