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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
04 December 2020
Updated: 07 December 2020
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As a long-term Trustee of the wonderful organisation that is Clore Social, Shaks Ghosh (Clore Social CEO), asked me for some personal reflections on leadership, and in particular leading through difficult times.
I have been in the public service for my whole career, including some periods right in the spotlight. Periods when my work was in the national news more or less every day, and periods when what we were doing was particularly tough. I am currently the Director General responsible for the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. My experiences have caused me to reflect a lot on what needs to be done to lead teams through periods of stress, and to build resilience. I don’t have any magic answers, or much book learning to share. All I can talk about is what has helped me. Some reflections:
Spreading the Load. Being good at what you do and surviving sticky moments is, in my view, mostly about the people who work for you, and about others who can help you to spread the load. Rarely can you do big things all by yourself. I certainly can’t. The more taxing the situation, the less likely I find myself to be the answer. As a leader, I think this has to mean gaining strength by giving away power. Why does the co-pilot and not the pilot fly the plane a lot of the time? I am told it is because the pilot can correct the actions of the co-pilot far more readily than the co-pilot can correct the actions of his or her boss. If you empower your team to get on with the job and hold yourself in reserve as coach, counsellor and advisor, you will (in the short run) create a more powerful unit, and (in the long run) grow your people. Furthermore, if you make a habit of recruiting people who are better than you and/or complement your skillset, and pay attention to their growth and development, you will end up with a stronger unit. Don’t then worry too much about losing great people to bigger jobs. Just make sure you are a leader even better people want to work for.
“As a leader, I think this has to mean gaining strength by giving away power." Mark Fisher
There are other ways of spreading the load too. Pester your allies and abuse your networks. In my experience even the busiest people are enormously generous with their advice. You will need it. Find and then work closely with partners - if there are others travelling willingly with you on your journey you are more likely to be right!
Creating Organisational Resilience. How resilient is the organisation, and how I can improve it? I have tried in particular to cement and communicate belief and purpose, and celebrate success. Few things are more important than giving people a powerful reason to come to work. I try to be calm in any crisis, and deal quickly with any internal problems. Nothing weakens a team as rapidly as a breakdown between team members. You need to be there when it matters for people, take the most difficult meetings, and be the lightning rod for criticism. Perhaps most importantly, you have to allow people to be affected by things, ensure there is proper counselling and wellbeing support, take advantage of it yourself, and be seen to do so.
"None of this is possible unless you look after yourself." Mark Fisher
Personal Resilience None of this is possible unless you look after yourself. Do things, and only do things, that you believe in, have purpose and play to your values. Find colleagues you want to work with. Avoid over-reach, and over-ambition, and give yourself time for other things!
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Mark Fisher CBE FRSA is a Clore Social Trustee and Director General and Secretary to the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
17 December 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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When Alison spoke of her experience of child sexual abuse, the atmosphere in the room changed. Not only did people sit up and listen, but I think people felt more comfortable, knowing this was a safe space in which we could be honest and vulnerable. This is the kind of example a leader can set, the kind of environment they can create.
As a young woman of colour who’s just joined the charity sector as an intern, I can’t begin to explain what it meant to hear Alison Lowe, a CEO who is a black woman, speaking of her journey so honestly. My transition into the third sector straight out of university has been at times uncertain. So to see someone much further ahead in their journey, who I could actually relate to, was comforting to say the least.
In October I went to Hull for a Clore Social chapter meeting. Going in I didn’t really know what to expect, I knew I’d be meeting Clore Social fellows and alumni. I also knew there was going to be a guest speaker, but truthfully, I didn’t expect the talk to have much of an impact on me, or how I think of leadership.
So imagine my surprise when Alison started talking about being one of the few black people on her estate growing up, and the racism she faced. I suddenly felt strangely (but maybe not surprisingly) anxious. Anxious because I thought, will people take her less seriously now? Will this (largely white) audience think she’s playing the “race card”?
I could tell people appreciated how frankly she spoke of her experience. They asked a lot of insightful questions afterwards, mainly about how to encourage people of colour and other minority groups to apply for jobs at their charities. To be honest, this surprised me because it feels like race is still the elephant in a very white room.
"But Alison made people feel comfortable discussing race, maybe when they normally wouldn’t be."
But Alison made people feel comfortable discussing race, maybe when they normally wouldn’t be.
Diverse and inclusive leadership is important. I think part of being a leader means people look to you for direction and will follow by example. This was clear to me when I saw the shift in the dynamic of the room first when Alison spoke about child sexual abuse, and again when she brought up racism. People took this as a cue to speak more openly and allow themselves to be vulnerable.
In hearing Alison speak, I saw her practising so many things I’ve realised an inclusive leader should be doing. In her honest dialogue, she gave others a space to feel safe speaking openly.
"The road to diversity and inclusion is paved with uncomfortable conversations."
The road to diversity and inclusion is paved with uncomfortable conversations. But when directed by a leader who creates an environment to accommodate these growing pains, like Alison did, real change can take place.
It’s possible that efforts to increase diversity in the charity sector will seem tokenistic if they aren’t accompanied by inclusive leadership. At one point Alison mentioned wondering if her workplace would be safe for her own children, who are both LGBT+. This for me is one of the most important things leaders need to be considering in their workplaces.
"There’s no point congratulating ourselves on how diverse we are, if we aren’t supporting those who provide the diversity in our workplace."
There’s no point congratulating ourselves on how diverse we are, if we aren’t actively supporting those people who provide the diversity in our workplace.
I know before starting my role I was terrified of what seemed like the great unknown, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. But two months in I’m less afraid and more determined to keep pushing for the change needed to make the third sector a less scary and more inclusive place.
Blog by Isha Negi, Engagement Intern at Clore Social Leadership
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
04 December 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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Don Macdonald, editor of ‘Innovation and Change in Non-Profit Organisations’ discusses the contracts culture and its impact on non-profit and community organisations.
With the contracts culture and outsourcing both growing, larger organisations now dominate - both private and non-profit; smaller non-profit organisations are excluded, to be included occasionally as bid candy. Contracts have grown larger, with price becoming all-important. There have been numerous incidents of dubious practice by private companies delivering outsourced contracts, even cases of fraud. Carillion, Southern Cross and others have collapsed, while two thirds of key Government suppliers are based in tax havens. All this of course poses issues for non-profit leaders in managing bidding.
I am moving house after 36 years so must sift through an enormous amount of books and papers. The most interesting paper was a presentation about outreach work by . She outlined two critical aspects to underpin this work; firstly there should be a postponement of self-definition in the work, thus the worker starts off with no pat answers but continually questions what they do. Secondly there needed to be a delay in setting goals, until the worker actually knew what problems faced the community, service users and other stakeholders. Then one should devise realistic services and goals, to be evaluated properly.
That was 1978, when I had been doing outreach work for five years for a non-profit organisation, grant-aided by two local authorities. I felt Jo's presentation made so much sense, conceptualising almost exactly what I had been trying to do. However reading it again in 2019 started me thinking that these precepts should underlie how organisations approach new projects and how non-profit leaders should initiate new projects.
I worked for some years within the public sector, overseeing funds to voluntary organisations, so have seen both sides. There were obviously disadvantages to councils awarding grants to local non-profit organisations; often incumbent organisations and those with good connections with officers or councillors were viewed more favourably. Evaluation sometimes took a back seat.
Grants for local organisations have now mostly been replaced by contracts, often allocated through competitive tender and linked to goals specified before work starts. This can be difficult for most small non-profit organisations but just normal everyday bidding for large organisations, both non-profit and private. I believe large organisations should not parachute into areas unless they have good links with those communities, or they explore in depth what real needs exist locally and what non-profit organisations and networks already operate. Unfortunately parachuting in is exactly what the contract culture encourages as it expects the contractor to know what to do before they start.
The Social Value Act (2012) required councils to consider the social, economic and environmental benefits of decisions on contracts above £170,000. But there is concern that the Act is not working well. Two in three councils were not implementing it according to a survey three years after enactment, while a House of Lords committee believes too little is being carried out to encourage commissioning based on impact, not cost. Others recommend ethical commissioning to encompass fair employment and wages, tax compliance and localism.
Small non-profit organisations and community groups can find it difficult to survive and thrive in this contract culture. Yet in a rapidly-changing world smaller organisations can be more agile and inventive, and more in touch with local communities’ needs than larger ones, if leaders are correctly oriented and trained. There was even research which suggested that most innovation in community care came from local staff. Thus smaller non-profit groups are in pole position to develop and deliver projects in which relevant and pioneering services are worked out together with the local community and service users. This does require the right responses and decisions from these organisations' leaders, who must multi-task, while prioritising different demands on their own time and on their teams' resources and also consulting all the stakeholders.
Blog by Don Macdonald
A group of non-profit leaders have written a book, in which examples of such community-based projects are described and analysed, including practical aspects of leadership and management. Don Macdonald, a trainer, trustee and former charity CEO, has edited the book Innovation and Change in Non-Profit Organisations with contributions from respected experts. These include Charles Fraser, CEO of St Mungos for 20 years, who describes the difficulties it faced developing comprehensive services for an unpopular group of clients. Community Catalysts supports local self-help groups to bring communities together and take positive cost effective action, as outlined by their CEO, Sian Lockwood, while Clore Social Leadership’s CEO Shaks Ghosh analyses how to train and support non-profit managers in an increasingly demanding milieu.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
06 March 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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Earlier this year, in collaboration with The Social Change Agency, we hosted Leading the Movement: Women, Power, Change, our women's conference designed to bring together senior and emerging feminist leaders, new allies, and leading figures in the women’s movement.
The day saw a great range of inspirational speakers and participants come together to develop movement-building skills and a common vision for the future of the feminist movement. The tone of the day was set by Fiona MacTaggart, Chair of Fawcett Society, Agenda, and former Labour MP for Slough, who opened the conference with a plenary speech focused on how we can use the lessons from past feminist movements to drive the present movement forward.
"Women’s movements have always had to be brave because they consistently challenge the status quo."
The speech provided an engaging account of the past feminist movements, addressing some pressing and relevant questions: What can contemporary feminist leaders learn from the challenges and accomplishments of the past women’s movement? What are the issues we are facing today? And what should leaders do to ensure we’re comprehensively and effectively challenging inequality?
To capture the insightful remarks, we have transcribed the speech into a pamphlet which can be downloaded below.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
19 November 2018
Updated: 07 December 2020
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Blog written by Shaks Ghosh and Jessica Taplin
At a recent Clore Social CEO Masterclass, Julia Unwin gave us a sneak preview of her report into Civil Society and challenged us to rethink our social leadership model.
Julia painted a dark picture: social security in crisis, economic restructuring, challenges to managerialism and blurring boundaries between sectors, increasing pressure on places from localism and social fragmentation. We face a growing fear of polarisation of generations, both economic and cultural, environmental pressures, global volatility and the increase in nationalism, rising numbers of displaced people and geopolitical strife. Most significant, as Julia states, is the shift in focus from We to Me.
Cripes, that’s rather full on. In response, we know that our task as social leaders is to maintain and strengthen Civil Society by upskilling ourselves to navigate the next decade.
Our sector has shifted, professionalised and with it has come a reliance on structure, staff, institutions and funding. Whilst austerity might be “over” according to the powers that be, we know that the heady days of government largess from the noughties are not returning. Many organisations that were reliant on largess are already accelerating towards oblivion. Many others plough on from funded project to project, jumping through funder shaped hoops which might not run true to their own organisational mission.
So what resource do we have to continue our vital role in civil society? We have the resource that our sector has always relied on: people. People who never fail to surprise us by what they can achieve.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has." Margaret Meade
To social leaders everywhere our message is this: you have huge, incredible un-tapped resources, and that is your people. Great, inspirational, genuine, caring, committed, compassionate people – change makers.
And the best leaders amongst us will be able to unleash them for social good. People will follow and go to incredible lengths for authentic leaders and leaders they love. To do this we must rethink our leadership, growing the next generation of change-makers, sharing our wisdom and skills. For many of us it means the re-alignment to those virtues that lie at the core of what the social sector is about - kindness, bravery and honesty. In his book The Road to Character, David Brooks talks about shifting from a focus on external success to internal value.
Amongst the people who we must inspire are trustees and directors. Many charities still struggle with unskilled and egocentric trustee boards. Being a Trustee should be an act of humble leadership - to genuinely help and add wisdom, working alongside and in a critical friend way to the executive team. We must help trustees, no matter what their day job, to learn the skills of listening, empowering and appropriately challenging the Executive team in their own leadership role. Julia sums it up well: it’s about Power, Accountability, Connection, Trust.
"Julia sums it up well: it’s about Power, Accountability, Connection, Trust."
Modern leadership, getting the best from teams, resources and networks, is about rethinking the power dynamic. To lead is to have power, a privilege to be cherished. Leaders today need to find smart ways of sharing power to shift imbalances. We know that leaders must grow leaders, not monopolise their power.
As senior leaders we know that experience does count, but it doesn’t automatically mean we are right. So the trick is to encourage shared accountability, building relationships based on dialogue and feedback. There is little room for rigidity in a service based world, and Julia reminds us that we exist to serve. User needs are paramount, and to meet the constant evolution of need and circumstance, we need to be more adaptive, embrace the unknown, admit mistakes and adapt how we do things. We are all constantly learning and improving, as leaders we must encourage this in ourselves.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill
Leadership is fundamentally a relational activity. How many of us really meet all people as equals, recognising their complexity, frailty and value. We know that dispersed and egalitarian forms of leadership help build better solutions and approaches, yet we lack the courage to adopt these forms of leadership. During their study, Clore Social Fellows regularly ask each other a powerful question: what would you do if you were ten times braver? Social leaders are in their roles to make social change or to give social service. Both require bravery beyond belief and deep wells of resourcefulness and resilience.
Today’s leadership requires us to care for ourselves and be kinder others. The dog-eat-dog world many leaders live in is no good for our sector. Do we have the courage to change and adopt more generous and collaborative approaches?
To be clear, many social sector leaders have these qualities and more. These last years of austerity have seen many social sector leaders heroically steering ships that are already over the edge, parachutes and kites all desperately launched to try and slow the fall. They are feisty yet kind, resilient, generous. We can learn from them.
So to Julia’s challenge to find new models of leadership for the stormy waters ahead, we say: “I am not afraid of storms for I am learning to sail my ship”. Louisa May Alcott
"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning to sail my ship." Louisa May Alcott
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