So little Bernie Ecclestone has put his big foot in it again. In one of the most ill-advised interviews he’s ever given – and there have been many – Bernie told The Times that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and even praised Adolf Hilter for his ability 'to get things done'. Slipping ever downwards in the hole he was digging for himself, Bernie went on to muse that his equally wilful friend Max Mosley, the departing president of the FIA, was a great example of a strong leader who would make an excellent Prime Minister. (It’s just as well that Mosley has legally and definitively established that he has no interest whatsoever in the goings-on of the Third Reich, otherwise you could argue the pair were developing an unhealthy obsession.)

I remember meeting Ecclestone a number of years back when, over shepherd’s pie in his local, he likened his role running Formula One to being a ringmaster in a circus filled by recalcitrant performers, or a teacher trying to keep order in the middle of a class of unruly pupils. He was like the sighing godfather in the middle of a huge squabbling family, laying down the law and sorting out the disputes. During our meeting Ayrton Senna came bursting into Ecclestone’s office because he’d thrown his toys out of the pram during some spat or other. Ecclestone loves a bit of divide and rule because it diverts energy that otherwise might be aimed in his direction, wondering whose sweat and risk-taking earned him all those hundreds of millions over the years.

What Bernie likes is good order and getting his way. He likes the trains in his set to run on time. This was reflected in a rather winsome interview he gave with his daughter Tamara to the Sunday Times magazine slot 'Relative values':  'The one thing that would upset me is her and her sister’s untidiness,' noted Ecclestone. 'Order is a big thing with me. If a picture’s crooked, I have to straighten it. It applies to all sorts of things... I feel I have to be in control. It’s the same with work. I’ve tied up a lot of things in the sport by creating order, by controlling the way things are run, by everyone knowing what they should be doing.'

You don’t have to be a professor at Harvard Business School to know that this sort of approach isn’t high on Management 101 in the 21st century. Even the Army says it’s given up on command and control. Neither do you have to spend long around the Formula One game to realise that it is run with a dictatorial edge. It definitely isn’t a democracy, because there’s no free speech within it – traditionally, if you step out of line you pay the consequences. Until you course you can stand it no more and you oust the leader, as the teams have effectively done with Mosley.

Well, part of being a mature leader is understanding and accepting that, as in the playground, things don’t always go your way. Not every picture will always be straight - but you have to control your narcissism and resist the temptation to play god and straighten every picture in the gallery. Even those that aren’t yours. Leadership is about setting an example – encouraging, engaging, taking people with you as they find their own strengths. It’s also now more than ever linked to trust and integrity.

Of course management is about getting things done. But there are very few businesses or organisations that function like Formula One, or Nazi Germany for that matter. This JFDI (Just F**king Do It) school of management doesn’t really make for a sustainable model. It tends to lead to dysfunctional and unhappy organisations, where people feel done-down and miserable. Sending operatives to labour camps when they fail to perform in the desired manner may lead to temporary efficiencies, but it's going to cause you serious problems in the medium term.

There are unlikely to be many more gaffes like this from Ecclestone, now aged 78. When he goes - as he doubtless will before very long - it is unlikely we will see his like again. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

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