Leadership: A panel with a purpose Q&A

On 13th October 2021, I was delighted to be at the launch of Social Leaders Cymru, a new, innovative and inclusive leadership programme in Wales by Clore Social Leadership and Wales Co-operative Centre. I joined a great panel of social sector leaders and we talked about our reflections and experiences of leadership. Here I share some of the answers I prepared for the event:

1.?????Are leaders made or born? Is it about latent talent or can it be learnt in a classroom? Leadership is a set of skills and behaviours. In my opinion leadership can be learned, but to do this effectively an individual has to be open to continually developing themselves.?You learn about being a leader in a myriad of ways; through acting and doing the role, through observing others, as well as building your knowledge ‘in the classroom.’?

2.?????What does leadership mean to you? Well, it’s not a job title! You may be CEO in title, but are you really a leader? Leadership is about influencing and building relationships with people to inspire them to choose to follow you and through this you build momentum together to achieve shared or common goals.?The important word here is ‘choice’ – people choose to follow you if you are an effective leader.

Leadership is about the why, the tomorrow and the vision for the future and so it’s different to management, which is more about implementation, the now and doing.?You need both leadership and management to build an effective high performing organisation of course, but right at the heart of things and the key ingredient is leadership - this drives everything else.

3.?????Where did you personally learn your leadership? Learning how to lead is a process that happens over time in my opinion and your leadership continues to evolve. I think the personal and professional contribute to who someone is as a leader. ?

I absolutely feel that my life experience has been an important factor in developing my leadership.?For example, losing my father as a teenager changed my life course, and through that personally devastating experience, I learned tools to respond to, and live through a traumatic and challenging time and how to come out the other side. I also learned at a young age that life is not linear.

Other life experiences like coming out as LGBTQ+ and becoming a parent have been big markers in my life so far and have taught me many things that have developed me as a leader, such as, the ability to juggle multiple priorities, to be courageous, to work inclusively and to develop empathy.?

I’ve also learned about leadership, of course, through practise in my paid working roles in the voluntary sector over the past twenty years; through volunteering myself and spending time with people who are different to me.?I also believe in the importance of training and continued professional development and have attended leadership training and pursued qualifications like becoming a Chartered Director to help me to be a better leader.

4.?????Are there different kinds of leadership. eg is political leadership different from military leadership? Sports leadership different to business leadership??I think that different sectors have different predominant styles of leadership, influenced by the varying challenges faced by sectors and their longstanding cultures also.?For example, the challenges facing the armed forces are different to those facing the voluntary sector and so this dynamic creates different leadership (e.g. more directive, hierarchical or authoritarian).

Saying that sectors don’t operate in silos, and we are all interconnected.?There is much to be said about cross-sector exposure to different styles of leadership and to learn from one another to help us all collectively to progress our leadership across sectors and to create a better society.?

5.?????What about social leadership? Is it different to other forms of leadership?I would say that the challenges facing each sector, and therefore their leaders, are different. In my opinion, social leaders are held to higher account than other sectors.?I think too that the multifaceted, and ever changing, funding landscape is unique to the social sector. For example, for voluntary organisations, funding such as donations, is dependent on the goodwill of the public.?We also have many different stakeholders in our sector, such as: the public; volunteers; beneficiaries; trustees; regulators; donors; staff etc. Trying to balance such diverse interests and needs adds a unique complexity for leaders in our sector.?

Motivation is also another difference in the social sector compared to other sectors.?For example, in my experience over the years, the vast majority of volunteers and staff are intrinsically motivated by their belief in the cause and its purpose. Our role then as sector leaders is to embrace this motivation, to create an encouraging, positive culture and environment, so people feel valued and inspired to give willingly above and beyond.

6.?????Do women lead differently to men? There is a popular belief that women lead differently to men. Women are traditionally associated with traits like empathy, kindness and compassion and men are more linked with traits such as strength etc. But being an effective leader is not, and should not be, related to your gender. These outdated beliefs and mindsets about gender roles are unhelpful and influence perceptions about men and women’s leadership performance and potential, which is detrimental to women, as leadership roles are still dominated by men.

There is a continuing assumption that as a leader you cannot be assertive, strong, and at the same time, be empathetic and compassionate. You only have to look at leaders like Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, whose decisive yet empathetic leadership during the pandemic wholly disproves this notion.?It’s time to end binary and outdated thinking and join up the genders so that we see leadership qualities like empathy and strength as shared qualities, regardless of gender.

7.?????What or who has influenced your own leadership style? Has your leadership style changed over time? Why? My parents were very influential role models for me in how I work, even now.?For example, my father taught me about perseverance, high standards, focus and hard work. ?My mum taught me about kindness, empathy, developing others and being inclusive. I have, of course like many people I’m sure, famous role models like Michelle Obama or Nelson Mandela that inspire me because of their determination to challenge discrimination, persistence to overcome the enormous barriers they faced and their absolute strength of character and integrity as leaders despite everything.?

Throughout my career to date too I’ve also been fortunate to meet many people from all walks of life who have, and continue, to influence me and help me to develop as a leader. For example, I’m always humbled by the selflessness and generosity of volunteers; by the commitment and dedication of colleagues; and by the kindness, encouragement and mentoring from other, more experienced, sector leaders. Young people inspire me too - I'm an absolute fan of reverse mentoring.

Undoubtedly my leadership has changed over time because of life and professional experience, and I have built a broader base, or bandwidth if you like, of leadership styles to draw upon, depending on the situation I am responding to.?For example, responding to the early days of the pandemic crisis as CEO required more directional leadership than I would normally deploy to make decisions quickly and mobilise a response at pace.?

8.?????What is the leadership behaviour that you find most difficult and why? I always do my best to lead by example as what you do has such an impact on your team and those around you.?I remember someone saying to me once that you are judged on your worst days as a leader and how you behave in those really challenging situations.?So you must be consistent in the example you set.

I will say however in terms of leading by example my natural style is very much around focusing on other people and their needs and I have to proactively work on making sure I am making time for myself and my wellbeing as a leader.?

9.?????What is the leadership behaviour you find most inspiring? This is such a difficult question as you need many behaviours, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, to create effective leadership.?If I had to choose, I would have to say integrity.?Leaders who behave with integrity and do the right thing, in the right way, even when no one is watching are the most inspiring to me because you can trust them, and you have faith in them.?Integrity is the cornerstone of building trusting relationships.??

10.?What is the top tip you would give leaders in the audience? Always be courageous.?Leaders need courage in so many ways – to push themselves out of their comfort zone; to keep learning and trying new things; to take difficult decisions; to follow through on your priorities, to be different and to get you through the tough times.

11.?Coming back to the social sector, what do you think of its leadership? As the social sector’s response to the pandemic has shown, I think in the sector has many fantastic role models of values-led leadership and other sectors could learn from us around leading with values and purpose. Leadership shown thousands of volunteers within their local communities across Wales is admirable and showcases putting people and purpose and societal good first.

As in every sector, I think there is room also for continual improvement.?It’s important that we look at, and challenge, ourselves to help us to develop as a stronger sector in the future and to make a bigger impact; to realise the societal changes that we want to see, such as social justice, addressing climate change and equality.?

?There is a lack of diversity and inclusion within the sector particularly at senior leadership and board levels, with poor representation currently particularly from disabled people and ethnic minority communities. We must work to drive the change that is needed and become a more inclusive sector, reflective of the communities and people we serve.?

I would also like to see us being a bit bolder in our leadership and lifting our sector’s voice to create more parity with other sectors.?To aid this I would suggest it’s important that we collaborate more together within the sector to give us a stronger voice.

12.?What kind of leaders does it need going forward? The world is becoming more complex, more uncertain, more digital and change is happening at a faster pace than ever before.? In my opinion going forward leaders need to have the ability to work with uncertainty, to have a breadth of skills so they can adapt quickly and highly flexible in terms of their range of leadership styles. They need to have an open mindset and lifelong learners, so they can continue to pivot and adapt their knowledge and skills and lead their teams and organisations effectively.

As a sector we need diverse thought and diverse backgrounds to drive innovation. In terms of ways of working we should emphasise co-production and think and act sustainably.?I would say that we need leaders who also prioritise values, like kindness and empathy, and are collaborative and inclusive in how they work.

As the world becomes faster and more digital the ability to connect with, and build real, human relationships with people, and relational skills will be critical for future leaders too.

So many people in society currently feel unheard; do people in our organisations feel unheard too? Sector leaders should make sure they are listening to all stakeholders and hearing opinions, even if the opinions make us feel uncomfortable or the points of view are different to our own. We should be sharing and devolving power across our organisations.?

13.?What role does a programme like Social Leaders Cymru play in the future development of our leaders? A programme like this is critical to give leaders across Wales opportunities not otherwise available to them to build their skills, knowledge and experience. The learning they will gain will help to develop them personally and professionally, benefit their organisations and importantly impact positively the cause they are serving.?

The way the programme has been planned and structured also will enable delegates to connect, network and build relationships and share experiences with other leaders. As we know relationships are critical in terms of creating lasting change and will help to create an impactful legacy from the programme, helping our organisations and Wales to recover socially and economically following the pandemic. ??

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Connect and follow me on Twitter too: @Menai_OJ

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