Has it ever been so tough?

Leadership in this sector is tough, there is no doubt about it. Senior figures from councils large and small are struggling with capacity issues, lack of resources, balancing budgets and the strain created by the emergence of super directorates. Added to this are the recruitment and retention issues the whole sector continues to face. 

Sector leaders feel they are constantly in firefighting mode with everyone dragged into day-to-day work rather than being able to invest in strategic direction setting. This has an impact across the organisation; there is little time for planning and it can stifle creativity to look for ways to tackle things differently.

When the old ways don’t work, genuine new insight is required to approach these thorny issues. Here at Commercial Services Group (CSG) we recognised this and three years ago asked how can we help councils. Leadership is key and the opportunity to take time out to critically reflect on challenges is a must. As a result, CSG co-developed its Executive Leadership Programme for Local Government with the aim of supporting the sector with some of those key challenges.

Working with Professor Griggs of Staffordshire University, and taken from research conducted with the Association for Public Service Excellence, three pillars for leadership emerged, but they were not typical management training topics – they were resilience, collaboration and insightful thinking.

These themes are explored by introducing a range of experts from different fields to disrupt and question standard practice. This is not about saying what people are doing is wrong but rather asking questions and opening up thinking to alternatives.

As the lead on the programme, Prof Griggs is very clear this is not training – this is a chance for leaders to reflect on their experiences to challenge their own thinking. As a residential programme there are obvious benefits of not always being on email and in meetings, and getting away from the everyday pressures of the office. It might be unusual but this progamme is not about models of leadership as you don’t leave with a toolkit or a moniker for what type of leader you are.

This programme is about taking a journey to discover what type of leader you want to be.  It provides space for thinking, discovering and exploring the leader you can be. It is also an opportunity to look at wellbeing, something leaders often overlook because they are so busy.

This programme is as much about learning by doing and the group work is a powerful part of the experience. We use dedicated action learning sets to explore real-life scenarios and support our cohort to uncover different ways of thinking through creativity and challenge. 

Beyond this, it is the evening discussions over dinner where people share their real experiences. We know that leadership is about relationships and increasingly it’s about coalitions and understanding the politics of those relationships. For our fireside chats we invite guest leaders to share their journeys and their own learning. These are not about ‘being like me’ and much more about shared experiences and the opportunity to challenge assumptions.

The programme is sponsored by CSG with a delegate contribution. For CSG this is about giving back and is part of our social and sustainable value. We also support by providing insight from senior executives and contacts from our wider network that attend the sessions. Our experts give their time and knowledge with the wish to share and help others learn from their experiences. 

We welcome puzzlers. This may seem an odd word but what has become clear is that our programme attracts people who wish to explore different ways of thinking, are open to debate and challenge and are comfortable with complexity and ambiguity. After the success of two earlier cohorts and fantastic feedback, we’ve recently launched our third. We believe that without a doubt, time and space plays a key part in giving leaders in the sector the chance to be innovative and disruptive.

And that is what our programme does. Do you want to invest time in new ways of thinking in order to uncover alternative approaches to problems that you face and find new opportunities?

When was the last time you blocked out time in your diary for creative thinking? Not a formal meeting with colleagues to strategise, but some meaningful time to throw some ideas around in your own head, without the constant distractions of emails and other disruptive activity? n