EUCONSULT – 24 January 2013 I was brooding on the title of the talk – “What is the potential for Top Quality Leadership in the Third Sector? How can we make it happen?” – and how to discuss it here with you this evening – at a time when so much of the reporting of the affairs of the sector across all of Europe is clouded in gloom and the impact of austerity, when even well intentioned government initiated and global changes often have unintended and negative consequences on civil society and community development. Then I read that your Optional Tour this afternoon focused on: “a time of dramatic change in Northern Europe, when monarchs vied for territorial power, religious reformers questioned the central tenets of the church and consultants – sorry scholars – sought greater understanding of their world.” An accurate true description of our times?! Maybe, like, the artists of the 15th/16th centuries, contemporary Third Sector activists – and consultants – will produce “works of extraordinarily diverse subject matter and superb technical skill” This also reminded me that – despite the cacophony of noise and concerns about the challenges currently battering the third sector; and the huge growth in recent years of a ‘Leadership Industry’ for the sector; and the probability that I am something of a nostalgic dinosaur – I reckon the keys to generating top quality, inspirational and resilient leadership are much as they were when I first became an employee in the Third Sector in 1968 (I became a Board member for the first time 2 years later – our agenda then would look familiar today even if the vocabulary was different). This evening, I’d like to highlight 4 of the constants – here now just as in 1968; but also pick out 3 additional contemporary challenges faced by leaders in the Third Sector and by those trying to help build more effective leadership capacity and skills within the Sector. First – hardly a surprise – the power of clarity of mission. Whether as a volunteer, a worker, a board member or a funder – that’s been critical for me. Stands out starkly when it is absent – or when different parts of an organisation operate on different assumptions – or when it’s just rhetoric. It has to be the driver for everything – informing everyone’s role and actions; the test to use when judging any new opportunity or choice of decision, and the test of whether the organisation’s work has a continuing legitimacy, or is no longer the most effective way of translating that vision, that mission, into action. Second – the ability and the capacity to be constantly scanning the landscape on which the organisation has placed itself; ensuring that the leadership, while always engaged in the here and now, is also always alert to external changes and trends, the emergence of new players, of new ideas. That the leadership has the time to examine, analyse, reflect – thinking how best to adapt to and absorb change; learning (in real time – as things happen, not through some dry retrospective lens), and applying that learning to an organisation’s current actions; staying risk alert – 1
not risk averse – and keeping an eye always focused on the temptations for mission drift. Third, leadership of an organisation is not vested in just one individual – or just in those with formal leadership titles. The best led Third Sector organisations are (& I reckon always have been) those where leadership talent (and potential) is encouraged at all levels; where decision making is confidently – and comfortably – delegated to be as close as possible to where the action is. Where there is a sense of collective curiosity, adventure and a real enjoyment about being part of it. And the worst led? Where the key operational staff feel obliged or choose constantly to push decision making ‘up the line.’ Where the ‘leadership team’ is an excluding and remote entity, where internal communications are all formalised and depersonalised. My fourth key ingredient that should be at the heart of all efforts to promote, build and maintain top quality leadership? It’s a confident recognition, awareness and anticipation that the sort of leadership – and leaders – that an organisation need will change; it must be the right ‘fit’, appropriate to the stage the organisation’s development has reached – or is planned to go, its size, its resilience. Leadership of the wrong kind, however brilliantly applied, will mess things up. Is Entrepreneurial leadership called for at this time? Or Transactional leadership? Or Transformational leadership? Or..? There is a tendency in the Third Sector – in the UK anyway – (partly perhaps because of the rigidity of the most common governance structure) for the default position either to be ‘what we know best’ (i.e. are most comfortable with) or ‘what the doctor/text book/consultant ordered (i.e. look to external wisdom or prescription rather than to building on internal experience and skills). The latter can, ofcourse, be valuable, but managing change has to be owned by those doing the changing; adaptivity, creativity, I believe, are most lasting when they are felt to be ‘home grown’ (even if some externally provided engineering may have helped!). Those, then, are my 4 ‘leadership eternals’ – that should be at the heart of all efforts to nurture and develop successful third sector organisations. Now I’d like to add 3 that I don’t think I would have recognised in 1968 – though I am sure versions of them would have been relevant. First – I suggest successful leadership is now much more about implementing a culture of ‘both/and’ than ‘either/or’ – a bit of a cliché, maybe (and always a risk for dithering or indecisiveness), but I do believe that the sort of bifurcated, silo’d, categorised, tram‐lined, excluding structures and planning that infect so many organisations paralyse creativity and adaptivity. Some of the most exciting initiatives, to me, are those where complexity is embraced, narrow linear solutions are spurned, inclusivity is real, not just an aspiration, and ‘real time’ feedback and indicators are used to fuel and inform decisions. 2
Second – the power of the story. Leaders can inspire and celebrate as well as inform and persuade by using real stories and evidence backed data about added value and impact – both internally and externally. I was delighted to see this described in a paper last week as ‘communicating artfully.’ There is no single bottom line in the 3rd Sector to explain or justify action; we have to look for more subtle, creative and nuanced ways to encourage excellence, to engage partners and funders, to empower colleagues and to connect with communities – communicating artfully is a great summary of what I believe is essential to good and effective, top‐quality, leadership. Third – staying on top of the possibilities and consequences of technological change. In 1968, we were very proud of our old wax sheet duplicator, even more starry eyed about our first golfball typewriter. I chaired a meeting last week of a collaborative programme that brings together a dozen leading organisations in the UK voluntary sector. I’m oldest person in room by at least 25 years. The default position of everyone there in terms of use of kit and technology, of instant messaging, of networking is a different planet from what I was brought up on. Their understanding and confident use of technology left me breathless and initially uncomprehending. If the primary task (duty) of the leadership of a third sector organisation is to ensure that their beneficiaries get the maximum from the resources available, that leadership has got to be at maximum alert to possibility of doing things differently than a decade ago. That does not mean that they all have to be technology experts – a geek squad is a terrifying prospect; but they have to be confident in embracing and valuing (but not being seduced by) new communications and information technologies. Some of you may have been at (or seen reports of) the Impact Leadership conference held here in London last week. The opening speech was given by David Robinson from Community Links – a wonderfully wise and experienced Third Sector leader. He argued that effective Third Sector leadership should have an attitude of “relentless questioning, continuous change and fearless evaluation” & that they should be encouraged to “collaborate ruthlessly and to fail thoughtfully.” I leave you with that vision – and that challenge to those whose consultancy work involves them in supporting leaders – and also with a quote from Darwin I saw for the first time last week: “in the long history of humankind, those who have learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed” – not a bad recipe for Third sector leadership – as long as they stay ‘true to mission’ of course! David Carrington
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